Go ahead and check out Ms. Cassidy's
blog, it's definitely worth the time. She is an elementary school teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, pioneering the use of technology in schools.
Structure & Organization
Right off the bat, I was impressed with the neat and visually pleasing layout. There is no clutter to be found anywhere. There are no advertisements (very important). She has two tabs to explore, Home and Contact Us. The home page is where she posts every few days or at least once a week what her classroom is doing. The posts are not long and almost all have pictures. The sidebar on the left is where she has listed all her students' names as a link to their individual "blog," or what she describes elsewhere as ePortfolios.
Authorship
On the actual classroom blog linked above, she does not have extensive information about herself and her accomplishments, which I think is good organizational technique. Further down on the left tool bar she provides a link to her
professional blog. Her "About Me" section of her professional blog has 31 links integrated (I counted). This woman obviously knows what she's doing!
Gadgets and Tools
The left side tool bar where her gadgets and tools are is fantastic. She has a running feed from her class Twitter account, an option to subscribe to emails, a tiny world map lit up with all the different visitors of her blog, links to pages relevant to parents and teachers, and a blog search tool. At the bottom of the tool bar she also has archives for easily
accessing older posts (all the way back to 2012!) The contact tab
provides a space to leave a comment on the blog (she seems to be
good about responding) or an email to reach her.
Grade?
A+
Ms. Cassidy's blog is a delightful tool for teachers to get some examples of exciting lessons, activities, and how to integrate technology in the classroom. I suggest a teacher looking for an example of a class blog use this one!
