Last week I finished up a blogging project with elementary kids (sniff, sniff). It’s hard to let go of these wonderful groups of students. So I thought I’d jump into another project I’ve been wanting to try.

I have a blog “A School of Voices.” I created it to encourage voices from students and teachers everywhere to get their voices heard about events that are going on in the world today. Current events needs to be discussed by students and teachers so we can learn and grow together and be responsible global citizens. It was active for awhile but with all the research I’ve been buried in this year it was neglected.

Then an idea popped into my head that had been brewing for a bit. I am going to bring it back to life. I invited a previous student blogger of mine to co-author the site with me. Katey is the young lady who will join me on the journey. She will be a sixth grader next year. We will be communicating through email about the blogging. I’ve wanted to see if this would work with this age student. Her mom was in agreement for Katey to participate. I communicate with Katey through her mom’s email. I told Katey we would learn together. I also told her that if at any time she wanted to move on to other things to let me know. I would still feel the same way about her blogging or not. I didn’t want her to feel like this was something she had to do. I want this to be fun and a learning experience for us both. We’ll see where it leads.

Katey was delighted. Katey made great strides in her writing while blogging and she loved it. So Katey has officially made her first two posts. If you have a moment go comment and encourage her! The first post for the project starts with my post, A Shift in Direction. Her posts follow. Her post name is mind4blogger.
For those of you who might be interested here is a post that gives a little more background on why I think current events should be required for every student. And this was in 2003!!

This commentary by David C. Berliner & Sharon L. Nichols was published back in March on Education Week. We all need to add this to our arsenal of facts about high-stakes testing. I don’t know if you will be able to access it from Education Week or not so I have also found a link on a forum where you can read it. I want it in my list of references on this topic. The authors conclude the article with this paragraph that says it all in my mind

Our research informs us that high-stakes testing is hurting students, teachers, and schools. It is putting the nation at risk. By restricting the education of our young people and substituting for it training for performing well on high-stakes examinations, we are turning America into a nation of test-takers abandoning our heritage as a nation of thinkers, dreamers, and doers.

The authors have documented hundreds of examples of the ways in which high-stakes testing corrupts American education in a new book, “Collateral Damage.” Many of the examples in the article are ones that we have all seen. Here are a couple of more quotes:

Because so much depends on how students perform on tests, it should not be surprising that, as one Florida superintendent noted, “When a low-performing child walks into a classroom, instead of being seen as a challenge, or an orpportunity for improvement, for the first time since I’ve been in education, teachers are seeing [that child] as a liability.”

We also documented the narrowing of the curriculum to just what is tested, and found a huge increase in time spent in test preparation instead of genuine instruction.

I wonder when we will ever address how to improve student learning. When will we address the issue of nurturing “life-long learners?” Students should be encouraged to think, discuss, observe and create. Now in schools there is little time for that. High-stakes testing continues to be our biggest obstacle for needed change in education.

The blogicians and the students in Darren Kuropatwa’s Pre-Cal 40S class participated in a Gizmo call last week. The blogicians had prepared some questions that they wished to ask the high school students. Gizmo has a neat feature that lets you record the conversation as you are talking. It did pretty well but does have an echo effect from time to time. As I listened to these podcasts I really marvel at the learning that occurs. I kept thinking how much was going on and how much can be fostered with these types of connections. I think you have to have a plan of action as if you just connect and talk you may lose some focus. It was a thirty minute call that was filled with some many unexpected turns that were so worthwhile.

What a good space to give kids practice with public speaking. Both ages were nervous but the experiences they got speaking will serve them so well. I think both sides learned so much from each other. The older students were unaware of some of the constraints involved while teaching elementary students (listen to the chat box podcast), the ability to look for dramatic and outstanding pictures for presentations (listen to the Flickr podcast).

On a scribe post after the Gizmo talk, Grey-M one of the high school students said the following:

I must say that trying to answer something on the spot is brutally hard (These weren’t easy questions either) so people, including me, were a little hesitant at times to respond. So that was a fun deviation from our usual routine.

The younger students are in awe of the older students but in these kind of connections they learn to step back and decide if they agree or not. They learn that that is OK.

Johnny from the blogicians posted the following after the talk:

We just did a gizmo chat and it was quite delightful with a pre call math class and it was nicely spoken by me and my classmates. Mr. K was the teacher of the class I asked about chat box and how they use it and Danny replied “We use it to learn all over the web and it sort of saves time instead of commenting”. I sort of agree with him what do you thing do you agree or do you disagree? If you don’t know what it is try looking it up and using it.

You get to discuss so much and the best part is you are having authentic conversations with the students and encourgaging their honest input. It builds great learning communities. This can only make things better in our classrooms. This is great practice for them and us. The teachers get to do a lot of learning too. We’re learning how to best orchestrate these experiences. We’re learning how to help these kids on their path to becoming global citizens. The more experience we can give the kids with this type of learning the more they will be able to help us shape its’ most effective use. These are the types of literacies we need to be developing in all our schools.
I’m still thinking about all this….. the possibilities, how to involve others, and on and on….

It was a day to remember - a day of connections and learning between some very inspiring students in Canada and Georgia.

Links to podcasts:

Podcast 1 Introduction and special bond

Podcast 2 Eddie Chris Online Safety

Podcast 3 Eddie Vincent Being responsible while blogging

Podcast 4 Emmy Danny Flickr

Podcast 5 MV Chris Craig B.O.B (Blogging on blogging) and convincing middle school teachers to let students blog

Podcast 6 Tina Vincent Grey-M The best and the worst of blogging

Podcast 7 Johnny Richard Danny Chat Boxes

Podcast 8 Eddie Aichelle How does blogging advance your learning as a fifth grade student?

This announcement needs to go far and wide over the blogosphere! Last year’s conference was outstanding and I am still learning from it. If you missed it you missed out so get prepared to attend a conference organized by 4 top-notch edubloggers who make it happen! You will be amazed at all you can learn! I think it is the best conference around and can you believe this - it is free! Make plans to attend or present. All the details are below! Feel free to distribute the information below on your blog. Let everyone know!

Announcing the second annual “K12 Online” conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This years conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” A call for proposals is below.OVERVIEW:

There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in any of a variety of downloadable, web based formats and released via the conference blog (www.k12onlineconference.org) and archived for posterity.