Blogging projects at a high school
OK, back to reality but I still plan on hoping and dreaming for changes……..
Yesterday was a good day because I began the “blog project” journey at
a local high school. I met with
Dawn Tincher. She is the instructional technology specialist at
Rockdale High School. We networked last year and when she heard I was
looking for another project we began to talk. She’s a motivated, caring
teacher who became interested in blogging after seeing what had been
done at J.H. House. Rockdale is the high school that the kids from J.
H.
House end up attending. I look forward to running across some of my
past students while I’m there this year. I begin something new for me
this year - blogging with high school students! I’m looking forward to
it! Wish me luck and a lot of learning!
Dawn and I spent the morning brainstorming projects. This is what we
have tentatively set up. I’ll start off working with two groups. One
group is a special education group - a mixture of students considered
at risk. We visited the teacher and she was interested in the project.
I had a few minutes to meet her, explain blogs briefly, and listen to
Dawn talk to her. She is a willing participant and wants to learn! She
teaches the group English. I suggested that we start off with
discussing school reform since that is an important topic now in high
schools.
I want to get the kids writing about what they think, suggestions they
may have, etc. Next week I’ll introduce them to blogs, go over
guidelines, get a feel for the group and go from there. This setting up
will take a while because everyone around me is new to this. Dawn
recognizes the value of blogging and wants to learn more about
it. Dawn is going
to be with me and will guide me through the high school experience..
Now teaching high school is going to be new for me. Those that know me
know that most of my experience is at the elementary level. I’ve
tutored some high school students before but not taught them in a
classroom setting. Do you know that when I did a search for student
blogs (at schools) I could find very little, so point me to them if they
exist.
The other group is a ‘Teacher Cadet’ group. They have a wonderful
teacher who was intrigued at having them blog about their learning experiences.
This program introduces the students to the teaching profession. Then
they are assigned to various schools for further work.
Next week I will have my first meeting with the groups. I plan to give
them an overview, go over guidelines, show them some blogs and have
them comment, etc. I’m in the planning stage so any suggestions,
especially from those of you at the high school level, will be much
appreciated!
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