C4T #4

Mrs. Morris's Blog
Mrs. Kathleen Morris is primary 4th grade teacher at Leopold School in Australia. On her blog she shares resources, blogs, practical ideas, thoughts, global collaboration, and technology integration. I've had the opportunity to comment on two of her blogs.
Internet Safety Posters
This post she gave 3 posters for anyone to download and print out. The first one was 10 internet tips for students, the second was 10 internet tips for teachers, and the last one was 10 internet tips for parents. I told her one of my favorites was the "YAPPY" rule which means never give out Your full name, Address, Phone number, Passwords, Your plans. She said she had originally got that from a Garfield cartoon; I thought it was such a cute way to remember an important tip! Also, another tip that stuck out to me was do not allow your student or child to spend all of their free time inside on the computer, get them to play outside. Many parents forget that their children should play outside or do some sort of physical activity and also many parents don't spend one-on-one time with them either they just let them do whatever they want to get them out of their hair. That's unacceptable!
Developing Blogging Skills
In this post Mrs. Morris tells her readers she wants to start a blogging scope and sequence but she doesn't want her bloggers to be limited to what they can do and blog. She loves the idea of her students blogging because she knows it's a good way for them to express themselves and learn how to write. Since she's had teachers ask her what they should teach next she made a rubric that covers all 3 levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each level has a higher more advanced skill the student can achieve. It also covers everything from just participation to comments and digital citizenship. I commented on it telling her I saved the rubric to hopefully use one day in my classroom. Also, that I think she is my favorite teacher I've been assigned to all semester. Mrs. Morris offers such good advice and everything she posts is actually something realistic that another teacher can use. She won a lot of awards last year and I can immediately understand why.