Special Assignment: Mr.McClung's World

Mr. McClung is an eighth grade teacher in Arkansas. He also coaches cross country. Mr. McClung is very organized. He is also really devoted to his blog which is very technologically enhanced. He seems pretty cool, too. His class rules lead me to think he encourages collaboration and excitement! I like the "gestures" rule a lot. I definitely like the "scoreboard" rule. It promotes competition and keeps the class accountable. I will probably incorporate these in my own classroom. It's very obvious that Mr. McClung is passionate about teaching. He puts a lot of thought and effort into his class projects. Mr. McClung seems to be very like-able. He's energized and active. I know this because he says he is a huge sports fan and likes to bike, play tennis, and jog. From my experience, active teachers are normally the fun ones. I can tell Mr. McClung really enjoys teaching because he says he uses a lot of different methods to helping his students learn. I really like how he doesn't practice the traditional teaching methods like a lot of teachers do. Everyone needs a day-planner. It's a great requirement especially for eighth graders because they are maturing into the age where they will have more responsibilities. Day-planners, if used correctly, will help students stay organized, prioritize, and turn their work in on time. Mr. McClung's late assignment policy is pretty standard. Most of the teachers I have had implement the loss of a letter grade per day. Especially since Mr. McClung says he doesn't give a lot of homework assignments I think his policy is a good idea. The class blog is the basis to majority of the class's use of technology. It's also an updated "newsletter" to show visitors what the class has been doing and the blog hosts a lot of useful links for parents, students, and other teachers to use. I reviewed two of Mr. McClung's useful links. Plagiarism Checker is useful because students can paste their paper into the site and it will check for any plagiarized sentences. When students use a lot of research sites it's hard to remember which facts were borrowed and which were actually their own. Plagiarism Checker helps students to keep from plagiarizing. I also checked out a Translation Website. I've actually used one before but the one Mr. McClung has put on his website is very helpful! You can translate from practically any language to another. This is helpful for students because they can use it for foreign language assignments. It's especially helpful for students with English as their second language. Mr. McClung's Internet Safety section is also a GREAT idea for young students to have access to. I'm extremely guilty of putting my last name on comments and other posts on the internet. Mr. McClung could probably note that his Internet Safety rules should also apply to phone calls and other soliciting methods. Mr. McClung's blog is hosted by edublog. I cannot find any major difference between edublog and blogger. However, Mr. McClung's blog is very decorated, but as far as I know, blogger can do the same things. I did google the topic edublogs vs blogger and I found that a lot of teachers have had to switch from blogger to edublog because blogger isn't safe for students. Mr. McClung's blog is useful to anyone who is involved in education including students, parents, and other educators. There is a wide variety of links on Mr. McClung's blog and a lot of information. His blog is different from other eighth grade blog because it satisfies the curiosities of a wider range of people than an average eighth grade blog which is suitable for just the students and maybe parents.