Happy to be here

Good morning. It has been a pleasure taking a look around at all the different blogs and seeing such a large group sharing a deep interest in similar things. I am an ESL teacher in the Twin Cities at an Alternative High School and recently began writing my Master in Teaching paper on the use of Blogs in the classroom. The end product will be two curriculums, one for Social Studies and the other as a stand alone "how to" blogging curriculum for teachers and students to use together in their classes. It has been at times daunting but always exciting. Please feel free to take a look at my, very new, blog which I am using as a portfolio of my new understandings and as a sounding board for ideas. If anyone has any resources they would like to share please do not hesitate in doing so. Well, I am glad I could introduce myself to everyone and I look forward to reading and learning more from all of your work.

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Comment by sschwister on April 12, 2007 at 10:13am: John, hello from a fellow Twin Citian. TCer? I got here yesterday and have also been looking around. Small world. . . .

Your capstone project sounds exciting. I'm interested to see how this Ning experience will impact your thinking about teaching with blogs.

Comment by Andrew Pass on April 12, 2007 at 11:23am: Welcome John. I'll take a look at your blog. I'm wondering how you define the word curriculum. Perhaps it's contained within one of your entries?

Also, as another social studies educator, I've started a different social network site designed to promote high quality discussions within the classroom. Maybe you'll find it interesting and want to participate. The address is: http://classdiscussions.ning.com

Comment by John Franke on April 13, 2007 at 4:28am: Well Andrew, I am thinking the curriculum I am thinking of would be first, an example of how teachers can use blogs in the classroom as a TOOL to do new things in new ways with our students. The secodn curriculum would be a basic outline of how teachers could introduce and develop their own lessons for using blogs as a tool and not a gimic.
I hope that help clarify what I am hoping to do.