Using Blogs in a ESL Mathematics Classroom

       At the high school level in grades 9 through 12, blogging can be used by both students and teachers in the classroom. It can also be a great way to continue learning beyond the classroom as students who have internet and device access outside their educational community can collaborate virtually. As an educator, I continuously strive to make this possible for my unique cohort of students, as many are new arrivals to the United States coming from very low-income households. I “advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content, and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students and will continue to do so for the entirety of my career” (ISTE, 2020). Students and teachers can also use blogs as a source for research or to collaborate with other students and staff they wouldn’t regularly communicate with.

        As a teacher, I would use blogs for my own benefit to stay up to date on recent news, findings, and research within the educational world. I could also use it to discover new strategies, techniques, and new and engaging activities I can use with my students. Creating this blog will provide a place where students can view visuals, embedded videos, and interactive activities. I plan to “use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs” by offering students the chance to respond to prompts that require problem-solving and critical thinking strategies (ISTE, 2020). My high school English language learners (ELLs) could also use blogging in a multitude of ways independently.

        While our concentration is in the area of math, we are also learning English in my classroom, and I foresee my students using blogs to explore and practice both content and language. A lot of the International Society for Technology in Education Standards (ISTE) can be easily met by the use of blogging in the classroom. By doing this, we would be meeting the standard of an innovative designer where ”Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions” (ISTE, 2020). Students can use these tools to respond to one another, share ideas and approaches they took in their problem-solving process, and provide support. From this process, they will also learn to break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving,” a skill that will continue far beyond their present educational setting (ISTE, 2020).

       I envision that creating this network of advice and strategies will provide my students with a toolbox of skills that would help even my most struggling and resilient learners. Assisting them in developing these digital navigation skills not only enhances their content and collaboration skills but prepares them with essential workforce skills (Dean & East, 2019). By doing so, my students would master the “understanding the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies” (ISTE, 2020).

References

Dean, S. A., & East, J. I. (2019). Soft skills needed for the 21st-Century workforce. ScholarWorks.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved
from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved
from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016

Testing

This is a test!!