Blogging in science.....

I can see how easy it would be to blog in Language arts. Daily or weekly journal entries, book critiques, even just practicing with spelling words the list goes on and on!! However, in science those ideas just don't come to me as easily. When I look at what my kid's teachers and what my colleagues do I have a hard time seeing the possibilities. So with my limited internet this week - I totally feel the pain of my students with limited internet access now - I decided to do some research into how I can use a blog in a science classroom. I found a few blogs but nothing that really got my ideas flowing. Until I got to this http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=4771 . It is the blog site for

Chimacum's Science Blogs-Mr. Gonzalez's Science Classes in Washington state. I liked that it had not only scienctific articles that might be of interest to the students. Often things that a teacher might not have time to discuss in class but could provide a place for online discussion in a blog. There were also entries on things that could help the students like how to make a Power Point presentation and an informative presentation on Multitasking. 

I also found an article from The National Science Teacher's Association  http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=51966 . Unfortunately it was an older article but still had some good ideas in it. It was difficult to find a blog just about science for older students. Much of what I found were websites as opposed to a blog.

Let's Get Started aka lassen Sie uns beginnen

For some reason this week have been very challenging to me when it comes to technology. From home to school nothing was working when I needed it to. Our entire area lost internet for 48 hours earlier this week. So not only did I not have internet at home but all my alternative internet sources were out as well to include my smartphone. Talk about a challenge for those teachers that had a tech heavy class planned. Our home internet is only partially back online. Something happened to our German router so our upstairs network is not working, but our downstairs network is working so at least we can all get some work done. The way German houses are built often a wifi signal will not be strong enough to get through to other floors of the house so we have boosters to bring internet through out our homes. We also have a vpn address that works through one of our routers to allow us to stream TV and use services from the United States.
 All of that back story is leading to my blog creation experience. Sat down today to finally get my blog created. I hate waiting until the last minute but sometimes that's just how it happens. I click on blogger.com and a message comes up that the domain operator will not allow me to use the site. I thought this was odd but maybe because it was my UMUC school address I couldn't use it. Continued on using my personal gmail account. Once again the domain administrator will not allow access to this site. Now I am super confused. I went back and looked at all of the blogs that were posted already and saw they were all blogspot accounts. I even posted a message within my group asking for help. Once again my technology gifted son comes in to ask what is wrong because he can hear me getting frustrated. He goes in and turns off the vpn so it is no longer blocking our IP address. Tada!!!! It works , but everything is in German. I eventually figured out how to change languages to English and have now completed my first blog post. It was a very frustrating experience. Living in another country can add some unique challenges to my life especially when it comes to technology.