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| Working with students and teachers... |
| 10.28.03 (10:43 pm) [edit] |
Today I began working with a 5th grade class on blogging. I followed the same first day format I had with the last class: brainstorming what they thought a Web is, what they thought a Weblog is and what they thought a Blog is. The discussion was interesting and the students are excited about "being bloggers."
I've been able to meet with the classroom teacher to collaboratively plan the direction in which we are going. This is an exciting change! This teacher had definite ideas about how she'd like SuperThinker http://npera1.tblog.com to engage her students, which led to a very purposeful plan of action which will get students comfortable with posting, get them thinking about the pleasures of reading, and will provide a couple of mini-lessons to support their new unit writing piece which is Expository Writing [i] (I'm thinkin' blog entries such as "Just the facts Ma'am" and "It's in the Details.")[/i] The class meets SuperThinker tomorrow!
I will also be working with her on the Literature Circles blog, The_Circle http://www.tabulas.com/~rocky and networking with Anne Davis http://anvil.gsu.edu/Literatu... who has been doing fabulous work with Literature Circles and blogging, both as place for students to post their ideas about books and for teachers to post their ideas and reflections about the process. I can't believe I've only been blogging 7 weeks and I've come this far. I have to say that the community of edubloggers is wonderful. I've learned so much reading edublogs and I've made contacts with other educators who have encouraged and advised me. Honestly, I've never had the access to information and support that I've had during these last 7 weeks. And, I'm able to make connections with educators from elementary school through college! This is invaluable because K-College is part of the same trajectory so we really should expand our dialogue about this. To say that I'm inspired by Anne's work with elementary students and Mike Arnzen's http://blogs.setonhill.edu/Mi... work with college students is one thing, but to know that one builds upon the other and realize that both face the similar issues about planning and student needs, is a revelation!
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| A little growth goes a long way... |
| 10.22.03 (2:55 pm) [edit] |
Today I worked with the 4th grade ELD class on BlogHeads http://npera1.tblog.com] . The students are still curious about SuperThinker. One remarked that she must be married and have children if she has a garden bench with a "well used book" on it, while another thought she could be an aunt, and another decided "she just has alot of friends." Recently, one student said she went online, "chatted" with SuperThinker, asked her age, and got the reply; 56! (I'm SuperThinker-though I'll NEVER let them know it, I'm 42, and there's no chat function!) It's fun to see how curious they are about SuperThinker and how this blogging thing is creating a stir in the class. She is real to them so what she says matters.
I started using SuperThinker as a way to get students excited about blogging, then became a bit disenchanted because I felt there was no depth in its application. Students would merely reply to SuperThinker's questions. I realize now that was partly because there was no ownership on the teacher's part, who enjoyed MY coming in and doing the lesson but didn't find the time to get students on the computer herself, and partly because I was experimenting, but with no particular direction in mind.
I think I have a direction now. The students love SuperThinker and crave writing for an audience and having their work published online, but with the blog set-up I'm using all they have is the Comments section. So, I've decided to use SuperThinker as a source for mini-lessons to support learning that is going on in classrooms where there is some buy-in (although all are welcome on BlogHeads, the blog entries will reflect targeted needs). I have another 4th grade teacher and now a 5th grade teacher who are interested in using BlogHeads. So, I will work harder to create ownership by using teacher input to help guide SuperThinker's mini-lessons and align the blog mini-lessons to the writing projects the class is currently engaged in. I'll follow up with the teachers to see if the mini-lessons were helpful, looking to see if students transfered learning into the class writing projects.
I feel newly inspired about BlogHeads! I may develop a pantheon of superheros for the blog mini-lessons(VocabularyMa n/DescriptionDude/SuperDe scripto/WordWonder=endowe d with wondrous ability to use descriptive words, and engaged in a lifelong mission to help people "show, don't tell" when writing! or DialgoueDawg=SuperThinker 's best friend, endowed with the ability to create superpowered dialogue, never forgetting the quotation marks and speaker tags!). Now, if only I could clone myself...
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| More teacher artifacts |
| 10.18.03 (10:54 am) [edit] |
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I've been working on my new blog, Learn, Teach, Learn...repeat http://www.tabulas.com/~rocky/[/url] . I just posted albums with pics of scaffolds teachers have used to teach Math, ELD, and ELA (click on Gallery). I'm hoping to get some teachers interested in posting their own pictures and blog entries.
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| My first edublog convert!!! |
| 10.16.03 (10:16 am) [edit] |
Okay, okay...I just couldn't wait to share this. I've been telling everybody and their mother about blogging--with mixed reviews. I think it looks so cool everyone assumes it must be difficult to learn and do!
This morning, our school Coordinator came by my office and said, "Okay, I took your advice and created my own blog." http://www.schoolblogs.com/co... Check it out! Topics include "Deciding to be a Principal," "Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork," "Being a Dad, too," etc. This is way cool! One staff member down, 70 more to go!!! [b]I love this blogging thing!!![/b]
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| I'm still here!!! |
| 10.14.03 (12:31 pm) [edit] |
You might have wondered what happened to me? Well, besides lots of work, and overdoing some book lifting so that I've had a hurt back for about a week, I've done some exciting new blog work! I have a new blog site up and running. The site is called Learn, Teach, Learn...repeat and it exists for the purpose of having teachers share their teaching artifacts through the picture Gallery.
This all started with a discussion on EdBlogger Praxis in which someone asked for information on free blogsites. Albert Delgado gave a link to a page which listed lots of sites and what they offered. I decided to try out tabulas www.tabulas.com[/url] and it is fabulous. Free subscriptions offer lots of perks like linked pages, levels of privacy, community settings, and picture gallery. This was a great way for me to learn about using pictures in blogs. I liked it so much that I bought a one year subscription for $28.00 and now have space for 500 pictures, along with other goodies that I have to explore! I have ideas for uses of gallery space for Literature Circle blogs, project blogs, and for teachers sharing work--which happens to be the use I have just tried out.
Please [b]check out the blog at http://www.tabulas.com/~rocky[/url] and view the Gallery. Let me know what you think. [/b]
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