Special Assignment-Mr. McClung's World

1. Going through Mr.McClung's World I noticed that he is a very organized person. He has everything in categories so that his students and anyone else looking at his blog can find what they are looking for without a lot of trouble. He also seems very detailed oriented and is involved into many different activities, and seems to like to have his students involved in other things as well.
2. I would say that Mr. McClung is a very interactive teacher. I think he is probably the kind of teacher that thinks outside of the box when teaching his lessons. While reading his blog it seems that his students respond to him well so that leads me to believe that there is a mutual respect in the classroom between him and his students. I believe what Mr. MCclung writes which is that he try's to keep things as fresh as possible and fun for his students.
3. I thought Mr. McClung's class rule were good rules to have in place. I thought that they were not to wordy but they were to the point. I like that he has word phrases in place that mean certain things to the class when said. I personally liked the teach-ok one. I think it is a great idea to have students explain what they just learned to another student. It not only could help the student learning but also help the student teaching. I also believe that his rules set high expectations for his students which I think is great. Usually when expectations are set a child does not want to disappoint the person who set those expectations so the child does what they need to do. I believe the rules that Mr.McClung has in place in his class could be put in place in any classroom setting and work.
4. The first thing under what everyone needs is a day planner. I think that is important for the same reasons we have our checklists in this class. This will allow the student to put in due dates of assignments and see what they have coming up. I know it helps me plan out how much time each day I need to spend on a certain assignment. Overall I think he has it listed as the first thing because the key is to stay well organized in his class.
5. If homework is late in Mr.McClung's class then it results in a loss of a letter grade each day it is late. I think that is fair because the students should already have due dates organized in there day planners. This is similar to the grading system in this class in the way of if classwork is late it results in a lose of a letter grade.
6. I think it is great that Mr. McClung uses his class blog as a way to communicate with students, parents, and other teachers. This allows for an open line of communication for everyone, which is something I hope to achieve in my own class one day. This also cuts back on paper use which saves time and money not to mention better for the environment. Overall it is like Mr.McClung wrote "our classroom blog will be the vehicle that drives majority of the technology in our classroom".
7. The first site I went to was the Biology Corner site. In this site I found all of the worksheets that the students need for different labs that they would be doing throughout the year. I believe that Mr. McClung put this as a useful link because it allows the student to have assess to the lab information at any time. That could help the student come to class prepared to do what ever the lab was that particular day.
Another site I found interesting was the site called Convince Me. In this site you are allowed to start any debate that you would like. At first I thought why would Mr.McClung put this as a useful link. Then I thought maybe he is trying to teach his student to express themselves. This is something that they can use to help argue in a healthy way how they feel about a particular topic. Now I think it is a useful link to have.
8. I thought the internet safety rules he has in place are good ones. I thought that they were very clear to read and understand. There was no need for discussion on any of the rules. They are also easy to remember which is good because the student should not have to constantly go back to check if they are within the guidelines. I personally do not think I would change any of the rules the only thing that I might have added would be to be cautious about phrases you type in to search.
9. I was assigned to the post Lessons Learned/Lesson Two-Club Day. In this post Mr. McClung is writing about there monthly Wii sports club meeting. He writes about how for about thirty minutes they talk and play different Wii sport games on there projection screen. He says that not only does meeting with the club provide a nice break during the week, but it allows to further build teacher student relationships. I thought the idea of this club was great. Not only are the students learning things about technology but they are getting up and moving around. I thought this club idea was interesting and wonder if more schools have something like this in place.
10. To start off with Mr. McClung's blog is wonderful. I feel that I still have a lot to learn about all of the ways to use my blog page. I hope to fully take advantage of a class blog in the future when I have my own classroom. I notice in his blog it has so much information and links to everything. It is also very detailed about his classes, but at the same time he makes it fun for his students still. One thing that I like in particular on his blogger is the visitor location and the live traffic feed bars. This would be something interesting for students or even yourself for that matter to see who in the world is reading your blogger and what they are reading for that matter. I hope to one day achieve a great blogger.
11. Mr. McClung makes his blog useful to everyone in the way of it can be used by everyone not just his student. Parents can use it to get information about what there child is doing in the class. Administrators can use it as a tool to find out what the students and teachers are accomplishing in there studies. Of course students can use it to obtain information about there classes and to use it as a navigation tool. People like me can use it to learn get ideas and advise about all different kinds of topic. All of these thing are possible because the blog is set up in a way that is easy to navigate through and there is no hidden secrets in it.
12. The main way that Mr. McClung's 8th grade blog differ from other blogs that I have seen is that it is not one sided. Like I pointed out earlier, it is useful to everyone not just his students. I think that he has an overall interest in what he does as a teacher. Another thing that he has that some don't is excitement. You can tell in his class blog that there is a level of excitement in his work and his students work. I think the main thing that makes his blog different is that he makes it fun and entertaining for everyone.
13. Mr. McClung's blog is a very useful tool to have as a bookmark. I think that I will more than likely be going back every so often to see what new things his classes are up to. His blog is very inspiring and at the same time it is fun and interesting to go through.