Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog

Mrs. Yollis' classroom blog is an absolutely wonderful example of how beneficial classroom blogging can be.  I particularly enjoyed reading about the Skype sessions the class conducted with students from Georgia and Australia.  I thought it ingenious to structure the sessions as a "mystery" call and having the students ask particular questions, then having them guess where the other class is from, putting problem solving and other knowledge learned to the test.  The "share and compare" session Mrs. Yollis' class participated in with students from Australia can be just as valuable.  From reading the student's reflections and viewing pictures taken during the call, I learned information about Australia that I was not aware of.  This is such an awesome way to build student's awareness of a variety of cultures and cultivate in them an acceptance of others different from them.  Mrs. Yollis' class is also taking other steps in building their knowledge of diversity by participating in a global project called Our World, Our Stories.  Here, participating classes from various parts of the world share customs from the traditional food they eat, how their recess time is spent to what a typical school day is like.  I would be interested to find out if each class tries the new things they have learned from the others or if some of the new customs have become habits of their own.  Another great aspect I find heartening that really does not have to do with blogging in general was the classroom's participation in collecting money for UNICEF while trick-or-treating.  This project allowed the students to practice their math skills while learning about the importance of philanthropy.  Finally, I find it impressive that Mrs. Yollis' class blog has nearly double the amount of visitors than the EDM 310 class blog has had.  This is astounding giving Mrs. Yollis' count started only two days earlier than EDM 310's did.  Mrs. Yollis and her students have apparently been working very hard to create a quality blog that has grasped the interest of a multitude of people including the student's parents and other family members.  These students and their teacher should be very proud of themselves for what they have accomplished through their class blog.