Blog 10:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/09/teachers-guide-to-using-blogs-in-class.html

This article emphasized the importance of having a blog for our classrooms. Having a blog for our classroom for student input is very beneficial to both teacher and students. Among the student benefits are:

• Improve students writing skills through posting and commenting
• Helps students have a voice 
• Promote the notion of independent and personalized learning
• Promote a spirit of collaboration among students
• Engage parents in the learning taking place in the classroom
• Connect with students from other schools and exchange with them learning experience

As for the teacher it serves as a uniting point between parents and them. The article provided some great websites to assist in creating your blog. The main website was blogger, which we used to create our own. Other websites were wordpress and edublog. 

The one that caught my attention was kidblog. This website will assist in creating blogs for individual students. As a teacher you set up the class and provide each student with their class code. Each student then is able to create their own blog. Parents and teachers will be able to connect with the students and monitor the blogs. This is a great tool teachers can use to have students post assignments and participate in any discussions. I might start implementing it in my classroom!

Feedly Article: Edutopia

http://www.edutopia.org/article/home-visits-powerful-family-engagement-tool-debbie-polhemus

I was particularly intrigued by this article because it hits home. This article was about how home visits can significantly change students. I believe that one of the key elements in having students succeed is parent involvement. Many times parents are afraid or are oblivious to any education their children receive. This article particularly talked about making home visits to families, in particular undocumented families. Towards the end of the home visit, school officials ask the family members about what they dream their child to be. If you were to ask me, I have big dreams for my son. He plays baseball and loves it. He also does ji jitsu and loves it as well (though it scares me to death when other kids are getting him). My dream for him is to be a famous baseball player or a famous ji jitsu fighter. He dreams of making it big and buying us a house and a brand new car. My dream is for my son to accomplish his dreams. In the article, the thing that the parent dreamed of their child, Lindy, is to be able to finish school and avoid deportation. Unfortunately, many times, as teachers, we don’t know our students well enough. We expect them to perform but we don’t know the situation at home. In Lindy’s case, how was she supposed to concentrate at school knowing her future was unclear. She had court dates and lawyers to worry about. Unfortunately, her father who was also undocumented was not able to go with her for fear of him being deported as well. No one knew Lindy’s situation before the home visit. After the home visit, accommodations were able to be put in place to ensure Lindy succeeded. The relationship with the family helped create a bond and assure them that they were cared for. Before the trial, Lindy opened up to the school officials and voiced her fear because she did not want to confront the situation by herself. Thankfully, school officials were able to get Lindy in contact with a local non profit organization that was able to accompany her on the court date. The article emphasizes how important developing a relationship with students and families can have a big impact on student success. Had school officials not done a home visit to Lindy’s family who knows what would have happened to her. She could have failed or have been deported without the help of the school officials. As educators, I believe our job does not end at 3:30 when the kids leave. If we really care for our students, or as I like to call them; our kids, we need to make the effort to reach out to families. We would be shocked at the situation some of our kids are being put through. If we try harder we can change this world, one student at a time. Students now are America’s future, we must ensure it is a successful one.