EduBlog Insights

I can really identify with this on Barbara Ganley’s bgblogging:

As I have mentioned here several times, I am not a techie—I am a teacher of writing, all kinds of writing, and of Irish literature (when I get the chance).

I am not a techie either—like Barbara, I, too, am a teacher. I’ve taught mainly in the elementary grades, but once I became the ‘Instructional Technology Specialist’ I became a teacher of all content but the most enjoyable part for me was to become a better (I hope) teacher of writing. Blogging paved the way for me. Writing to learn, that’s what blogging is all about.

I am excited about next year’s blogging project. I am returning to my favorite school, J. H. House Elementary and I’ve got many ideas brewing for working with a classroom teacher to use weblogs to get the kids to reflect about what they are learning and how they learn. Letting students write their way into their own understandings and letting them discover answers to the questions they need to ask. Working together, reflecting, passing ideas back and forth and having the abilitity to reach out to such a larger audience to share and learn from one another. This technology is still so exciting to me and every time I can’t do some “techie” thing I realize it doesn’t really matter because you don’t have to be a “techie” to teach good use of technology. Plus, I have so many bloggers and yes, students who share and are so very willing to give a hand when help is needed.

I’ll also be working with a GSU professor who wants to build a research piece into this. Now that’s exciting! We’ll all be learning together and just imagine where it all might lead as we continue to take “responsible risks” and set high expectations to improve the teaching and learning.

I have the wonderful opportunity to use blogging to learn right along with my students and everyone else. Actually blogging can save time. How about that for a new twist? All the time that we teachers have to spend answering students’ questions can give way to guiding students to write (blog ) their way into an understanding of concepts that they could not get before by simple reguritation of facts. Through the connections and collaborations we can all form answers together and build bigger understandings. Blogs really do give us an avenue to learn together. Can’t wait!

From the outset, Terry’s view was that this should be a free download to encourage the widest possible audience. You can view the table of contents and list of contributors here.

Kudos to Terry and the authors of this incredible project. It is truly a model that shows the true collaborative and sharing spirit of the web. I can’t wait to read each and every article! It’s going to be one of our “best-practice” resources to share with other educators.

I am on Terry’s email list for Computers in Classrooms and always found it so useful, especially in the sharing of the resources with classroom teachers.

I would like to personally thank Terry and everyone involved with the project. A tip of the blogging hat for an absolutely incredible model to share with others!

I received this comment on my “Bumping up reflections” post and it led me to a group of students who were asked by their instructor to respond to this prompt I had posed:

“A lot of adults are saying that education needs to change. They believe we are teaching like we have for years and years and years. They do not think we are preparing students for the 21st century. Jobs change, information changes and the feeling is that we need students who are critical thinkers and problem solvers. Do you agree? What do we need to change about education to achieve that? Do you disagree? Why?”

The author of the blog, In the Know, is Mrs. Fried. I like that blog name! And the tag line is great - Are you in the know? Share your knowledge with us! She is currently a Technology Director who is looking for new technologies to integrate with a student centered learning community. This site is dedicated to the students who want to learn and who want to contribute their knowledge to others! She provides a good list of rules for blogging and gives credit to these sources:

http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org/rules-for-blogging/
Adapted from http://patterson.edublogs.org/all-about-blogs/
And From Bud the Teacher’s Wiki -
“http://www.budtheteacher.com/wiki/index.php?title=Student_Blogging_Handbook”

(more…)

I came across two interesting articles on reflection : “Making Reflection a Cornerstone of School Culture” - Part I and Part II. The authors are Bob Garmston and Bill Powell. The first article opens with the question “By what criteria should schools be evaluated?” It compares the differing views of politicians, parents and accredictaion agencies. It then refers to Roland Barth’s classic work, Improving Schools from Within.

Barth suggests the quality of a school is often reflected with remarkable precision in the quality of the adult-to-adult relationships within the school house. He observes that the manner in which adults speak to each other, share ideas form work partnerships and even manage conflicts is often a profoundly accurate predictor of the quality of learning within the classroom.

I have previously pointed to Barth’s writing. I like where this article heads as it reflects on what adult-to-adult relationships have to do with student learning. The article suggests the process of professional reflection. It goes on to say that we learn not from our experience in the classroom but from our reflection on our teaching and the corresponding student learning (Kusuma-Powell & Powell, 2001.

The article acknowledges that is is possible to engage in professional reflection as a solo activity by keeping a professional journal but the value increases when this reflection is expanded to colleagues and the instructional improvement can be powerful. The article goes on to suggest seven reasons why schools should embed reflection in the fafric of their culture.

Blogs can really be a great vehicle for sharing reflections. I really would like to see the day come when we educators, along with our students, are able to spend a good portion of the school day doing just this…reflecting about what we are learning.

The second part explored how to initiate and develop reflection in schools. It talked about not assuming the skills sets for reflection and collaboration are already present and may need to be taught. I have found that students have had little practice with this, both at the elementary and yes, even the university level. Actually, teachers also. One interesting example they gave was one of administrators and teachers using “walk through observations” as a springboard to promote teacher reflection on differentiated instruction.

How about a walk through observation on the use of technology and how it is being used? That would make for some interesting discussions.

I’ve been thinking about some ways to use blogs to help students develop the ability to assess thier own work and their thinking “about their thinking”. If we gave short assignments on blogs where they talk about their thinking this could help. I’m going to think of more ways to foster making connections between related concepts. I’m going to work at ways to think aloud more in front of students and encourage them to do the same. Regular writing is a must and what better way to do this than through blogs. It doesn’t have to be a big project.

Some possibilities:

Write down the most pressing question that is on their mind after a lesson. If they don’t have one have them imagine what another peer’s question might be? Then the next day have them comment to one of their classmates’ questions.

Re-state something said during class discussion and add something to the conversation.

Could there be another point of view on resolving a problem or an issue? Develop it.
Pose one multiple choice question and one essay type question for the material we covered today. Which one would assess learning better and why? This could make for a great classroom discussion on assessment.
Imagine yourself as the expert of this subject. Predict what will change in the next five years and give your reasons.

If you had only a few minutes to summarize the lesson today what would be the best way to do that so someone would remember what you said?

Can you give an example of how we could check to be sure if the information we are using is accurate?

State what is unclear to you about what we discussed. Have another student try to clarify for you.

Write down a “think aloud” about something you are interested in learning about that you believe is relevant and is related to what we are studying in class.

Hmmmm, I’m still thinking about this but we really need to be thinking of ways we can use blogs to get the students engaged - not cover more and more content but let them read, write, think, rethink - hmmm, let’s blog!

Tomorrow I’m headed out to Seattle to attend a Learning and Technology Conference. sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. It’s a conference to examine current ideas, research, and practices for using technology to enhance student learning. It was my second choice as we just get funding for one conference yearly now and at the last minute we discovered we couldn’t go to NECC as it begins during a new budget year! Technicalities!

This conference has many interesting topics on the agenda though. I’m looking forward to the learning.

It’s nice to see Jo McLeay’s good work spotlighted on an article entitled The worldwide classroom in The Age.com

Quotes from the article:

Her blog, The Open Classroom, seeks to construct “an identity in the blogosphere while reflecting on learning and teaching and technology”.

“People comment and join in the discussion - it is like the conversations you would have in the staff room or at a teachers’ conference but these are with professionals from all over the world. It is a wonderful resource,” Ms McLeay says.

And it is now a resource that is being shared with her students.

“I had one girl’s mum who was so thrilled because teachers from around the world had commented so favourably about her daughter’s writing,” Ms McLeay says. “It gives the students a more authentic audience for their work and enables them to communicate with kids their own age who are living in completely different environments to their own.”

“It is just such a dynamic, invigorating medium, not only for teachers but for the students as well,” she says.

Now I just pulled a few of the great quotes. Jo does such a good job. I love seeing her efforts recognized. Be sure to read the entire article. She talks about her years 9 and 10 writing students sharing blogs with a school in a remote area of northern Canada. This is what it is all about. Kudos to Jo and her kids!

This past Tuesday I visited the class of a University of Georgia colleague, Gretchen Thomas. She invited me to be a guest speaker on my favorite topic, blogs and education. Several in the class knew about blogs but the definitions were consistently those of it being an online journal only. I love being able to dispel those notiions. It is exciting to be able to share the possibilities that blogs offer us in education. The majority of this bright class were Elementary Ed majors so I took them through The Write Weblog and modeled how you can use your blog to teach and learn from each other and then empower the students with their own blogs to explore their own learning. Each time I get the opportunity to talk about blogs I continue to be amazed at how interactive this process can be as you stand back and see the writers with distinctive voices emerge. There is really nothing like it. We talked about potential, possibilities and the need to truly listen to our students.

Near the end one of the students asked me what I thought the next big thing would be. The question kind of threw me as who knows? I told her that we just needed to be open to the ways that education needed to change and that they needed to be a part of these conversations. I pointed this group to wikis (which none had heard of) as a way to explore other possibilities and collaborate with others who are learning, too.

If any of Gretchen’s. students are reading this I just want to say that there is great value to this collective wisdom that can come from the voices of students and teachers on blogs. Let your voices be heard! We need to share our reflections.

I’ve had WordPress for a while now and it seems Sam is getting all the kinks, transfers, etc. squared away. Sam DeVore has been hard at work getting all of the old manila feed addresses redirected to my blog, among the many other helpful things he continues to do. Thank-you Sam! I am really liking WordPress and look forward to more learning. One thing I love is all the online help that is available! Anyway he warned me that a bunch of people may suddenly get a bunch of info from me so I’m giving you a heads up!

Can’t think,
Too dumb.
Inspiration won’t come,
Bad ink, blunt pen,
Best wishes. Amen

That is a poem that I read years ago that for some reason has stuck in my mind. I have no idea who wrote it or where it came from but it is one of those things that pops through my head from time to time. I’m changing it to:

Can’t blog,
Too difficult,
“Nondiscussables” abound,
A few dilemmas,
What to do?
Best wishes, Amen.

Sometimes blogging is difficult, at least for me. I haven’t been able to blog lately because I’ve been thinking a great deal about issues that can’t be discussed “easily” on a blog. Factors such as the people involved or the sensitivity of the topic prevent total disclosure. That’s a good thing but I think the topics are worthy of discussion and I could gain from the insights of my “edublogging” family.

This year I have run into a few dilemmas that I still struggle with. Some have been with my blogging at the high school, some with commenters who cause concern in ways that have not come up before, and some just fall in the realm of those “nondiscussables” that exist in every educator’s world. Roland Barth describes these so well in Improving Relationships Within the Schoolhouse.

Roland Barth says adult relationships in the school will remain unchanged. School improvement is impossible when we give nondiscussables such extraordinary power over us. “These “nondiscussables” are held frequently in the halls, parking lots and elsewhere, but seldom in the polite society—at a faculty or PTA meeting, for example.

His statement has been been on my mind for some time. It has applications for those of us who are blogging, especially those with students.

So I thought I’d tackle one of my dilemmas today. This dilemma centers around an individual who comments frequently. This dilemma has to do with the appropriateness of comments. From time to time we may run across comments that we feel are not appropriate. These have to be judgement calls on our part. Now some are clear cut as in the case of offensive language, extreme rudeness, etc. but others are not so clear cut. A commenter may tread on areas that we educators generally respect and the commenter may not even be aware of the inappropriateness of their comment. I have had something like that happen recently. It was on my blog. I was discussing a situation, yet using no names. I intentionally did not use the students’ name so as not to embarrass him/her in any way. This commenter used the child’s name in a comment reply to my post. I took the liberty of removing the student name. I handled the issue by emailing the commenter. In this particular case I sent a strong email asking the commenter to please “think before they comment”. I took this action because this particular commenter had had a few occasions with other edubloggers over various unacceptable situations. Now I don’t know but I sense that the commenter lacks the skills to realize inappropriateness. I have no idea if it is the lack of experience or what and for the most part this commenter has provided excellent comments. The continued occurrences here and there cause concern. Now how do you weigh this? Great good has been accomplished with comments but there is an uneasiness that exists as you are never sure just when the next bombshell might drop. Now we educators can handle that, we already are doing that and in many cases we learn from these experiences but I am a firm believer in letting students learn from comments but therein lies my dilemma. I feel the commenter can be guided and learn from the experiences but my first responsibility is to the students. It’s also the type of thing that could shut us down. I’ve also noticed that the issue has not been blogged by other educators who have had this commenter frequent their sites.

This has led me to consider the merits of having a comment policy of some type that could be used with those who comment to our students or to us about our students. In situations like this I believe a comment policy would be helpful to use with those commenters like the one I am talking about. This post has lots of food for thought on this concern. I especially like the questions asked under ‘The Debate Over Deleting a Comment’. Those could be adapted nicely to fit in with a comment policy.

So, what’s your take? Do you think such issues are better discussed privately? And what’s your take on a comment policy?

Researcher issues warning: Refresh schools or lose is an article in Kearneyhub.com in Nebraska. Bryan Goodwin is the director of communications for McREL, an education research and development organization. He spoke at the Nebraska Department of Education’s Excellence in Education conference in Lincoln about diverse student identities and changing expectations. He noted that minority enrollment exceeds white enrollment and at least 20 million Americans identify themselves as mixed races who believe that census categories don’t apply to them. He talked of technology and how it is changing. Students have more choices and prefer multitasking and parallel processes. Students thrive on instant gratification. He feels that American schools must change or they will be left in the dust.

Doug Christensen, Nebraska’s education commissioner, pointed out how high schools haven’t changed since the early 1920’s. He reiterated the need for change in high schools and believes public high schools will lose if they don’t reform.

More voices in the mix….