Week 6 Reflection: Random Teacher Thoughts by Anthony Purcell
Anthony Purcell is currently a mathematics teacher in Oklahoma. He runs a blog called Random Teacher Thoughts where he documents strategies and activities he uses in his classroom, and even funny/interesting stories. When you go to his blog, you arrive on the home page. He also includes an 'about' page and a 'parents want to know' page. His 'about' page gives a short description of who he is and a few pictures of himself. The 'parents want to know' page includes a letter he has personally written to the parents of his students. He tells parents that he really wants to help his students to understand math and that he needs their support to do this. He sends an email to parents at the beginning of each unit to outline what will be learned, and each week to outline what should be understood each day. The home page is where his blog resides. On the left, there is a column of archives where you can find his posts by month/year. His posts are generally short in length and very entertaining. He recounts stories from his classroom, educational stories and events from his life, and strategies he uses in his classroom.
The thing that I like the most about Anthony's blog is that it feels very personal, and the posts are not lengthy and boring. My personal preference when reading a blog is when it is short, well-written, and engaging. I think that Anthony does all of this in his writing. I would recommend this blog to anyone who is involved in education. I think that I will definitely use some of his ideas and modify them for my content area. It is also just enjoyable to navigate his site and read what he has to say. Here is a post of his that I enjoyed. |