Bloggers for Students and Teachers

I am sure there is a popular saying that the Internet adversely impact the relationship between individuals. While, at least, for blog, i need to say it help us to build a closer relationship with students.

As Rita Zeinstejer said in Blogging in Language Learning, few students will say no if you ask them to surf the Internet. students will not only like to surf the Internet, but also like to display their own voice on the Internet. Everyone can has his/her audience. 

For example, if you distributed handouts of a literature and ask the students to prepare their own point of view in next class, you may not receive many valuable ones. But if you post a literature on your blog, and ask your students come to comment. That would be different.  They know their view will be viewed by teachers, friends and even the one they have a crush on. they may probably forward this literature and dig it in a deeper way to show their intelligence.

       Students can also display their private stories and pictures to get others know them better. So do the teachers. in this way, the teacher may find one silent student in classroom actually have many amazing shining points. and this will become one very valuable material to apply in your classroom. While for students, they will see a out-of- class teacher, surely teacher's personal stuff like teachers' beautiful vacation pictures will short their distance and enhance improve the efficiency of the class.

      Besides, using bloggers to keep your teaching journals is also a great idea.  What you experienced today in class and what have you learned about one article? Students probably like to see a passage about their real life and see themselves from a different perspective. All these can be one step to a higher proficiency of your teaching career.However, when you publish your class experience you may think about others' feelings who involved in your story. 

        Also, blogger is a way of communication, which is an important in Language teaching, it can engaged your students in a relax and free way. The ACTFL -- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, also suggests communication as a standard in foreign language teaching. It requires the students to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions and exchange opinions.  all these standards can be satisfied in bloggers. While I believe the more you get familiar with this language teaching tool, the more benefits you will get in your teaching career,  More language teaching standards can be found in ACTFL Standards. In this website, you can explore more teaching requirements and may find bloggers can help you to achieve that.