New School Year

This year, I'd like to use this blog as a way for the Chisholm Trail theatre students to connect with each other at home. We're working on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" right now and we're looking for some props, so please check out my webpage to see if you have any props you'd like to donate for our department.

I'm excited for another great year of CTMS theatre!

Week 3 Reflections

1. What did I learn from this week? I've learned that blogs can be a powerful collaboration tool between fellow teachers AND between my students. "RSS reader" is now in my vocabulary and I'll probably set my "pageflakes" page as my homepage so I can keep up-to-date with blogs, news and webpages that interest me.

2. How will I use what I've learned? I plan to keep using Pageflakes during the school year as a way to collaborate with students and stay up to date with theatre ideas posted by fellow theatre teachers. I definitely want to keep adding to my Pageflakes and take advantage its features.

3. How do I feel about this tool? I'm sad I didn't find out about RSS readers earler! I love the idea of updates coming to me instead taking the time to look at every single webpage or blog to see if it's been updated. It saves time, which is a precious commodity during the school year.

4. What do you not want to forget about this tool? I want to remember that features are constantly being updated! I don't want to forget to set my Pageflakes page as a bookmark or homepage on my computer in my classroom when I can access it. I want to keep using it and referring to it throughout the school year.

5. How can this be used in the classroom? I can use RSS to stay up-to-date with other theatre teachers to collaborate curriculum ideas, or perhaps collaborate with other core curriculum teachers on a project that incorporates what my students are learning in other classrooms.

6. Should I use this in the classroom? Yes! I think it can help students see one way to keep uptodate on news happening outside of the classroom. For example, I can stay up-to-date on Broadway plays and musicals and inform students how daily news stories relate to our current curriculum.

7. What questions do I have about this tool? What else do I not know? Since RSS is something I never knew existed, it makes me wonder what else out there could be helpful as a teacher. Is there more potential for Pageflakes? Are there plans to expand it and make it better?

RSS Choices

This week I feel so much more in tune with the modern Internet era by learning about RSS. I didn't know there was an easy way to keep up with lots of different blogs and updates through one RSS reader. After looking at the descriptions of the different RSS readers, I decided on PageFlakes as my RSS reader because I'm very much a visual learner, so I thought it be easier for me to visually process the information. It did take some getting used to the fancy layout though. But after playing with it for a while, I feel like I understand it.

The non-classmate blogs I subscribed to were:

1. Fox News and CNN (My sources of world news)
2. www.thedramateacher.com (I liked the theatre teaching ideas posted here)
3. adventuresofadramateacher.wordpress.com (I like how the teacher uses the blog to post info about her classes and a way to connect to both current and past students)

What have I learned?

So far, this blogging class has taught me the potential that blogs can serve in the regular classroom. I definitely want to use blogs in my theatre classroom this fall as a way to collaborate and communicate. Perhaps I could use it to communicate to my students while on maternity leave as well. :-)

Starting this blog was easier than I thought and I appreciated learning from how other teachers used blogs. For example, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ is a great constantly updated source of information that can help teachers read and discuss current ways technology can be used in the classroom. After doing a general search I found a student's blog about his theatre class at http://theaterclassblog.blogspot.com/. Although this was a student's blog, the entries he have are reflections of what was learned or discussed in class, which mirrors the kind of reflections I'd like to see as comments on my class blog.

I want my blog to be an extension of the classroom where students can reflect more in depth of what we talk about. It can also be a place for students to discuss different ideas while in the comfort of their home, which they may not otherwise feel comfortable to talk about or have an opportunity to discuss.

I definitely want to use this blog in my classroom as an extension of what's discussed in class and hopefully find some other cool blog features, like the avatar, to enhance it even more.

What to learn? Why blog?

When I signed up for the online blogging class, I wanted to learn how blogs can be used in the classroom. I knew blogs were used for publishing online journals, but I'm curious how I can collaborate with other coworkers as well as make blogs a part of the grading process of my classroom. I see potential in encouraging collaboration among my students as they apply concepts taught in class in a unique online format.

So why am I blogging? I intend this blog to be a way for me to encourage collaboration in the classroom. I want to post thoughts and begin conversations online that apply what we're learning in class. This blog also will be used to post current theatre events and auditions so all students can be up-to-date on the local theatre scene.

Who am I?

Welcome to my blog! I'm Mrs. Kathy Hobbs, the head theatre director at Chisholm Trail Middle School and here's some facts about me:

• I grew up in the DFW area, and graduated from Allen High School (the 5A state football champs of 2008).
• In middle school, I started to like theatre, but I had to audition for three plays before I received my first role which didn't have a single line, and my scene only lasted a minute.
• My senior year in high school I played my favorite acting role: Alice in "You Can't Take it With You."
• I majored in Theatre Education and minored in English Teaching.
• In 2004, I moved to Killeen, TX to teach at Audie Murphy Middle School the first year it opened.
• In 2008, I began teaching at Chisholm Trail Middle School where I directed "Into the Woods" and "M*A*S*H."
• Mark Allen, my son, will be three August 28th, which is the same day I'm due to have my second child, Lily Marie.
• I love teaching to others and learning what they have to teach me!