My turn to post this week. And I want to talk about the blog that my Calculus class has been keeping. First of all, it isn't easy to add this piece to my classes. But, there are many other things that I do with students in classes that I do because they help me understand how the kids are learning and this is clearly another example of that kind of activity. If you are inclined to take a peak at what the students created last semester, ask me and I will add you as a follower. The kids and I did a debrief of the project after the new semester started and the reports were mixed, but when they talked about what was good about it, I knew that I needed to change little things, but keep the project. With changes, we are underway again, and it seems to be going well, even though I made a mistake in assigning one of the dates and ended up having to post one day last week myself. It really is quite a record of what they are hearing and learning!
Now for the sad news: Page forwarded an article to me yesterday that Twitter, which bought the posterous blog platform and company last March, is planning on "shuttering" posterous soon. The article included instructions about how one could rescue most of the posts and move them to Blogger (this platform) or Wordpress(which the 9-12 faculty used for the "Good Teaching Blog," a couple of years ago). I plan to spend some hours this weekend moving the kids' first semester records using these instructions. I will post again next week to let you know how easy or hard (and time-consuming) that proves to be. TC
It's great to hear that the blogging continue. I like that you checked in mid-semester to gauge where the kids are in the process. I'll be interested to hear what you changed. I'm also wondering if anything about your teaching is changing based on what you read in their posts.
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