Time

School has started; hence time to ponder tech has diminished. It is in reading Inquiry's "What is a blog? post where Scribblings is linked, that I realized that it has been a long time since I wrote.

The school library purchased both Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools by Will Richardson and Classroom Blogging A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere by David F. Warlick. I'll be back once I've read these.

I have also realized that my third graders have arrived to me still second graders and they'll need at least a month before I feel they are ready to move to blogging.

The roots take hold

Nancy Brodsky comes to a realization that blogging with her students is a dynamic thing even if the blogs don't go public. Doug Noon left a comment on her post and what he says there is what I had been thinking - the teacher as the moderator is the key. He directs us to his students' site from last year. It is a fourth grade class and it seems to be mostly freewrites. I am impressed with some of the student comments.

I think my third graders can succeed with this.

Nicknames. That's a good way to keep privacy. I was going to get them to post with their student numbers, but they will love using nicknames. One thought I had was that they could use their Spanish nicknames from Spanish class.

Doug answers some of my questions here.

I didn’t want to encourage students to publish personal journals. I didn’t expect them to want to write fiction so much, either, but that was a choice I honored. I approached the project in the context of a school assignment. I wanted them to practice good form, and to be judicious about personal disclosures. This was the topic of conversation for us in writing conferences. Because the writing was public, my students were more interested in learning about conventions of print than they are when they’re merely being graded.

I'm so excited to start. I still have to figure out my "Plan of Attack" for introducing the students to blogging and how I am going to proceed. And if only my laptop would arrive!

What is a Blog?

Will Richardson and Anne Davis list some of the things they have learned using weblogs in the classroom.

From Will:
"Teaching blogs to students takes a plan. What do you want to achieve? What can you do with a blog that you can’t do some other way? Effective use of Weblogs in the classroom comes when teachers have planned well."

What can you do with a blog that you can't do some other way? is exactly the point I brought up in one of my previous postings.

From Anne:
"I usually have a class weblog to go along with the student blogs. I start the students out as contributing/junior authors on my blog for a short period before empowering them with their own blogs. This really helps them get a sense of what it is all about."

"I’ve learned that you need to really think about what it is that you want to accomplish. It’s not a good idea to just jump out there and let the kids begin blogging. You have to really know your educational goals and keep coming back to that vision. Develop a plan that can be altered and constantly tweaked as you go."

This is what I am trying to do - figure out what I want from blogging with my class.
I like how Anne introduces it to her students by making them Junior Authors on the class weblog.

Will Richardson presented at NECC and here is something from his Weblogg-ed Presentation Links that is going to help me figure out exactly how to do my class blog. Time to go think about all of this....

Why Weblogs in the Classroom?

• Writing
• Publishing
• Audience
• Linking
• Reflecting
• Archiving

What is blogging (the verb)?

• Posting assignments. (Not blogging)
• Journaling, i.e. “This is what I did today.” (Not blogging)
• Posting links (Not blogging)
• Links with descriptive annotation, i.e. “This site is about…” (Not really blogging either, but getting close depending on the depth of the description.)
• Links with analysis that gets into the meaning of the content being linked. (A simple form of blogging.)
• Reflective, meta-cognitive writing on practice without links. (Complex writing, but simple blogging, I think. Commenting would probably fall in here somewhere.)
• Links with analysis and synthesis that articulates a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind. (Real blogging)
• Extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links and comments. (Complex blogging)

Important Rules About Blogging

The librarian at Grandview Library Blog has a great list of Important Rules.

Important Rules About Blogging

Break the Rules and You Will Not Blog!

1. Do not include your name - use your student number/class code.
2. Do not include the name or address of our school.
3. Check your post for spelling errors, grammar errors, etc. Paste your post into WORD and run spell check.
4. Do not write about anyone else in your blog without his or her permission -- No Names!
5. Use appropriate language.
6. Do not write anything that could hurt someone's feelings.
7. Never touch anyone elses blog entry.
8. NOTE: You cannot leave comments for someone else unless you are logged in. Comments should be kind.

I hope this librarian does not mind if I use these rules with my third graders this year!

Plan of Attack?

Sargent Park's Grade 8 Math Zone is the blog of a math teacher and his four math classes. He has a central hub and then a blog page for each of his classes for. His 36 students (per class) are each contributors on the blog page. They write their own blog entry on that main page.

Mighty Writers is a blog of third graders. Each third grader has his or her own blog linked to the teacher's main page. This seems like a lot of work to set up. I'm not opposed to a lot of work when it benefits the students, but this year I am implementing two new programs (Everyday Math and SRA Open Court). We didn't use these in Canada; hence the load of work.

I think this year, I just want one blog to which we all post and comment. I don't want it to be simply journaling, though. Students could do that on paper. If blogging is to be meaningful, it needs to be more than doing on the computer what could be done on paper.

Next step: Find Guiding Questions to which the students can respond. I need to find Bloom's Taxonomy so I can think up questions in which the students can probe and ponder a bit.

Question: If I use the single blog model with multiple contributors, can two students working on individual computers blog at the same time? If they can't, then I need to change models.

Finding the Time to Blog

I know I want my students to blog. I still haven't figured out the logistics. However, I have worked out a rotating schedule for the students so that they can blog in the morning. We also have a 30 minute block in the computer lab every eight days in which we could work on wikis or more on blogging.

Safety

I don't want just anyone to be able to post comments. Somehow, I'll have to password-protect the classroom blog so that only students and parents can comment. I do want the parents to comment. I think they would make a great contribution; it would provide a connection to what their children are doing in school.

Like-Mindedness

Yesterday, I was looking through some of the blogs I have bookmarked on my Google Homepage. There, at Se Hace Camino Al Andar, I found a like-minded teacher. She is attending the The Summer Institute on the Teaching of Writing, a workshop I would love to attend. There she is learning how to really do the Writer's Workshop in her class, and thankfully for the rest of us, she is blogging about her experience and sharing much of what she is learning.

Secondly, this teacher has started another blog called Inquiry. Here, in a post called "Inquiry Again," she muses over how best to use blogs in her classroom. This is exactly what I am trying to figure out.

I've ended up at Cool Cat Teacher Blog. I will have to come back and read more. A quick peruse, however, has given me the idea of doing a wiki with my class when we get to the Ancient Greece and Rome unit.

There's so much information out there that it gets overwhelming. I end up with endless tabs on Firefox and can't keep up with the reading!

Shedding the Light on RSS feeds

Today, I finally understood RSS feeds. I know, Tico has told me numerous times what it means, but I had to read the definition myself at the History Channel to understand. There are three lessons in this.

First, the fact that it took me until now to internalize that an RSS feed is a way for the content of a favorite website to be delivered to you instantly, without visiting the website, and that it stands for Really Simple Syndication, further illustrates that information often needs to be repeated before it is internalized. Everyday Math knows this and has developed its curriculum around this premise.

Second, I now know what an RSS feed is and now have "This Day in History" as a feed on my Bookmark Toolbar.

Third, you never know where you will pick up a tidbit of important information. I certainly was not expecting a "What is RSS?" link at the History Channel.

Potentialities

The course EDIT 5342 - Advanced Integration of Technology into the Curriculum at Wayland Baptist University has a very good course outline that gives me some ideas. I can modify some of this and apply to my own students.

For example:
I already know that blogs are used by many teachers for journaling and reflecting. I could also have my students make weekly reflections via blogging. In Room 208 the teacher has the main blog and the students comment back to him. Another teacher in middle school has each student write a blog. His main blog has a link to each student blog and he can comment directly on their blog entries. I am not sure yet how I would like to use blogs in the classroom, but I know I want to use them.

From the course outline from above:

Weekly Posted Article Reflections and Responses

Each week, students are expected to read and thoughtfully reflect on assigned articles as specified in the course schedule (below). Posted reflections can include thoughtful questions, needed clarifications, insights, additional information, and/or appraising opinions relating to the ideas studied and expressed in the article(s). A minimum or maximum length for weekly article reflections is not defined, but students should bear in mind that the quality, rather than the quantity, of posted blog reflections will determine the point valuation of weekly reflections.

Each week, students are expected to:

1. Read the assigned article(s) for the week.
2. Post a thoughtful reflection relating to the article(s) on his/her blog. Include in each posted reflection at least 2 hyperlinks to other related webpages.
3. Post at least two comment on the blog of another class member on a reflection posted during the current or previous week.
4. Submit the URL of the current week's article reflection blog to the course assignment submission database NLT 30 minutes prior to the start of each class.


The Mini-Projects from the course outline give some ideas as to other projects that can be done.

For example:

1. Photo Storytelling
a. Working with your group, take digital photos to communicate a story about an idea or concept.
b. Put the photos in order, naming them chronologically 01.jpg - 02.jpg -- 10.jpg.

2. Social Bookmarks
a. Use your social bookmarks (Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us) to save and organize websites you find about your research topic.
b. Use some different tags to organize your social bookmarks.
c. Submit your main social bookmarks URL / website to our class assignments/reflections database.
d. Optional: Include a link on your Blogger account to your social bookmarks page (change the template settings - directions are available)

I have no idea what social bookmarks are, but I like the idea of the students making links on their blogs to the websites or the books (via Amazon) they are using for research.
Of course, I now plan on finding out what Social Bookmarks are.

3. Bloglines Digital Newspaper
a. Subscribe to at least 5 different RSS feeds using your Bloglines account.
b. Submit your bloglines feeds URL / website to our class assignments/reflections database.

Again, I'm not sure what a blogline is. Is it something I could use in the classroom?

Deliberations

The school requires goal-setting from its teachers. This is great. I have spent two weeks deliberating on what goals to pursue this year.

One of my major objectives this year is to integrate technology in relevant ways in the classroom as part of the Reading and Writing curriculum. Part of my goal is to integrate blogging and podcasting; consequently, I will be blogging questions and discoveries here in this blog and keeping track of things I have looked at, tried, or want to look at or try.

Another part of my goal is to use and keep up the class website. Class websites is something new for the school this year. I hope to have the students contribute to the upkeep of this website.

Here are sites I want to look at more thoroughly:
Integrating Technology in the Classroom
Education World
Integrating Technology
Integrated Technology Lesson Plans
Teaching Today: Integrating Technology in the Classroom
Teacher Education Institute: Integrating Technology into the Reading and Language Arts Curriculum

Here are blogs from students who took or are taking EDIT 5342 - Advanced Integration of Technology into the Curriculum at Wayland Baptist University
Edit5342
Edit5342 (different from above)
EditComputer
Edit5342 (a third one)
Speed of Creativity