The McGoldblog

Now what?

Just got my classblog set up finally and today will be day 1! One student was volunteered, by me, to be the first "blogger" at our classblog, which is called McGoldblog. Here's the link to it:

http://blogs.learnquebec.ca/wordpress-mu/mcgoldblog/

Anyone can view it, but not everyone can post, as it's password-protected. About that: Darren Kuropatwa, the blogfather, said last week, in a live chat on EdWeek, that his classblogs have always been open to all, that is, no password required to post or comment. I have the feeling that if I were to do that, parents would perhaps protest that I am opening their child to all kinds of predators. So for now, that's how we're rolling.

The ultimate acid test: Was anyone listening in class today?

Today's lesson was the first one on trigonometric functions. We reviewed good old sohcahtoa, I introduced their reciprocal cousins, and their equivalent memory aid: choshacao (can't help but feel like a ninja when I say that). We will see what Kristopher, today's blogger, will have to say about it! He has until 7:00 pm eastern to post his summary and a sample question on today's lesson, then soon after that, if my dreams come true, the comments from the other students will start rolling in. We tried it out today in one class, just to make sure everything was working, and it was working so well that we got a message from wordpress that we were commenting too quickly, slow down!

The Blogfather's prediction:

If Darren Kuropatwa is right (and I'm sure he is, and I figure the more often I put his name here the more likely someone out there will find themselves here and read this blog!), this will not only make their thinking transparent to all class members, but it will allow them to collectively create their own version of the content. My hope is that I will see more authentic participation from everyone, including those who only participate when they have absolutely nowhere to hide and absolutely no other choice.

Fingers crossed!