EduBlog Insights

The flu bug hit me with a vengeance. Don’t these bugs know to leave us alone during the summer months? Anyway I got back to work yesterday and now I am playing catch-up.

I have a professor who is interested in putting one of her class assignments totally online. Of course, I think blogs and believe they can fit any need. I created another word press blog to sort of do a small mock-up to give the professor an idea of how this might work. I’ve been thinking about this a bit more this morning and am wondering if SuperGlu or some other tool like this might work for her. I haven’t used it enough to know if it might work or some of you might know of just the Web 2.0 tool that would work. If you have a couple of minutes check out the blog, Explorations to get an idea of what she needs. I would welcome any suggestions. Any ideas?

I think I will use this Explorations blog to try out some things in WordPress and to just brainstorm other project possibilities that professors bring to the table.

Meridian Middle School computer Technologies Journal in its current issue asks this question:

Do the teaching-centered blogs of middle grades educators support
reflective practice? That’s the research question examined in this article, Reflection and the Middle School Blogger: Do Blogs Support Reflective Practices?

They examined 12 randomly selected blogs from a pool of 38 teacher-created, teaching-centered blogs. The goal was to determine whether they were useful reflective devices for practicing middle school teachers.

This is interesting to follow how they did this study. They developed a rubric to assess the quantity and quality of reflection displayed in each subject’s writing sample. Examples are included.
I don’t have enough background in this area to really know what I think yet but I plan to study it some more. I’ve only done a quick read but it appears to go in depth about the process. It should give us all “food for thought.”

The last paragraphs states:

The results of this study give insight into the efficacy of blogs when used by middle school educators. These results demonstrate the potential usefulness of blogs in promoting reflective practice with practicing teachers. However, results do not demonstrate that blogs are being utilized effectively for reflective purposes. This conclusion suggests multiple avenues for future research. For example, research examining exemplary middle school teacher bloggers who do engage in frequent and deep reflection would be useful. Understanding the process in which these bloggers employ and why they use their blogs to support reflective practice would be illuminating. Research to support Bolton ’s (1999) contention that reflective teaching practitioners are leaders and trendsetters would be beneficial as well. 

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to work with a group of school counselors. I plan to use James Farmer’s great site to introduce them to the joys of blogging. I have examples here and here of counselor blogs from my former school. Anybody know of any others?

Now, how could I have missed this wonderful blog created by a superintendent? I’m always on the lookout for good examples and I love this one! Her name is Dr. Joni Samples. She is superintendent of Glenn County in California. The name of her blog is EdSuccess. Her tagline reads “Stories of learning, teaching, schools and growth opportunities for all ages.”

I was hooked when I read her very first post from October 2005, as she took some excellent advice from her son Christopher. Here’s an excerpt:

“Mom,” said my son Christopher when I told him I would be writing a blog in place of my Dr. Joni column, “interact with your readers, don’t try to teach them stuff.”

He’s right you know. Learning is about interacting. Kids are interacting with books, writing, math problem solving, and science experiments in school and out. We think we’re teaching when we lecture and give assignments at school or lecture and have them take out the trash at home, but we only know children are learning when they actually use what they’ve taken in. Christopher is right and this blog is about kids and adults interacting with learning. So….

In my opinion, this one of the best examples I have seen from an administrator. She does indeed interact with her readers. Read her post on lifelong learning where she share how and why she learned about blogs. Wow, does she get the learning part and her blog is filled with posts focusing on just that. Then her Follow-up to lifelong learning.

I found myself reading her entire blog. Then I learned she would be stepping down as Superintendent. Too bad! A recent post talks about Politics and Education.

Two years ago I realized I could not be Glenn County Superintendent of School forever. I needed to find someone to replace me. This job has gotten so complex it would take time to help someone else learn all the ins and outs of budgets, programs, requirements, and policies so I needed to identify someone I could work with to learn how to do this before I retired. I didn’t want a clone. I wanted someone who would be their own person, but who could understand all the intricacies of what goes on everyday and who could make decisions that would benefit children and families.

My choice was Coleen Parker. It still is. I have had the opportunity to work with her for two years, and the more I know her the more I realized how dedicated she is to kids and families, and to making sure the budget can support programs that can support those kids and families. She believes in the things I do, but she’s different. She is the reason I can let go and trust we will be okay.

You have not read political statements or rants in anything I have done in the last 10 years. I try hard to separate politics and children’s learning. My only reason for breaking my rule today is knowing how much the job of County Superintendent affects learning in our county. I have loved doing what I have done for the last 12 years. I want it to continue in a way that will help the community and to make this a special place for our children. I hope you feel the same way.

And as she exits she even has the courage to take a stand…. I like that, too. I checked and it looks like there will be a run-off to determine the next Glenn schools chief. I hope the new superintendent will also blog.

In my workshop last week I had referred to the AHS blogging policy. It
is an excellent example. One feature of it that I really liked was the section
on “Successful bloggers”. This approach is so much more uplifting than a list
of “do not’s.” Approaching blogging from the angle of what bloggers should
aspire to achieve. It doesn’t get better than that. An example of what
appropriate blogging for schools looks like is provided. This tangible example
really helps. It is actual work taken from an AHS classroom blog, with typos
corrected. This policy is a model for us to aspire to achieve. You may want to
adapt parts to fit your school’s needs and reshape it to meet your objectives. 

Through some conversations with Karl Fisch I learned how they developed the policy. Karl intitially developed the blogging policy (researching heavily from sources around the web). He is the Director of Technology and did the initial legwork. Then he asked his teachers who were going through staff development to add their suggestions at this pbwiki. Then they posted it and shared it with the students in their classes who were blogging and asked for their feedback. Karl told me that they only made minor changes based on that feedback. However, they envision this as a “living” document – anticipating that they will need to make changes as they learn more and as the technology changes. Karl was attempting to setup some guidelines that would help, without getting too rigid or leaving themselves open to problems if they didn’t have something out there. Karl also wanted to stay away from anything too formal (like school board policy or anything) because he feared that could lead to a shutdown of blogging altogether should they have a problem. I had a previous post, Teachable Moments and Building Models about a problem that they had which they handled so well through conversations with staff and students These conversations took place on blogs and on a personal level. Then the other aspect of this blogging policy is the inclusion of students in the process. That is top-notch! Thanks Karl for sharing and pass on the thanks to your students and teachers.

I received a nice email from Elizabeth Chikamatsu who has started a children’s blog about life in Japan. It’s called here and there Japan. She asked for suggestions on how to let teachers know about it. I am posting it here. If you have other suggestions for her please post them here in a comment.

This is an up-close and very visually appealing blog that children would enjoy. Hmmmm…. let’s get our kids teaching others about life in our respective states. Blogs and possibilities once again - isn’t it great?

I’ve got to add this to my wiki for “Relevant Posts”. Actually Clarence has many that I consider relevant but this particular one, “Authentic Voices“, truly resonates with me. He blogs about how his students’ blogging is “real”. It is authentic. He says he sometimes cringes about what the kids in his class have written. He also talks about their poor spelling and grammar on some, questionable posts on others, and how they are writing about what is going on in their lives.Then he continues with this:

Out of all of the questionable posts, the poorly written posts, emerge pearls that the kids pay attention to. When kids write about the stupidity of drinking, other kids listen. When kids write about what they learned from a unit, or about an “aha” moment for them in the middle of an assignment, other kids listen and begin to consider these things themselves. When kids write about their struggles, their difficulties, and their anger, they become real for others in the classroom, and others around the world.

This is why I will never teach without blogs again.

I have to admit that I have not gotten to such authentic publishing of student work. Close but my hope is that “that day will “arrive”. Clarence is paving the way, especially so in that he is working with middle school kids. He really gets that the process is so much more important than the product.
We will get to such openness but meanwhile I will never teach without blogs again either. A few of the reasons include:

• Classroom discussions are no longer dominated by the teacher and one or two verbal students.
• Visiting some other student blogs lets our kids compare/contrast their learning and ideas with other students and adults
• Having incredible real time learning spaces where teachers have the opportunity to teach what is considered appropriate to post, how their blogging will or will not change others minds, how it can come across to others and how important the writing/blogging skills are, and how their learning can improve through the conversations
• Experiencing joy as students begin to grasp real reasons for writing and that their voice does count in this arena. They begin to enjoy writing, feel ownership, and see how their voice can make a difference. It’s the ability to build a classroom learning community that is unlike any other I have been able to foster in classrooms.
• Getting to know my students in such an absolutely relevant way. Letting them get to know me as a teacher who is learning right along with and from them.
• Getting to foster the potential through blogging and commenting.

There are, of course, many more.

So I say kudos to Clarence. Student voices do need to be heard. We can listen, we can develop new understandings- what incredible opportunities for us. Clarence is leading the way.

Don’t ban the blog is an article published by Michael Shaw on the UK TES (The Times Educational Supplement). It speaks to the issue of blogs and chatrooms being banned in schools. It quotes research:

But a study by Futurelab, the educational software research centre in Bristol, urged teachers to explore the learning potential of chatrooms and blogs.  

Hear, hear to their suggestion for “what to do”:

It suggested pupils could move beyond e-learning, towards c-learning, with the
“c” standing for communicative, community or collaborative. “If learning to learn, if collaboration, and if the personalisation of educational experiences are at the core of current educational agendas, we need to find ways of enabling young people to come into contact with, collaborate with, and learn from each other,” it said. 

It continues with why blogs should not be banned:

“Schools should not expect students to leave the 21st century in the cloakroom,” the study said. “There is an imperative to teach appropriate use and behaviour for ICT. This should include protection of students’ own identities.”  

Hats off to the UK! Now, I’m looking for more articles here in the USA! We could learn so much from Australia, UK, and Scotland. I’m sure from others, too but i am continually impressed with these particular three.
I like this newspaper. They provide links to more interesting blogs here. My Bloglines is on overload once again but there is so much good stuff coming out each day.

The activity going on over at Blog2Learn is amazing! I am having so much fun browsing through the blogs. Assesment plans from O’Reilly’s Blog, how-to directions from the Byrd House, interesting musings on directions to take with blogging from Browder’s Site, and Project Group 3 (Kim, Chris, and Julie) have already created their own pbwiki! This wiki was announced with a glittering sign “We love wikis” on this post from Mrs. Cole’s Oh No! It’s the BLOG.

Also, take note of how cleverly the cat states one of the blog guidelines on “the talking cat” at the top of her blog.

Brainstorming, lots of Web 2.0 tool use, creativity, and planning is going on. What a week!What a group!
Now I have just highlighted a few of many, many “sparks”. They are all over the blogs.

Then this spark of creativity from Sandy Rittenhouse of Language Links. This is one sample of the talent emerging from this group. Sandy wrote this poem on the first day of the workshop:

Two dozen teachers
Crowded in a lab
Searching and surfing
Typing like mad.
Some are beginners
Some are old hats
But everyone listens
While working like rats.

This was my comment to her:

Wow! I hope we get some more of your poetry. Maybe you could write one about the different language arts blogs. That would tickle some of the authors. What do you think?

She emailed me right in the middle of when I was finishing up comments to the others. That was the day Will presented - she was still working away at 9:30 that night (along with me!). Then today I get an email from her and listen to this post entitled Blogophiles:

Language Arts teachers learning something cool,
we’re from Cobb County and Marietta schools.
Instructors far and near, using Skype and other tools,
working hard so we can all turn into blogging fools.

We’ve learned to import files and give our work some style,
and we know how to link to lots of other blogophiles.
The hard part will be leaving our blogs once in a while
to walk the gritty paths of No Left Behind Chile!

One thing I can tell from all this is that for sure “No learner is going to be left behind” by this dedicated group. They get it! I’m ranging out of control but usually when I do that I have to admit it is mostly when I’m working with students. It sure feels good to “range out of control” with a special group of teachers.

I am going to second Will’s post, A Great Day in Kennesaw! What an awesome group of teachers! I can hear that creative buzz of the teachers planning and thinking on the blogs all the way from Kennesaw State to here at Georgia State in downtown Atlanta. I love it!

Yesterday I started the day just talking to the group about the possibilities, shared a few experiences and then just gave them the time to browse the language arts blogs on the wiki. Then we continued the whirlwind journey learning about posting, commenting, guidelines, responsibilities, web 2.0 tools, evaluation, reflection, and pedagogy. One part that let me know that this teachers were “getting it” was the way they reacted to the pedagogy piece. Many of them commented to the pedagogy post, like Jennie who said

Thank you for this post. We will use your site as we attempt to move our system forward into the blogging world. Using many of your pedicalogical ideas will help us with the rhetoric to open the walls that we are hiding behind.

And from Robert:

I’m totally new to blogging and just learning what a valuable tool it can be in my classroom. Yes, indeed it can definitiely aid the process for improving writing among students, but just as important blogs can engage students in valuable reading and learning as well.

I also noticed that Darren had joined Lani in commenting to the teachers. Thanks, Darren! Here’s Darren’s comment to a math teacher in the group

Hi,

This is the best History of Mathematics site on the net that I’ve found;

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/

It seems to be “not responding” at this moment, but keep trying; it’s great. I always find great resources and stories to share with my classes. It adds a little bit of drama, personality and flavour to some otherwise dry lessons.

I’ve also coolected a number of books about the histroy of math in my personal library. An fun place to start might be with Mathematical Scandals by Theoni Pappas.

As for starting a classsroom blog you’ll find lots of ideas as you work your way through the archives on my blog A Difference. But feel free to email me too.

Cheers!
Darren

BTW, Welcome to the blogosphere. You’ve just begun the greatest professional development of your life. Really.

Now I had to highlight his BTW. True, true, true and the teachers are in for the ride of their life. The teachers are busy today using web tools like Flickr, BubbleShare, RockYou! and others on their blogs. They’re busy collaborating, brainstorming, and creating plans for using blogs in their classrooms next year. But you really need to travel over to their blogs and respond to their thinking, planning and how they are using what they learned. Then add to the conversations!

The two Skype conversations with Lani Ritter Hall and Darren Kuropatawa were incredible. They shared key information and were even kind enough to post their part on the wiki afterwards. You can read their summaries by scolling down the the bottom of the Significant Comments page on the wiki. Having the ability to have other edubloggers enter the conversations adds significantly to the learning. I can’t thank them enough!

And I can’t close without this note to Will - I had no “damage to undo” as you set the stage so well for me to follow up with the classroom blogging part. I hope we get more opportunities to do workshops like this where so much preplanning and thought was given by the project leaders- Michael Keleher, Leonard Witt, and Dr. H.E. Holliday. It was indeed a great day in Kennesaw!

Note to participants who may read this: See some great pictures of a fantastic group on the wiki! Now I have to tell you that I wanted that slide show on my blog but I have a learning curve on how to use the code they sent me to do that! Just wanted to mention this so that you see how we all continue to learn! I just bet one of you may figure out the answer to this and will share with me! Enjoy your learning and call on me if I can help! Best to you all!