My first impressions of Ms. Frizzle were the usual ones I have when I first encounter a Blogspot blog. I won’t bore you with the details as I am sure everyone is only too aware by now of the limitations of this system. Suffice to say that this is a standard Blogspot blog and template, with all that that infers. To her credit though, the author does (half convincingly) blog about this very subject, and claims she doesn’t have time to improve how her site looks and content is all that matters anyhow. Well, maybe, but the score for this review would have been higher with a better site design, nevertheless.
So on to this all important content then. Well I have to agree that the content is what makes this site worth visiting (and it IS worth checking out). The author is, as the title suggests, a science teacher in the Bronx. Most of her postings relate directly to her job, although occasionally she does drift off in to her private life a bit more. However, what comes across most of all is the sheer enthusiasm she has for her job- she always seems to be making her lessons more interesting, finding new and innovative ways to motivate her students and also posts up some of the amusing things her students say sometimes.
This blog would be particularly appealing to other teachers and there already seem to be quite a network of them linked to and commenting on it. However, I think the casual reader could get absorbed in to the content too- I know I did. I don’t remember much about my science classes at school, but Ms Frizzle seems to make them a lot of fun and brings across the subject matter in a very down to earth, practical way. She is teaching subjects to her pupils, some of which went over my head, which she seems able to convey to them quite easily. There are plenty of archives to get through too, with regular updates.
Overall then this is an interesting and informative blog, particularly for other teachers, but also for anyone wanting to get an idea of what a teacher’s life is like. The site could do with a makeover (and that “About Me” page which was mentioned in the archives) but in the mean time, there is still plenty of witty, well written and accessible content here to give this blog a bright future.
ms. frizzle