Blog as Classroom

Chalkboard, OHP (Over Head Projector), chalk... Even notebook, pencil, books... They will soon dissappear from our classes. Children, digital natives,  were born in technology. They use smartphones, tablet PCs professionally. For the sake of getting this generation's attention to lessons, classrooms are now more technological. Teachers also improve themselves to keep up with their newly designed classrooms and new generation students.As students are grown up with and in technology ( they sleep in Facebook, wake up in Twitter ), why don't we as teachers move our classroom in their techno-life(!) ?

Well, how to do it,then?

Teachers can choose one blog platform and require all students to have and use one. Blogs are useful for

• giving "traditional" writing assignments 
• students can blog their final draft of an essay assingment on their blogs. Their friends can comment as peer feedback.
• it is easy for teachers to grade as they don't need to carry lots of documents to home

• keeping learner journals
• students can keep a journal about their out of class projects. They can write a review about a film they have seen, or a book they have read.

• classic but still working tasks  
•  "complete the story"  -teacher can post an incomplete story and want each student to complete it on their own blog. Students can comment on other friends' stories and select the best story of the week.
• extensive reading - teacher can offer an extensive reading material by a post and students who have read this comment under this post. This would be great chance for them to discuss.

There can be other lots of activity examples which are suitable for using in blogs. It is good idea to integrate blogging into lessons but why? 

 Because, by blogging, it is easy to

• see shy students' participation in activities. Some children feel more relaxed in online world.
• build close relationship with other classes. That means wider out-of-class interaction.
• foster English use out of the class. They won't be afraid of making mistakes because they have a chance to check and correct their posts before submitting.

In English, please!

"In English,please!" 
My English teachers used this sentence in almost all lessons at my school years. We, as students, could understand their questions but were reluctant to respond in English. It was not about our knowledge of English, it was about our being reluctant to use it. We were afraid of making errors, being fool in front of the class.

There was nothing to be afraid actually. When we used our L1 ( Turkish) while responding, what our teachers did was just giving us a chance to restate our opinions in English. " In English, please!" was used to encourage us. Thanks to their "In English,please", now we can easily express ourselves without thinking whether we are doing it right or not.

What I want to do in this blog is to find and share new ways to encourage my future students using English without hesitation. Join me, help me, engourage me...