Special Assignment - Mr. McClung's World

1. What do you know (or have you found out) about Mr. McClung that is reflected in the way he has constructed his class blog? The way his blog is constructed gives the impression that Mr. McClung loves information. He likes to find it and organize it.

2. Comment on what you would say about Mr. McClung as an educator. ? As an educator it appears that he is very energetic. He is definitely not a 7 to 3 teacher and very dedicated to his job. You can tell from his blog that he puts in a lot of extra time into his classroom.

3. I asked above that you read Mr. McClung's "rules" and think about them. What do they say about Mr. McClung, his teaching, and his connection with his students? What is your reaction to these rules (and guides) as a student and as an aspiring teacher? I thought his rules were great. He keeps them to a minimum which shows that he knows what his students can handle. I think this a good idea because if you make too many rules they just forget them. By having just five basic rules and some expectations students will know what is expected of them.

4. What was the first thing under Everyone needs? Why do you suppose that is the first requirement? Day planner. This is important so that the students can stay organized and keep up with what is going on in the classroom.

5. Note the penalties for being late (under Homework). Compare them with my penalties for being late. Comment. He doesn’t assign a lot of homework but if you are late the penalties are: 1 day late = loss of a letter grade, 2 days late = loss of a letter grade, 3 days late = loss of a letter grade, 4 days late = failing grade on the assignment.

6. Read carefully his paragraph about what he hopes to accomplish with his blog. Comment and apply to your own aspirations as a teacher. He calls it the “vehicle that drives majority of the technology in our classroom.” He uses the blog as a means of communicating information about his classroom to student, parents, and other teachers. I think this is a great way to keep everybody informed on what is going on in the classroom and hope I can incorporate something very similar.

7. I asked you to review at least two Useful Links in depth after reviewing all of them. Which two did you review in depth? Describe each of the two. How might each be used? Why do you think each made Mr. McClung's list. The first one I reviewed in depth was Convince Me http://www.convinceme.net/. I loved this one and I am going to add it to my Twitter account to follow. I think this one is really cool because I love to argue and usually my opinion is not the popular one. This web site shows students that they are all entitled to their opinion and can stand up for what they believe. It shows them that there is nothing wrong with them not all agreeing on everything. The second one I reviewed was Guys Read http://www.guysread.com/. I thought this was a great link. My son struggled with reading for many years until I started reading Harry Potter to him. Boys don’t like to stop, sit down and read. Sometimes it takes a lot of encouragement to get them to pick up a book. So this is a great web-site where boys can find books that other boys have really enjoyed. It also has lots of links to other stuff that boys would enjoy.


8. Under Internet Safety I asked you to read carefully the rules Mr. McClung sets forth for safely using the internet. Comment on these rules. Are there any you would add or subtract. Keeping children safe on the internet can be tricky. I think Mr. McClung’s rules are pretty good and he covers everything pretty well.

9. In the C4K part of this blog I asked that you look carefully at one of the categories under which you assigned post was filed. What did you find? Select one of the posts in the category and review it for me. I reviewed World Festivals. What a great opportunity this was for students. They got to learn so much about foreign languages in a creative way. It was so much better that sitting in a class and repeating what a teacher said.

10. Mr. McClung uses Edublog as his blog host. In some ways it may seem more "advanced." But Blogger has many abilities that we have not covered in EDM310. This leads to this question: Is there anything (or things) that Mr. McClung can do with his blog that you would like to do in Blogger? I thought his log was great.

11. In what ways does Mr. McClung make his blog useful to parents, teachers, administrators, students like you, and others? He has tons of information. As a parent I would love this because I would always know what was going on in the classroom and what my child was doing. As a student it is a great blog again because of the information and ideas he provides.

12. How does Mr. McClung's 8th grade blog differs from other blogs you have visited including other 8th grade blogs? Why the differences do you think? It is just such a big blog. Some of them I have visited don’t have near the information or resources that Mr. McClung has.


13. Add any additional comments you think would be useful in analyzing Mr. McClung's World in depth. Only thing I would say that would be useful when analyzing his blog is to take your time. Mr. McClung has a lot of good information to observe.