Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Extra flex this week
In addition to Thursday, this week I will open on Wednesday between 11:10 and 11:50.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Concept map rubric
See web links for concept map rubric. You will receive a printed copy in class Monday Nov 28. Reminder - Bring your webs in progress. You will have class time Monday and maybe Tuesday during conferences to work on your webs.
Additional Opinion
I already shared my opinion about whether we should continue blogging or not. Now, I have a little additional opinion to say.
Even if we decide to not continue Blogging, I strongly suggest that we should keep the Homework Blog going. It reminds us what the homework is and makes it much easier to find out the homework when we miss the class. In addition, it also summarize the in-class tasks and analyse the intention of them.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Should we continue blogging?
Yes we should. Why? Because it is a great learning experience and also because of these reasons.
¤ comments from other group members really helped me correct weak areas.
¤other group members can set an example for you to use as a guideline for your own post.
¤Ms Lees usually takes about a week or more to mark our work handed in or it somehow gets lost. Blogger can prevent that from happening.
¤Blogger will help one to problem solve. For example, if there are tech issues, you can just post it as a comment or just do a hard paper copy of it.
Should we countinue blogging?
In my opinion, Blogger has been a great tool towards my learning and I think we should continue blogging. Not only because this knowledge we're learning from Blogger will help us in the future, but because it makes us work on our work habits. It's easier to see who does their homework on time and who doesn't. It also allows us to comment on each others posts to give feedback and talk more about the ideas we are trying to show our group members.
Although this seems to be easy, if one of the members does not post on time the other members can't fully finish their homework, which brings us back to work habits. If we are going to continue using blogger to do projects, homework posts in group I think we should be encouraging our group members to post on time. This will benefit the group members and herself/himself too, it will change his/her work habits and more likely start posting on time, and the group members would be able to finish their task of commenting on his/her work.
Further more as my group member said, we could do some hand in homework too, not everything has to be about blogging all our homework. In conclusion for our blog, it's a yes to continue blogging, but our members should be posting on time.
Although this seems to be easy, if one of the members does not post on time the other members can't fully finish their homework, which brings us back to work habits. If we are going to continue using blogger to do projects, homework posts in group I think we should be encouraging our group members to post on time. This will benefit the group members and herself/himself too, it will change his/her work habits and more likely start posting on time, and the group members would be able to finish their task of commenting on his/her work.
Further more as my group member said, we could do some hand in homework too, not everything has to be about blogging all our homework. In conclusion for our blog, it's a yes to continue blogging, but our members should be posting on time.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Shall We Continue to Blog?
For the most part, blogging has been a completely difference experience for me; and along with the unorthodox approach of doing homework online, it is apparent that we all benefited much from this enriching approach to English class. Albeit, this hasn't been the same for us all; namely, some of my fellow classmates did not take an advantage of this system and follow the given instructions; which would have made this blogging experience reach its full potential.
Indeed, we all started out kind of testing the water little by little; and eventually we were able to grasp the technicalities of using an online blog and advance. Here comes the question though: should we continue to use Blogger? I have mixed feels with regards to it. Blogger has thrown a few obstacles out at us here and there, technical problems in general, but I believe that the biggest problem here is the work habits section. Perhaps students think that by using the Internet for homework can opt them out of finishing it before the deadline, or maybe even to the extent to have an excuse to not do their homework. Furthermore, I also believe that the quality of the comments should be reinforced to contain more aspects of useful constructive criticism. I feel that this is more crucial to blogging because it involves the success of our classmates; if I don't finish my homework, then my blog members will not be able to complete theirs.
Another aspect of this question is whether or not blogging is a more effective approach than carrying out in-class homework. I would think: not quite.; using blogger has given people more excuses to not finish their homework on time. Frankly, my opinion is that my writing or reading would have improve much more if I were doing it by hand with the help of actual classmates in the form of solid. This, however, can be put aside because it is inevitable that we will have to use technology greatly in the future. Doing homework in class and handing it in class gives people more of an obligation to finish their homework, that much I believe is true.
My final opinion on this matter is that: yes, we should continue using blogger; however only to a certain extent and only if 2 conditions are met. We should only use Blogger moderately and mixed in with actual in class homework. The 2 conditions I believe are: students MUST finish their homework on time, and be obligated to accomplish quality work (and comments to the best of their potential). If these two conditions are met, I believe that this is a practical approach to learning and to improve greatly in reflecting; or how Ms.Lees likes to say it: thinking about our thinking.
Indeed, we all started out kind of testing the water little by little; and eventually we were able to grasp the technicalities of using an online blog and advance. Here comes the question though: should we continue to use Blogger? I have mixed feels with regards to it. Blogger has thrown a few obstacles out at us here and there, technical problems in general, but I believe that the biggest problem here is the work habits section. Perhaps students think that by using the Internet for homework can opt them out of finishing it before the deadline, or maybe even to the extent to have an excuse to not do their homework. Furthermore, I also believe that the quality of the comments should be reinforced to contain more aspects of useful constructive criticism. I feel that this is more crucial to blogging because it involves the success of our classmates; if I don't finish my homework, then my blog members will not be able to complete theirs.
Another aspect of this question is whether or not blogging is a more effective approach than carrying out in-class homework. I would think: not quite.; using blogger has given people more excuses to not finish their homework on time. Frankly, my opinion is that my writing or reading would have improve much more if I were doing it by hand with the help of actual classmates in the form of solid. This, however, can be put aside because it is inevitable that we will have to use technology greatly in the future. Doing homework in class and handing it in class gives people more of an obligation to finish their homework, that much I believe is true.
My final opinion on this matter is that: yes, we should continue using blogger; however only to a certain extent and only if 2 conditions are met. We should only use Blogger moderately and mixed in with actual in class homework. The 2 conditions I believe are: students MUST finish their homework on time, and be obligated to accomplish quality work (and comments to the best of their potential). If these two conditions are met, I believe that this is a practical approach to learning and to improve greatly in reflecting; or how Ms.Lees likes to say it: thinking about our thinking.
Should we continue blogging?
In response to Ms. Lees' question, we should continue blogging. When blogging, we are using an effective data output tool, with one’s posts able to be seen by people from all over the world. As well, comments, an indispensable resource, are so instant and convenient through Blogger. That way, we can quickly receive feedback for our work and use it to revise our work. On a side note, designing a template for our blogs and making it aesthetically pleasing while at the same time legible is a useful lesson in presentation.
When using blogger, we learn a multitude of skills, such as learning how to make constructive comments on other people's work and using others' feedback to improve your own work. Having such expedient comments through blogger certainly helps. Being able to make constructive comments is a vital life skill, as it allows you to work with others by collaborating and pointing out flaws in others' work while at the same time being encouraging. In addition, bearing in mind how Blogger is an electronic medium, it is susceptible to various techinical issues. This requires us to use critical thinking in order to solve issues that may arise. For example, if the spaces in your posts appear different from how you wrote them, you could experiment with Blogger to find a solution, such as editing the text directly in HTML to fix formatting errors.
As for suggestions to augment our blogging experience, larger groups would be a better idea. In a group of six to eight people, there would be more posts to comment on. As well, if the teacher said to comment on three other posts, and someone garnered numerous comments while another received none, it would be a valuable lesson in sense of audience. As well, having more members would mitigate the negative effects from members who do not post in a timely manner.
When using blogger, we learn a multitude of skills, such as learning how to make constructive comments on other people's work and using others' feedback to improve your own work. Having such expedient comments through blogger certainly helps. Being able to make constructive comments is a vital life skill, as it allows you to work with others by collaborating and pointing out flaws in others' work while at the same time being encouraging. In addition, bearing in mind how Blogger is an electronic medium, it is susceptible to various techinical issues. This requires us to use critical thinking in order to solve issues that may arise. For example, if the spaces in your posts appear different from how you wrote them, you could experiment with Blogger to find a solution, such as editing the text directly in HTML to fix formatting errors.
As for suggestions to augment our blogging experience, larger groups would be a better idea. In a group of six to eight people, there would be more posts to comment on. As well, if the teacher said to comment on three other posts, and someone garnered numerous comments while another received none, it would be a valuable lesson in sense of audience. As well, having more members would mitigate the negative effects from members who do not post in a timely manner.
Should We Continue Blogging?
Should we continue blogging?
To be honest, I only have one problem with blogger.
The learning intentions behind using blogger include teaching us how to use blogger, encouraging the quieter students to speak up, allowing us to write for a bigger audience - and them giving us constructed criticism to improve our writing and responding skills.
However, when we actually do start blogging, which of these intentions are actually fulfilled? From my experience of blogging, many of these intentions were not achieved because of the lack of response from the "quieter students". We are not encouraging students to participate more if they refuse to try. As were some group members - simply responded with a "good job", "nice structure", or "I agree with you". This makes it extremely hard to expand on the conversation and connect beyond - especially if they don't respond to my response to their posts. Hence, I don't feel that my writing skills have improved by much, in fact, I believe that my writing skills have improved more from the in-class peer-edits rather than the response I receive from my blog group members.
Personally though, I think with the right system, we can work this problem out. I would suggest grouping the students with similar skill abilities would create more interesting discussions. But I do understand the downside of this resolution is that those groups with perhaps less skills in this area will not benefit as much since there might be less discussion and the responding skills will lack.
Nevertheless, other than this issue, I have nothing against blogger.
To be honest, I only have one problem with blogger.
The learning intentions behind using blogger include teaching us how to use blogger, encouraging the quieter students to speak up, allowing us to write for a bigger audience - and them giving us constructed criticism to improve our writing and responding skills.
However, when we actually do start blogging, which of these intentions are actually fulfilled? From my experience of blogging, many of these intentions were not achieved because of the lack of response from the "quieter students". We are not encouraging students to participate more if they refuse to try. As were some group members - simply responded with a "good job", "nice structure", or "I agree with you". This makes it extremely hard to expand on the conversation and connect beyond - especially if they don't respond to my response to their posts. Hence, I don't feel that my writing skills have improved by much, in fact, I believe that my writing skills have improved more from the in-class peer-edits rather than the response I receive from my blog group members.
Personally though, I think with the right system, we can work this problem out. I would suggest grouping the students with similar skill abilities would create more interesting discussions. But I do understand the downside of this resolution is that those groups with perhaps less skills in this area will not benefit as much since there might be less discussion and the responding skills will lack.
Nevertheless, other than this issue, I have nothing against blogger.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Regarding the Question
Since the question is should we keep on blogging, are we supposed to write formally or as our opinions, that is, using the I voice? Thank you
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Should we continue blogging?
Discuss on your group blogs. Provide reasons for your opinions. This must be done by November 22.
Administrators - report back on my blog by November 24.
Students may also post additional comments on my blog if they wish to converse with students who are not part of their own group blog.
We will use your individual and group responses to decide whether we should continue using the blogs, or a variation of them.
Administrators - report back on my blog by November 24.
Students may also post additional comments on my blog if they wish to converse with students who are not part of their own group blog.
We will use your individual and group responses to decide whether we should continue using the blogs, or a variation of them.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Writing TIps
Here is a link to the list we created in class today:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYRHt62-uiZWa53L-O_oh4rpisaU3AWh02bR4sIyUVk/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYRHt62-uiZWa53L-O_oh4rpisaU3AWh02bR4sIyUVk/edit
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Edit posts
Start as if to post new ( new post). There should be an option tab above the post box that says "edit posts"
Click on the "edit" link of the post you wish to edit.
If you have troupe in " compose" mode, type in HTML mode & transpose to "compose" mode before posting.
Click on the "edit" link of the post you wish to edit.
If you have troupe in " compose" mode, type in HTML mode & transpose to "compose" mode before posting.
Paragraph spacing
Make sure that you are posting in "compose" mode & don't worry about indenting as long as you leave a line space (hit return twice at the end of the paragraph.
VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM! MULTIPLE PEOPLE!
Ms Lees, for some reason none of my indents(paragraphing spaces) will show up! At first when I use the spacebar 5X it works, but after I click post and then view my post they vanish! Why is this happening? I asked some other people if they new how to fix it but they said they were having the same problem! Do you have any idea how to fix this Ms. Lees?
Monday, November 7, 2011
Problem
Ms.Lees you told us to make corrections on our answer for the 1/5 questions, but I don't know how to edit the post that you posted for me.
Friday, November 4, 2011
En 9 binder / portfolio checklist and Prep
The formatting is a little off with the charts but at least you can see most of it - if you know how to fix this please email me or post on my blog.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9DDCi1O7Xf97OIrarS7_4_2uRI7Tb0sM-oVX1QJ56U/edit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9DDCi1O7Xf97OIrarS7_4_2uRI7Tb0sM-oVX1QJ56U/edit
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Are you still having trouble posting?
Try working in word or rtf and then copying and pasting into your post - but do it as and "Edit HTML" post - see the tabs in the top right of your post box. Then when you are finished switch to the compose mode to edit - this seems to allow some posts that did not previously work (and no - I can't explain why - it just did)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Following Block 1's Homework Helper
Hi Ms. Lees,
I can't seem to follow the homework helper even if i scrolled down to the bottom. There is nothing under "Followers" that I could find of on my computer. Do you have any suggestions?
I can't seem to follow the homework helper even if i scrolled down to the bottom. There is nothing under "Followers" that I could find of on my computer. Do you have any suggestions?
Serious Problem
Hello Ms Lees, this is Jeff Wu. I am supposed to write the "Homework Helper" for today, but since I am not an author of the Helper Blog, I could not post. Can you make me an author?
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