Reflective Blog #1

Classroom Blogs

How to Learn English - http://how2learnenglish.blogspot.com/

This blog seemed to be very confusing and the layout didn't help much either. The colors were very plain and nothing stood out as to what information would be most helpful. I did however like in the heading different languages saying what I would think is "English" or "How to learn English". When you watch some of the videos they don't translate from one language to another, they just demonstrate how to pronounce certain words and gives a definition of the word and may further use it in a sentence. I do not believe the title to this blog fits properly. I wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators.

Writing, Reflecting, Sharing, Producing and Questioning - http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=84725

This blog immediately grabbed my attention. The colors weren't too drastic and it was very easy to navigate. I think that the sections were labeled accordingly which made browsing much easier. This blog is very interactive and evens has examples of student work and participation. Going forward, it also has the listed assignments for the students right online (I think this is great - some students have poor organization and may have forgotten to write down the homework). I would most definitely recommend this blog to other educators.

Educational Blogs

Free Technology for Teachers - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

I am on the fence with this blog. It seems to capture the right idea about connecting with the students; they are glued to their cell phones and facebook, but does that mean we should encourage more online learning? All students don't learn the same way, and some may have a more difficult time than others. The links that are used on this website seem to be very helpful and a great way to find out different ways to make your classroom more interesting. I may change the layout of the page so all of the links aren't on the same side. I would most certainly suggest this blog to other educators mostly to get their input and their recommendation.

Yes Tech! - http://shoemap.edublogs.org/

I think this blog is organized perfectly. I really like the calendar days displayed for each day's post, and more importantly I like the video. It is much easier to stay focused on an animation in my opinion than reading some boring paragraphed text. The colors are very calming and easy to look at. The font size and style aren't obnoxious and highlight what is important in the paragraphs. I would recommend this to other educators.

Teacher Blogs

Math Videos Online - http://www.math-videos-online.com/free-math-videos-online-blog.html

Since I am in a math concentration I immediately wanted to view this blog. Math is a very difficult concept for many students and the more variety I have to present the material the better chance they have of understanding. The tool bar along the left hand side of the page is very convenient and helps navigate through the site. If I can understand this website I am sure that my students would pick up on it quickly as well. It isn't too busy and seems to be very user friendly. I really like the layout and the fact that it's simple. I would most certainly recommend this to other educators and may even possibly keep this link and hope it's still like this in a few years from now for my own use.

So You Want to Teach - http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/

I don't like this blog. It is too busy and there is too much to look at, I don't know where to begin. There seems to be too many links that will lead you to other sites and you may not know how to get back to where you started. One thing that I do like however, is the color scheme. I most likely wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators, I may ask them to view it and see if they could better assist me in navigating through the site. Once you look into the site a little further and spend some time viewing the different links it does give some good advice. Ex) How do I keep my students quite? Once you view this page however, it does give advice but it also gives a numerous amount of other links, which I think is just too much.