In reading about the 21st classroom I feel that communication in the form of writing is very important. Students in the 21st classroom will need to be able to communicate with people from all over the world. When I posted my discussion post I said that students must be able to read, write and communicate their ideas.
In looking at the 21st century website unlike most schools that see only English, Math, Science, and Social Studies as the core subjects they include other subjects such at the arts in the core subjects list. In the website they show several areas that students work in to learn. What I see in the 21st century classroom is that there are so many areas that need to be utilized to make the whole child. We barely touch on the capabilities of the students in our classroom with the basic classes they have to take. Using technology there are so many areas we can touch on that are out in the world and not just in the classroom.

teaching students about blogs

I was amazed today when I took my students to the computer lab and told them they were going to set up a blog account and post to the HHS Art Class Blog. Two out of 17 were all that had a blog page. I was surprised. I guess I was expecting them all to have one and know what they were. I have two students in my class that are ELL students and it was fun watching them set up their blogs and then they asked what you used them for. I told them they were like Facebook or MySpace but it was just about them. A way to post things about themselves so people could keep up with what was going on with them. They got excited about them. I got excited for them. All the students have posted something to the page so that I can see if they got on. Some of the students have started posting comments about our field trip to meet Kenneth Wyatt an artist in our area. They are to post to at least two other student's post and to leave a question to ask Mr. Wyatt. After the field trip I am going to have them post again on their impressions of the trip. We shall see how it works out.

If you are interested I have started a blog page for my art class to post their comments on. This is a beginning and we shall see how well they do. I mentioned it to them today but could not tell how they had taken to it. I think I am going to have to take a trip to the library to the computers and show them the blog get them all signed on and let them make their first post. After that I think they will be ready to start blogging. I am excited about this and hope that they have fun with it. The blog is http://hhsartclass.blogspot.com and I would love for any of you interested to check it out and see how it is going.

Well I have made a decision on how my Art III students will blog about their field trip. First they are going to research about Kenneth Wyatt and I am going to add a page to my blog site that is for them to post to. They are going to post some thoughts they have about what they learned about Mr. Wyatt and his art work. Next they are going to add comments to at least two of the other students blogs and they also are going to add a question that they would like to ask Mr. Wyatt when we meet him. I am actually excited about this project and curious to see how the students respond and if they will enjoy this activity. I did have a student yesterday ask me what blogging was and I was surprised. I thought I was the only one that did not know what blogging was. I felt really good about sharing the information and increasing their knowledge about technology.

An old dog can learn new tricks. I have not posted to my blog in a few days because I could not find what button to push that would open up the new post blog spot. Today I found it! I feel really stupid for not realizing where it was in the first place but am glad that I found it and hopefully I will not forget what I did to get here. Enough said about that.

The week after Thanksgiving my Art III class will get the opportunity to visit a real artist. Someone that makes his living off of his oil paintings. The man's name is Kenneth Wyatt. Mr. Wyatt paints western scenes and he has done some paintings of his interpretation of the 12 apostles of Christ. They are beautiful paintings. He has been painting for many years. I have been considering and I think I am going to do this, is tell the students that they have to research Mr. Wyatt and post on my blog something they have learned about Mr. Wyatt. Also I would like for them to post a question they would like to ask Mr. Wyatt when we visit with him at his gallery. My assignment for them would be to have posted to my blog what they have learned and the question by the Monday after Thanksgiving. There are 16 students in the class and I feel like this would be a good group to start with in beginning the blogging experience.

Ok here I go again. I had written a post on google reader and I am not sure where it posted but here goes. I love computers and I love education now if we can get the two to work together that would be great. When students can use computers to communicate and learn from other students anywhere in the world the only good can come from it. Students of today are technology dependent. Unlike other generations that are not dependent on it. Students of today have always had technology of some kind and are not afraid to learn and use the newest technology out there. When we use different types of technology to let students meet and learn from others it can only help make the world a better place. They can learn about other cultures and how to relate to them and this can only help everybody. When we learn how to deal with others we learn how to make the world a better place.

Welcome to my blog. This is the first time I have had a blog and I am not sure where to start. I am a high school art teacher and if you come across my blog and you are also an art teacher please leave me a post, ask a question, or tell me something interesting you are doing. I have been teaching for 14 years and have seen a lot of changes occur in that time to education and technology. It is amazing what can be done in the art field with computers.