Special Assignment

     Mr. McClung's blog is very organized and well structured. It is very evident that he is a very organized and likes for things to run smoothly. I can also tell that he wants students and parents to have access to the class blog so they can keep up with assignments and to know what is expected of them. I believe Mr. McClung is a very good educator because he requires students to learn through collaborating with one another and by using technology. He is also encouraging students to be very organized which will help them in other classes and everyday life. He requires each student to purchase a day planner. I think he is preparing students how to learn independently.

     I think Mr. McClung has some very basic rules in his classroom. The first one which says follow directions quickly is the one the one that stuck out to me. I think this lets students know that they need to pay attention to what is being said and to be ready to learn. Another one I like was the one that said make smart choices. I think that gets the students attention. I think these rules are very different from most classrooms and it might make students a little nervous at first until they see the reasoning behind the rules. I think by requiring each student to purchase a day planner he is trying to prepare his students to be organized like he is.

     The penalty for late homework or assignments is very strict and requires students to be responsible and turn their work on in time. Dr. Strange's  penalty is light in comparison. I do find it interesting that middle school students have higher expectations on them than some college students do. I think this is good in a way for the students in Mr. McClung's class. It teaches them to very responsible and professional at an early age.

     I really like what Mr. McClung says about his class blog. He wants it to be the central tool used by students, teachers, and parents to keep up with what is happening in his classroom. I hope one day I can also use a class blog that benefits my students and others. I think the class blog in my EDM 310 class is a lot like his. I would be lost without our class blog and confused. It helps me to stay on top of things and to be better organized.

     The first useful link I discovered on Mr. McClung's list was the The Plagiarism Checker. This tool helps teachers find plagiarized text in homework and in essays. All you do is just copy a paper or text in a box and it checks it for you. I imagine that Mr. McClung uses this because he teaches history and grades a lot of papers and assignments. This will be a great tool for me to use since I plan to teach history one day. Another link I looked at was the translation website. I really liked this one. I like to look up what a word is translated to in another language. On this site you can put a word in a box in English and it will translate it into Spanish. You can do this for many different languages. Mr. McClung probably uses this because many times when studying history you might need to know what a word is translated into in another language. I think this tool will be very helpful to me one day as a teacher.

     I really liked the search engine on Mr. McClung's blog. I could not find his safety tips for internet use and had to use the search engine to find it.I also like that he had different categories on top of his page and that you could just click on them to go there. I think his blog is extremely organized and easy to navigate through. I also like that he has useful links on his page with material that might be helpful for other teachers and students. There were several that I liked and will be using one day.

     Mr. McClung's blog is very useful to parents, teachers, administrators, and students. It allows everyone to see what is happening in his class. His students can always use the blog to keep up with their homework and assignments. Parents can also see what their children are learning and doing on a daily basis. I think his blog also helps me as a future history teacher. It gives me some ideas and gives me some tools that I will use one day when I teach.

     I think Mr. McClung's blog is better organized than most blogs I have visited in the past. I think he has spent a lot of time developing his blog and making it easy to use. His blog seems to give the visitor a better perspective of what is happening in his classroom than many of the other blogs I have visited. I just think that he has really put a lot of effort in his blog than most do. I think some people just set a blog up and forget that it is there and never update it. He seems to continuously be working on his blog and making it better. I enjoyed viewing Mr. McClung's blog and learned a lot by looking at it. I think it will be something that I can model my class blog by one day.