Hillary Meeler of Blog Write says:
Your story will be the last assignment on the 6 Traits of Writing. Then we will have all the pieces for our End of the Year Project.
Now I say:
I can’t wait to see the end of the year project. These stories are exceptional and the students have received some wonderful comments! Wow!
This truly is blogging at its best. Well, done students, well done!
The J. H. House bloggers have done it again but this time they have absolutely knocked my socks off! They blogged about metaphors that could be used to help them remember the Six Traits of Writing. The creativity is outstanding and you can tell they had a lot of fun with this. Here are links to the authors and their metaphors:
And you have just got to read Jason’s “The Traits that teach the Traits of Writing.”
It is absolutely incredible! And just think, I haven’t even read the rest of the posts by this fantastic little group. So I’m off to read, blogging can 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!
Darren Kuropatwa continues to amaze me and I have to say that using a blog to give one on one help in math to his neice has got to be one of the best uses of a blog that I have ever seen! Wow! I am so excited about this blog! I can’t wait to see how the conversations unfold. Just think how making the learning process so visible makes it one we can all learn from and we can all add to the conversations. If you haven’t posted an encouraging remark to Ellie’s (Grade 7) Math Blog, make it your number one priority today! Make a difference! Darren sure is……
I was reading Powerful Conversations Can Transform Teacher Learning in the Spring 2003 issue of Working Toward Excellence.
The Alabama Best Practices Center is promoting these Powerful Conversations about staff development. A self-assessment process is used to promote these conversations about staff development among principals and teachers in schools across the state.
The article states that the conversations are as much about listening as talking. They maintain that you won’t get a true picture of the school’s staff development without a facilitator (outside school) to deepen understanding and push school facilities to think outside the box of traditional in-service programs.
The article lists good questions for schools to ask themselves about staff development. I know at my former school we did something similar to this without an outside facilitator. Our staff development was great and every teacher was involved. We talked across grade levels, planned, collaborated, worked and re-worked ideas and then WE decided what staff development we needed to help us meet the needs of the students. It does take a principal with a vision though.
Gosh, wouldn’t it be great if something like this could be taken to the next level? Keeping a record of the journey on a weblog would be so helpful for others following. Since time is usually the reason given for not being able to do many thing, you could alot time during the staff development for reflection, plans, and more thinking outside the box. (On weblogs, of course!)
Wow! I saw the blogshop: Weblog Workshop on the Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX) this morning. This is terrific ! It was created for use at the June 2003 electronic Portfolio Summer Institute (ePSI) at Chandler-Gilbert Community Office. use at the June 2003 electronic Portfolio Summer Institute (ePSI) at Chandler-Gilbert Communtiy College.
Here is the workshop blurb:
This online workshop on “blogging” (hence “blogshop”) was designed to introduce faculty to the world of weblogs and to provide them basic steps for creating their own blog using MovableType.
Also on the site is a description of their wonderful resources:
The Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX) is an electronic warehouse of ideas, examples, and resources (represented as “packages”) that support student learning at the Maricopa Community Colleges.
I love these packages! I will need to carve out some time this morning to browse further. The site further explains their concept of packages….
What exactly is a package? Just as learning is a concept that defies quantifying, so are examples of learning. That is why we represent them as mysterious wrapped packages, ranging from as small as a spreadsheet activity designed for a chemistry lab exercise to a complete faculty development program. Simply put, the criteria for a package is anything from Maricopa created for or applied to student learning.
Alright! I am off to get lost in this wonderful warehouse…. Thanks Maricopa!
Thought I’d share a slide show that one of the fourth graders created. They worked at asking higher-level questions and has some fun creating this PowerPoint slideshow for practice. This activity could be used in lots of different ways. They worked on this in spare moments when Manila was “acting ugly.”
Today I’ve been busy creating some CDs for my NewsQuest team. This Friday I will be attending a Fifth Grade Banquet celebrating their successes of the year as we wish them a fond (but tearful) goodbye to middle school. As I’ve been pulling files for the CD, I’ve been re-reading some of the back and forth conversations between my kids and Will’s NJ mentors.
Thought I’d share one example with you….
Dane from Georgia writes two opening leads:
1. Attention! Attention! This is the last straw for the U.S. Time is wasting away for Iraq to destroy its weapons. Have you ever wondered the pressure our President is under at this point in time?
2. President Prevez Musharaff says he is prepared to use nuclear weapons if Indian forces had crossed into Pakistan earlier this year. I’m not sure what’s scarrier, having nuclear weapons or North Korea.
Amanda from New Jersey gives great feedback: (in blue)
1.Attention! Attention! (love this, it really pulls me in as the
reader) This is the last straw for the U.S. Time is wasting away for Iraq to destroy its weapons. Have you ever wondered the pressure our
President is under at this point in time? (I am really interested in
when that happened)
This lead really grabbed my attention, and it also made me wonder what it would be like to be in the President’s shoes. I like how you said
“Time is wasting away”…and it really is. Excellent lead!
2. Pakistan’s President Prevez Musharaff says he is prepared to use nuclear weapons if Indian forces had crossed into Pakistan earlier this year. I’m not sure what’s scarier, Pakistan having nuclear weapons or North Korea. (I think that if you added when, it would make it easily
understandable to the reader)
I don’t know which I would choose, I think that both are equally
scary.I really like how you pulled me in (you are good at that!). It kept my attention, and I was eager to read more.
Dane from Georgia will be carefully considering Amanda’s words.
Hi Amanda, thanks for responding! I’ll be sure to take your advice on my leads into consideration. Anyway, I’ve been working very hard lately in Mrs. Davis’s class and I’m learning alot. I’ve been corresponding with James and Jen. I hope to hear from you again soon.
That dialogue happened in the beginning of the project. It kept getting better… I think it’s so important for us to keep searching for ways to provide this kind of instructional dialogue between groups. I love it!
I have been following with interest the weblogs of aspiring presidential candidates. Howard Dean 2004 Call to Action Weblog is one I read. I had been reading Gary Hart’s but he has since withdrawn from the race. Does anybody know of any other weblogs by candidates? Does Bush have one? As I was checking for others today, I landed at Write the Web and followed a link to The Politician and his Weblog. by Giles Turnbull.
Politicians are not known for being very interesting. Nor are they renowned for their ability to keep up-to-date with modern technology.
My kids could have told him that after we spent an evening with legislators showing them weblogs - haven’t seen one from them yet… We’ll try to return next year and give it another try. Hey, we persevere!
Which makes Tom Watson somewhat unlike your typical Member of Parliament. The Labour member for West Bromwich East appears to be the only Honourable Gentleman with a weblog, and therefore is something of a pioneer.
We need more pioneers!
His site is quite unlike any Parliamentary site I’ve ever seen before. Updated every day with snippets of news, opinion and links to interesting things found on the web, it has the same appeal of many well-written weblogs with the added interest of its author’s occupation.
“I started with a ‘normal’ website when I was elected last year. It was rarely updated and frankly dull to read. Then I visited a school in my constituency and found seven-year-olds designing web pages and writing PowerPoint presentations. The lights came on and I realised that the political world was about to spin on its axis.
Hear! Hear! Just think what he could learn from some of our kids’ weblogs.
It is a huge political risk (Watson’s spoof page for teenagers caught the eyes of the national newspapers last week) but Watson is determined to stick with it.
Watson admits: “I’ll get some stick but I think eventually people will see that is fundamentally a more honest way of communicating with people who want to know what you think and do. Oh, and its also great fun and slightly addictive.”
A more honest way of communicating with people who want to know what candidates and politicians think and do - doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?
What’s more, Watson is convinced that weblogging will catch on among his fellow MPs.
“If the software makes publishing your thoughts and ideas easier, it will certainly catch on. For me, there is the advantage of getting ideas and opinions in the public domain quickly, without the reliance on your good profession (journalists) to interpret/edit what I’ve said.”
I’m hoping there will be a whole lot more risk takers who will communicate with us through weblogs. Just think of the teaching and learning possibilities…..
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Today I was looking back over some blogging links that I had put in my Favorites folder to save for a “less busy” day. That day is here as the students have finished finals. Do you hear that faint roar of joy coming from Atlanta? They are off and won’t be back until Monday! It’s nice to close the ITC for a few days for a little down time where you can think without the hustle and bustle of a normal day in our center. Bernie Dodge who is a professor at San Diego State University and is well-known for his Web Quest development had an interesting page on his web site about blogging entitled Cool Tools for Cool Teaching - Blogging. What caught my eye was his first subheading Writing with Passion. Bernie says, “Getting learners of any age to write is often a challenge”. He them talks about a new vehicle for self-expression - blogs! He created an assignment for his students to explore this new genre. He wanted them to think about how it might be useful to his students as educators. He used one of my other favorite tools, Inspiration, to create a diagram to illustrate blogging basics, personal blogs, and blogging in education.
On the education side he spotlighted these Blogs by Educators:
Mathemagenic
Educator Asylum (now EduBlog News)
Writing Across the Arts
Ms. Turnbull
and these class blogs:
Spanish American War
Joe Luft
GA-NJ Connection
In addition, Bernie provided these links for his students to explore:
Educational Bloggers Network
Weblogg-ed
Schoolblog News
Edublog Web Ring
For the final assignment for his students, he provided a link where his students were to go to post their reactions to blogging. He used Quick Topic which looks like a neat tool for educators.
Here are a few of the student responses:
Jeff sees it as a world-wide learning tool. “Blogging sounds like a great way to get students interested in the writing process. It also sounds like a good way for students to learn about the lives of others living around the world.”
Lily is inspired. “To get students to write with passion has always been the goal for many teachers. Blogging make this possible.”
Frances is a little confused. “I like all about it. Great way to get students to talk about an infinite numbet of topics. I just don’t see my self doing this yet. How? When? I still need to learn much more about it. I am very confused as what exactly is blogging? I guess I really don’t know much, but am willing to learn.”
Go read the student comments. Some you will agree with, some you will disagree with but I think this is a great way to get students actively involved in learning about possibilities. What a great start!
It definitely gives me some ideas for a class I will have in August. The professor will be attending a retreat, and I have a large block of time to introduce some education majors to weblogs. I can’t wait.
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