Take a look at the good questions that the blogicians came up with to ask their legislators. Two student bloggers will be attending a legislative event and mix among the group to see which legislators will be willing to be interviewed.
I was sad to hear that Donald Murray, writer and educator died at age 82, apparently of heart failure. This article from the Boston Globe quotes from his column “Now and Thenâ€:Â
“Each time I sit down to write I don’t know if I can do it,” he wrote. “The flow of writing is always a surprise and a challenge. Click the computer on and I am 17 again, wanting to write and not knowing if I can.”
Here are some recent “Now and Then†columns. Globe readers are posting their memories here.
Leonard Witt of PJNet Today tells how Donald Murray changed his life. Be sure to read his wonderful tribute to Murray that ends with this quote:
His students are everywhere and they worship the him, as well they should, because he was a great man who helped others find their way.
I know there are many of us who have learned so much from Donald Murray. His books are our guiding lights as we strive to teach writing as process not product. He shares the process behind his column for The Boston Globe here.
He said:
After I write a draft, I read it, hearing what I have said so I can dance to the music of the draft.
 Let’s all strive to teach our students to dance to the music of the draft. Donald Murray will be missed.
The entire group of edubloggers are winners, both on and off the list. We keep seeing more and more exceptional educational blogs every day. We are getting our voices and the voices of our students heard! I truly believe these voices will help bring about needed changes in our educational system. So my hope is that the list of edubloggers keeps growing as it has grown this year. Wow! Just think about those possibilities just a multiplying! It makes me soar!
I wrote that last year at the Edublog Awards 2005. What a year we have had since! I feel the same way this year - just more so! I find more good edublogs daily! I often wonder what the true number really is.
Now it was fantastic to celebrate this year’s Edublog Awards 2006. I really enjoyed the Annual Edublog Awards event at EdTechTalk this morning. Here are the winners! Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier were great hosts. Josie Fraser, as always, presented the winners in her own special delightful way. Be sure to check out Dave’s Top 10 news events of the edublog year.
Congratulations to all the winners! I have to say it once again- the entire group of worldwide edubloggers are winners - both on and off the list! I can’t wait to see what happens next year!
I just finished the first round with students where I used podcasts to help them proofread their writing on their blogs. I wanted to share the process.
The students wrote stories about photographs from Scotland. These photographs were the ones that Chris so kindly let me use. They were transferred from her Flickr pictures to a wiki. The students wrote their first draft and inserted the pictures. Their drafts needed lots of work. I mean lots of work. Once I get over my initial dismay at their lack of writing skills (which I am firmly convinced would be oh so much better if we gave them time to write - another story for another day), I just roll up my sleeves and decide the best place to start.
Teaching students proofreading is hard work or I guess I should say getting students to apply that learning is hard work. Elementary students like to zip through tasks and their idea of proofing is a quick glance. Many times though they just run out of time. The instructions were to have two windows open. They opened the podcast of their story on the class blog. They used their individual blogs to follow along. The first attempt had them here, there and everywhere. Some were mesmerized by the screen designs appearing on their podcast. Some did not even have their story up on the screen and some were off commenting. It’s hard to wait to answer those good comments. OK, time to regroup. I got everybody zeroed in on the task again. I suggested that they follow along with their finger lightly on the screen as they were listening. That helped. This time they got it but it requires really paying attention. This is a skill they have to practice. We suggested they listen again. They were willing. Then I worked one on one with a few and had them read it. Still, just like we do, they would read it as they had it in their mind, not on the blog. We persevered with this training. They were surprised at the errors.I can’t say they were wild about it at the time but they were fascinated with the podcasts and when I closed with letting the students each give “proofreading pointers” on the audio recorder they were tuned in. Here’s a sample. JhonnyProofreadingPointer.mp3 This was fun! Then they thought about it this week and some even brought in papers so they could edit their original papers. They were much better! In our discussion in class about the process I felt that they were beginning to get an understanding of how helpful this was.
I’ve never felt too successful at getting kids to proofread but this time I saw some lights going on. (Now if those lights will just stay lit for them to do that process by themselves 
One thing that was apparent was that they were quite proud of their revisions. This is not something I would do with every piece but I think from time to time it will be a good tool to use. I plan to let them record for each other. It will be interesting to see how they do and how they like that. When they were doing their editing they used ideas and suggestions from people who had commented and given them pointers. I’m also finding it very interesting observing how they respond to the pointers. I also observed in class today many of them silently reading their revisions when they had completed it. Hooray! Then they began to blog some thank-you’s to their commenters. Our time ran out so that will be the first order of business next week.
I really love blogging with kids. They are my best teachers!
Learning Technology is a publication of IEEE Computer Society. They published a special issue on “Blogging as an Educational Technology” My article “Thinking & Writing Wrinkles Bloggers” was accepted.
Her paper shares a project where fifth grade elementary school students who used blogs to communicate with other educational bloggers. In her paper she looks at how blogs were used in cooperative learning and how they increased social, academic, and technological participation.
Here’s the overview of the other articles published. It looks like some good reading so I’m off to do just that. It is so good to see more and more published work on blogging in education.
Read Lani Ritter Hall’s post on No Child Left Behind–One Size Does Not fit All!. She has an excellent write-up. She also pointed to Chirs Lehman’s post which is right on target. I’m headed over to the site to add my signature.
As promised, here’s the slide show. It’s also on the wiki. I can’t wait to hear what you all do with blogging! You were a great group!
Create Your OwnI just completed my evaluation for the K12 Online Conference 2006. Head over to the conference blog and click on the link that says “fill out the evaluation for the conference.” Wow, what an incredible experience. I enjoyed two more sessions today - Lee Baber’s “All About Internet Audio” and Mark Wagner’s “Blog if You Love Learning: An Introduction to Weblogs in Education.”
I have been astounded by the presentations I have attended and I have only just begun. This has truly been a conference to remember and what a concept. A conference that goes on and on and on. It takes my breath away. Just how many conferences have you attended that stay so available, so free, so timely and just provide so much fun? Accolades once again to Darren, Sheryl, Lani, Wes, and Will!
So get on over to the conference blog and hand in your evaluation! We want these kind of conferences to continue!!!!
This post is in response to a plea from a teacher who needs help presenting her case to a committee. See my previous post. She wants to show the power of blogs in education. Here are some concrete examples I could give to help her plead her case:
My first blogging project was with fourth and fifth graders at J. H. House Elementary School in Conyers, GA. I used current events with a group of fourth and fifth graders as a springboard to teach critical thinking skills and media awareness, and to make connections with the school’s curriculum objectives. It was featured on Intel’s Innovation Odyssey, A Place to Be Heard. See the class blog, NewsQuest , which has links to student blogs.
My second blogging project was with fifth grade elementary students from J. H. House Elementary School in Conyers, Georgia, who engaged in an educational blogging project titled Thinking and Writing Wrinkles.You will see links to the student blogs on the class blog. I found that blogging for an authentic audience motivated them to write. The project’s goals were to facilitate the process by which ESL (English as a Second Language) students develop their communicative language skills and to provide students of different ethnic backgrounds the opportunity to learn much from each other. My underlying premise was that blogs could be used as an effective tool to foster cooperative learning between native English-speaking students and ESL and provide opportunities for increased social, academic, and technological participation. In addition, I felt that the native English-speaking students could also enhance their language skills and have the opportunity to practice helping others with skills they had already internalized. Finally, I was sure that participation in cooperative learning experiences would improve language achievement and interaction between the two groups of students. Blogging did all that and more! The culminating project for the year was an ABC Blook on Blogs which students wrote and illustrated. It is good proof of the learning that occurred.Â
The next project at the same elementary school was built around the goal encouraging  writing as a meaning-making process and a tool for learning. The core focus for this project, The Write Weblog, was built around the Six Traits of Writing. The fifth graders also commented back and forth with students who were in a technology class for education majors that I was teaching at Georgia State. They posted advice to these students about good teachers. Emphasis was placed on developing student voices. Students began to realize that they had an audience who cared about what they had to say. Writing/blogging began to take on meanings they had not previously experienced. See the end of the year project, The T.A.G. Blogging Machine, which is a powerpoint that illustrates how blogging in the classroom improved their reading, writing, and thinking skills.
There are more detailed descriptions of these and other projects on My Weblogs Projects Page on by blog at You will also find other resources there that may help.
There is another good example of fifth graders blogging that could be useful for you. Check out Blogical Minds. This is a blog created to explore what happens when 5th graders blog and coverse about literacies in class and beyond. Â
The pace of change is rapid and is central to life in the 21st century. For once, I’d like to see education in the forefront of leading the way in helping students embrace this rapid change. Our students are going to experience even more rapid change. The ability to read, write, and keep up with this is of paramount importance. They need to be involved with a global audience. A good education does not necessarily measure up by just test scores. Students need lots of practice engaging in exciting, collaborative learning activities where they have to discuss, think, contribute, read, and write. Blogs offer a place to foster this type of engaging activities
Go round up a group of administators and talk to them using points from Dean Shareski’s wonderful podcast and slide show with about 80 administrators. Read his post, Podcast 20: Blogging with Administrators.
Dean says:
Now like anything, I’m not sure all will make this part of their routine but even if 10 begin reading the conversations that are taking place, it’s going to make a difference.
Yes, it will make a difference and just think what a difference all of us can make if we do the same. You can do the same with any group that needs to hear the story. Go to it!
Kudos to Dean for sharing such a terrific presentation!