Scribe Posting/SSR Posting

There were two blogs that I thought had absolutely inspired ideas for uses of Web 2.0 in the classroom. Both had educational value and made classroom management easier. SP-817 Math Blog: "Scribe Post" and Mark’s Edtech Blog: Is this SSR 2.0?.

The Scribe Post idea goes hand and hand with Chuck Neuschafer does on his classroom website. He has his lecture videoed and then linked onto his web page. If you don't have the video recording capabilities, you could always use the Scribe Post idea to accomplish the same thing. Scribe posting is exactly what it sounds like...a person who is a scribe posts things onto the blog about what happened in class that day. This isn't just a "he said, she said;" it is a well thought through summary of the lesson with examples, diagrams, and pictures. Making a scribe post have two fold benefits:

1. The students who missed class or need extra help will have an online version of the lecture, notes, and information to complete assignments.
2. The student who is the scribe has their learning reinforced by reviewing it well enough to teach or explain the material.

The SSR Posting idea is equally as beneficial. SSR, Silent Sustained Reading, is a part of our everyday life at Winder-Barrow Middle School. Each grade level has an assigned 10 minute frame of time each day that students are to read. It doesn't matter wether they are in Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, or Math. Though we (the adults, the teachers in the room) see the benefit and need of this reading time, the students are still reluctant to get started reading and to do so quietly. Having an SSR blog is a great idea to motivate students. Once they read they can then take turns adding to the blog, discussing what they are reading, what they like to read, and other topics related to SSR.