This is an in depth examination of Mr. McClung's World.
1. Mr. McClung seems to be very organized and has all of his stuff together. Anything and everything can be found on this blog. You can learn a lot about who Mr. McClung is by clicking on Mr. McClung. He has a link for each class, one for Arkansas history, and a link leading to other useful links. You can also search his blog through archives or category. His Twitter updates can be seen, Google Translate allows for the blog to translate languages, a live traffic feed and map shows all the visitors who come to the blog, you can listen to a song of the week, and even chat with Mr. McClung. Also, after reading about Mr. McClung and viewing the razorback at the bottom of his blog, I realize he is a big sports fan like myself; however, I support that Crimson Tide!
2-3. As an educator, I think Mr. McClung is pretty inspiring to aspiring teachers, and he also seems to be a pretty straight forward guy in his classroom. I also see that he uses many different teaching styles and I think that is wonderful being we live in such a diverse world. As a student, it is very motivating knowing anyone can view your work at any time. I also think it is great parents can see their child's work, what is going on in class, or even chat or contact Mr. McClung. I hope I can form a webpage for my class as good as his. When it comes to class rules, I first would like to say I think it is a great part of classroom management to have a set of rules written out so that students know what is expected of them. Their parents can also view what is expected of their kid(s) in class. The list of rules are something similar to what I would have came up with myself. I think nearly all teachers in school has rules about raising your hand to speak or leave your seat. The last rule was my favorite, "Keep your dear teacher happy!" This should show his class that even though their is a list of rules and he is a teacher...their is still a guy in there with a sense of humor. I love his classroom expectations as well, stay positive and communicate. I honestly believe that people can control how good or bad of a day they have by choosing to be positive or negative. I hope to always have positive students, although I know that will not always be the case. I also think communication is a VERY important skill that students need to learn and progress in, and with communication comes listening skills. Collaboration with others plays a huge part in our learning.
4. Under the syllabus for Mr. McClung's class the first requirement is that everyone needs a daily planner. I think daily planners are a great way to teach organization skills. I know now days, most students have to take their daily planners home and have their parents initial it each day (I am not aware how helpful that is or is not). However, I know as an adult, I would not function from week to week without my planner. I write down everything because I WILL forget something if I don't, and I also like to see how fast dates are approaching so I can get busy.
5. Late work in Mr. McClung's class is punished by a loss of a letter grade each day it is late. In EDM310 you also make a lower grade than if your work had been submitted on time. This is a policy I cannot argue with. In real-life, their are important deadlines that you cannot put off until you decide you want to do it. I am not a person to ever submit work late, at least without a legitimate reason (although those rarely matter.) I always submit something by the deadline, even if it is not right. If it is not correct, it is because of a misunderstanding, not because I did not try. I believe this penalty in grades teaches kids responsibility and again, time management.
6. Mr. McClung uses the class blog as a newsletter to parents and to make available all other resources as well. I would love to be able to update a blog daily for parents. When there is a project, I could post links to give examples..etc. It is also better for our environment rather than printing 30 copies of several handouts on a daily basis to get lost on the way home.
7. I viewed several of the useful links Mr. McClung listed on his blog. Convince Me is one I reviewed in depth. It is basically a free website where you can either debate in groups or go head-to-head with someone. As you argue, you can add evidence and do all you can to "convince" the other party member(s) of your argument. Their are rules: no profanity, no person attacks, no racial slurs, and no threats of any sort. I believe debates are a great way to explore different opinions and to see the pros and cons of an argument from different viewpoints. In school, I hated debates, but I honestly think they allow you to make a more informed decision and that is why this website made Mr. McClung's list. Discovery Education Network is the other website I reviewed in depth. I absolutely love the discovery channel, so of course I wanted to see what all the Discovery Network has to offer. "The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking." There are over 10,000 events that DEN holds that can be viewed. Blogs are available. There are resources for educators, parents, and teachers. Lesson plans (I cannot get enough of them) can be found, too! You can even follow DEN on Twitter and get all of the updates. I've been following them for a while and love seeing
some of the cool stuff that is posted.
8. I could not find "Internet Safety" anywhere and I looked everywhere! (Maybe I am blind?) So, I dug a little deeper to see how his students actually posted their work to the web. I noticed that they use their first names and only the initial of their last names. I also have not found a picture where a student's name is matched. I would assume the first name, last initial is Mr. McClung's internet safety policy. I agree with him that students should not give away their full names. Being that I did not find the safety policy, I again am just assuming that he also got the permission of the parents to allow the kids to blog and post pictures. Other things I would include (and he might have) is the no bullying policy.
9. For the C4K assignment, I was assigned to the Lesson One of the Lessons Learned Category. This lesson actually talks about Spring Break. Mr. McClung stated how his students were planning fun trips, yet he would be staying home and working on homework for graduate school. I think the Lessons Learned Category is
more-so the announcements section.
10. Things Mr. McClung does in his blog I would like to do with Blogger is have the chat capability, but it is a gadget that I am sure could be added to Blogger. Other than that, there is really nothing I don't think I can't do in Blogger with a little more experience at it.
11. Mr. McClung has every little thing categorized and laid out neatly so that it is easily assessable for visitors. As I said before, I think his blog is inspiring. Visitors can view students' work and comment, they can see the announcements, contact Mr. McClung, and again...their are tons of resources he has listed.
12. Mr. McClung's class blog is different for the fact that all of his students post on the same page. Nearly all other class blogs I have visited have a "Blog Roll" that contains a link to each individual student's own blog page. I like both methods myself. The individual blogs allow for students to be creative and personalize it. The method Mr. McClung uses allows for everyone to see all of this students' work without having to click to different pages, and it does not make one student feel more/less important than another by having more/less visitors.
13. I would suggest following the links to all the different resources he has listed and bookmark them! Some are awesome!
Until next time...
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