Pay It Forward: Student Teachers Blogging with the Purpose of Learning from One Another
Dr. Tammy A. Feil, Dr. Cynthia A. Ferraro
Abstract
This article examines the feedback of weekly gated blogs by thirty-three student teachers from a university in
Pennsylvania over a period of fourteen weeks. As an extension of the gated blog assignment, six student teachers
presented their insights regarding the gated blogs at a national student-teaching conference in Pennsylvania in
2015. All of the student teachers had welcomed the idea of weekly gated blogs as a means of sharing studentteaching
experiences to help alleviate fears and concerns. These blogs provide an online forum where student
teachers and their professors can share strategies, offer advice, ask questions, share memorable experiences, and
collaborate. Additionally, blogging facilitates a practical understanding of how to align student-teaching
dispositions to the required Interstate New Teacher Assessment Support Consortium (InTASC) standards.
Findings suggest that student teachers value the weekly gated blogs as a protected social media environment to
help ease the stresses associated with the student-teaching experience.
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