EduBlog Insights

a little time this morning going through the blogs of my fourth and

fifth graders from the last three years. Here are some posts that got

me thinking.

as instead of bubbling in circles, they should make us write essays

about a topic. Writing is a good way to show what you know.

- When we get an inappropriate comment we learn a lesson and that

lesson is not to be like that person. We also learn responsibility on

the Internet. If you were in a race and someone called you a bad name,

would you stop? I think not. Martin Luther King Jr. was called bad

names all the time and it didn’t stop him from fulfilling his dream.

Things like this happen all the time, even out of school. So, please

don’t shut down weblogs.

the week of testing is over. I didn’t like the testing week because we 

had to be quiet, too quiet. You know on our school we work hard, and we

are smart. However, I don’t like testing because I can’t take the

have such interesting thoughts. When allowed to have some choice on

topics, look at the broad range of topics. I have a feeling that school

reform could come about in a

more authentic manner if we really started listening to our

students - asked them for ideas and solutions. Let them have some charge over

their learning.  First, we have to get them in on the

conversations.

Then we need to listen, really listen. There’s a lot of understanding

It gives a good overview of the software.It lists blogging jargon,

costs, the time to launch.and other interesting info.  It led me

daily  blog. The post asked for referrals of superintendents or

school board members blogging so if you know any head over to Board

Buzz and reply to their post. Also, if by chance, you missed the great

article “What’s in a Blog?” by Craig Colgan, go read it and then Furl It!

 Attention was drawn  to Tim Lauer’s school website,

saying it is truly gorgeous stuff. Now that is a fact. It can’t be said

enough. Tim makes the best use of photography and design of any blogger

I know. Plus the content is relevant, timely and accessible. Every time

I browse his school site I learn something interesting. The photos

really tell the story. His use of Flickr is so awesome and he shares so much. I’ve said it before but if I lived in Oregon I’d be standing in line to teach at Lewis Elementary School. Now his Education - Technology site has a banner I just adore.

Now back to Board Buzz. If you’re not reading it, add it to your list.Here’s the RSS feed.  Check out the answer to this question on the BoardBuzz Q&A:

Why a weblog for NSBA?

There has been quite a bit

of hype about weblogs, that they are going to change journalism, or get

Howard Dean elected, or drive a new dot com investment revolution, etc.

This is all Σ hype. The beauty of weblogs is their simplicity. We

created BoardBuzz to deliver to the world a daily blast of hope,

sunshine, and love to all mankind. Ok, not exactly. We created

BoardBuzz to: Deliver every day a fast, sharp, informed read on

important issues to school board members and to all public education

advocates. To be a filter of sorts, pointing readers to important news,

issues, and information they need and can benefit from. And to offer

sharp commentary on the daily and sometimes hourly changing universe of

public education in America. Sometimes we will pick fights. Other times

we will defend, or maybe even offend. One way or another, we aim to

provoke thought and discussion.

I think they’re doing a good job of just that - provoking thought and discussion.

is a search engine for finding free-to-use stock photographs and

images. There are different licenses with different restrictions, but

all images are free. They’ve indexed over 100,00 images. I like that

you can see the licensing immediately when the pictures are

He stated that “The idea was to unify the disjointed collections of

free images on the web.There are so many of these excellent resources

on the internet but they can be difficult to find, and to

search.”  For those of you who use Firefox, the pointed to the Yotophot Firefox search plugin.

is the second story in my “Projects Series” posts for those of you who

wanted more details about weblog projects I have initiated.

The premise for this weblog project was that weblogs could be used as

an effective tool to foster cooperative learning between native

English-speaking students and ESL (English as a Second Language)

fifth-grade students. Providing opportuniities for increased socal,

academic, and technological participation facilitates the process by

which ESL students can more quickly and efficiently develop their

communicative language skills. The native English-speaking students

also enhance their language skills and have the opportunity to practice

helping others with skills they have already internalized. Cooperative

learning improves language achievement and interaction between the two

groups of students. Students of different ethnic backgrounds have much

to learn from each other.

One of the students could speak no English when the year began. Other

ESL students translated what we were doing and what we were talking

about. He would share his thoughts with us and a student would help him

translate the thoughts to English. He would blog the translation himself,

after our discussions. As the year progressed, he became more and more

independent and ended up being one of the “helpers” for other ESL

students in the group.

I used Manila software and began

with the students contibuting to the class weblog. After a few weeks,

they created their own weblogs.I shared the project through a class

weblog with

posting to other educational webloggers. The other educators read the

thoughts expressed and, in turn, added their own. My students entered

these discussions and were really amazed that other people were so

interested in what they were writing and learning. This led to

incredible dialogue between both students and teachers. Students began

to be motivated to write more and believed they had something important

to say.They did! Receiving feedback from others on the comments

section of the weblog made them feel valued. When somebody affirmed

their thoughts it was encouraging to the students. I used the class

weblog as a springboard for class discussions. This gave students

ownership of the project.

posts from some of my weblogging friends this week.  They make me

think. In turn, I will then write on my weblog and others begin to

think about what I wrote in response to a friend’s post.  Sometimes I

write about something I have read that makes me want to explore and

find out even more about what I think and others think.  It’s a great

way to learn - it’s real, it’s a way to share and grow with others, and

it is an exciting way to learn.  Now I have to be motivated, I have to

work hard, and I have to really think and write about things of

interest to me. What’s great about it is that I am part of a community

that really cares about education. You won’t believe what our main

focus is in our edublogging community - you guys and all the students

from many different states and countries.  We view weblogs as a place

to give you a voice and we want to oversee that process in ways that

will make you good thinkers and continue to develop as good citizens of

our world. Writing what you think and writing it well can be one of the

greatest gifts you can give yourself.  What’s even better is that we

can have a lot of fun on the journey.”

This type of dialogue, teacher-guidance, problem solving, and peer

collaboration enhances the process of using writing to make meaning.

Connections begin to emerge from a variety of sources and writing

emerges in a way to show what the student knows and how they are

thinking.

Lots of language experience type activitities were built into the

sessions. We even created a side weblog called “Idioms Are Fun!” This

weblog was a place to talk about idioms, their meanings, and their

origins. Students wrote sentences, illustrated them, and even wrote

stories. The objective was to give the students practice using idioms

in a fun way. This helped the ESL students internalize the meanings of

expressions, the hidden meanings, not the literal meaning. As different

student writings on idioms were highlighted and celebrated in class,

the other students would use the comment feature to create their own

sentences using the respective idiom. This weblog did not require huge

maintenance time and gave the students the needed practice using the

English language. They loved sharing idioms, and vocabulary usage

soared. They “got a kick” out of learning idioms! This love of language

fourth graders in Bob Sprankle’s classroom at Wells Elementary School

in Wells, Me. The online radio show features “Student News,” “The Week in Sports” and “Word of the

Week.” Mr. Sprinkle says, “The kids are incredibly motivated to read, research, and write.”

to give these kids the tools to say, “Hey, my voice is important in

this world,”  “This

history students participated in a group blog

as a joint project with David Boardman’s English class at Winthrop High

School in Maine. They discussed issues like drug dealing, gang

violence,urban legends, the new SAT’s, good reasons to skip the prom,

etc.” The diversity of topics was great. Patrick Delaney, Galileo’s

librarian helped the teachers set up the blogs. Nice to hear in a round

about way from Patrick. Patrick is probably one of the first “original

blogging pioneers.” He pointed out how “Having an audience compelled

these kids to step it up a notch.”

The article had some quotes from educators who were not sold on the

value of interactivity. Check out this line in the article: “Testing

requires a known body of material, but interactive learning often

involves students’ seeking out topics on their own. ” Heaven forbid,

huh?

However, Mr. Cunningham, a high school speech and debate teacher at Del

Valle High School in Del Valle, Tx closed with this simple but true

statement, “I think the testing model is working against education.

With Skype, you’re opening up the whole world to the student, and that

can’t help but be good.”  By the way, he runs the Skype Foreign

Language Lab, a program that allows students around the world to talk

with one another via computers and headsets using the free VoIP phone

service Skype. How cool is that?

One interesting side note was that the article linked to some of the

tools like the iPod, Google, and VoIP but all the links kept me on the

New York Times site. No links to the school sites. I had to look those up

myself. When you get to the Galileo site, check out all the good links.

It’s an incredible web site chock-full of interesting links to

resources. You’ll learn a lot!

I did not find a link to the Skype Foreign Language Lab but I ran

across these interesting Language and International Resources at

Dickinson College that links to blogs and how to use Skype with foreign

language learning. Ahhhh, why wouldn’t we want our students to have

some time to pursue learning branched off of what they have already

learned? Don’t we want them to make connections and build on their knowledge? But that’s a post for another time…..

This is just mentioning a few of the many tools available. In addition,

our tools have extensions, modifications, plug-ins and enhancements.

Decisions have to be made. Should

I Furl it , Flickr it, Send it, or better yet Fling It?

Yikes!  As I explore all these tools I keep finding the most

interesting links and instead of learning and comparing the tools for

possible classroom use I am off exploring content here, there, and everywhere. and.  Aha!  Today

a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing every newly

launched web 2.0 business, product and service. Just what I needed,

huh? Does anyone have a tool to make you feel a little less “scattered, covered & smothered?

so you will have a deeper insight into my remarks about what we are

doing at Mabry Middle School to begin preparing your children to be

global life-long learners and collaborators who will be competitive in

Dr. Tyson is a middle school principal in Cobb County in Georgia. He heard about

this book at a conference this summer. He thinks it is essential

reading for every parent of every child at Mabry Middle School and

should even be required reading for most of the students, at least in

Dr. Tyson, a principal in Cobb County, is requiring every subject area

coordinator at Mabry to read the book. Then the books will be passed around the

whole staff. Dr. Tyson went on to say…..

In a

very easy and assessable writing style, this book presents some rather

sobering and substantive ideas with which everyone should grapple and

give careful thought, whether you see the patterns in world events he

proposes in his book or not. But my guess is, the book will ring true

to what you are reading and seeing in the news, what may well be

happening in your workplace or that of your friends and colleagues.

sure hope he gets his staff and community blogging about what they are

learning and thinking. Lots of blogs are being created at this school.

See the page that lists all the blogs, complete with teacher’s names,

number of posts, when updated, and the categories. The blogs appear to

be of an informational type.

the students get involved in the conversations. I hope the

conversations involve lots of rethinking about what we need to do in

our schools.