EduBlog Insights

I’m dancing once again. This time it is in Ohio. It’s not the tango, rather this time it is ballet! Did you see that beautiful pirouette I made?

Seriously, Lani Ritter Hall is conducting a workshop at Ohio Connects! Bridging Learning, Technology and Achievement Conference. This is their state technology conference being held in Columbus, Ohio. Here’s a description of her workshop:

Blogging in the K-12 classroom: Real World, Standards-based Learning!

Return to your district with a blog ready for integration into your classroom learning experiences! Examine the educational uses of blogs at all grade levels. Create your own classroom blog. Create a Flickr account to store your classroom pictures and insert them into your blog. Participate in a Skype conversation with Anne Davis of Georgia State University on blogging in the classroom.

Lani has created an incredible workshop, Her presentation blog is Blogging Ballet. Go view the 6 Acts that she designed, then orchestrated and then presented! You will be able to participate online. It is amazing how we can have access to all these wonderful resources. Then having a tool such as Skype to be able to participate and join in on the fun. More bloggers go forth!

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Today Hillary Meeler is presenting a session “Why Weblogs Work in K-12 Education at the GaETC conference at the Georgia International Convention and Trade Center 

out the blog presentation and take a look around BlogWrite while you’re there. I never tire of  seeing the excellent student work!

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I ran across this on the ASCD Smart Brief. Here’s the link to the conference blog.  The Conference on Teaching & Learning

I always like seeing how others present about weblogs so I thought I’d

	This month’s issue of The American School Board Journal discusses the web and its effect on education. From online learning to school blogs, the Internet is revolutionizing education. Craig Colgan, the author of an article, “What’s in a Blog?” tells the story of how educators are discovering the newest form of intimate and immediate conversation. One of the captions in the article is “An Unrealized Potential”. That’s my focus today.
	What is a weblog? I could give you all the traditional definitions like….  a blog is the shortened form for weblog a blog is a way to publish a website quickly and easily You don’t have to have a program like Dreamweaver or Front Page. You can publish your website anywhere, from any browser, any computer. You can do all this for free or a minimal cost. and the best thing is it makes it possible for ALL educators to have a web presence that is quick and easy to manage for those with little or no extra time. SO all  the above tells you the features a weblog has but…… instead I want to focus on the ways weblogs are unique and then how you might consider using them in your high schools..
	It’s all about possibilities.,,,,,,,,, The best thing about weblogs is that they can be anything you want them to be. There is not really a right or a wrong way to use weblogs. You can use them….. to discuss books, share your thoughts and ideas with other educators provide information on topics like science or any content area, Presidents, hobbkes portfolio record of work on what they are learning provide updated information for libraries, non-profit organizations, news be a source of information for your parents team/departement communication tool way to keep a record of a project place to list homework link to items related to your subject areaecognize students sports page, extracurricular activities PR space to to recognize students practice skills learned in a fun way Mention my preference …… make writing the focus!
	I have to mention this first because I think you all have seen how weblogs in general are changing our landscape - politics, news, teens, If we enter these conversations and make education the focus we can be change agents for helping make education relevant to our students. Voice also includes the students. We have much to learn from them. In my three years of using weblogs with students I have been amazed at what I have learned, especially from the student voices. They need to be in this mix and we need to value and respect those voices. Not only can we get OUR voice heard by the public and each other, weblogs present a wonderful opportunity to get the voices of the public on our side. (as educators presenting legitimate concerns and issues) We can learn from all the different voices.
	Choice  of what you write, what you link to Gives you some control Same with students Weblogs make students feel like they have some control over their work, a choice. Every time I talked about blogs with students, it came through loud and clear that they liked having a choice about what they wrote. Now this didn’t mean that they could just write about anything they pleased, but they had a choice within some parameters. So try to build that in within the parameters of what you are trying to achieve. Weblogs give students ownership.
	Having an audience is perhaps one of the most interesting features of weblogs. Weblogs have a comments feature where anyone can respond to what you or your students have written. Absolutely the first thing they check. We feel the anticipation and excitement just like they do when we receive comments. Might need to orchestrate this in the beginning. Tell about Sunday School, senior citizens, school board members, Philip fromParis.(jvolunteers who would comment) Then tell about author.who wrote (through comments) to the students.
	Weblogs give me a chance to build learning communities where I am on the same footing as my students. We write together. We talk about how it is hard work. We share things that work. We learn to disagree in agreeable ways. I really like that and so do the students.  Learning communities develop within your field - ed tech, social studies teachers, math teachers and others. You need to give it time. I’ve learned more about teaching, about my students and what they are thinking and learning, about the use of technology for learning and , oh so many other subjects from blogging than anything else I’ve done. It really is the best inservice!
	Weblogs disrupt the notion that the best way to deliver curriculum is the same way we’ve been doing it forever and ever. I think that is a good thing and if we have enough voices banding together with a common purpose perhaps, just perhaps our voices will be heard. You need to join the community.
	Now, look at this picture. Can’t you see the potential there?
	Now we want to make sure that that potential is developed to the fullest from that age all the way up through elementary, middle, high, and most important, even  further.  We want to sent them out into the world as life-long learners. I’m here today to tell you about a tool that has the potential to transform our curriculum and have not only our students but ourselves learning way beyond the ringing of the classroom bell. And I have to tell you that it is indeed empowering. Exploring possibilities for the use of weblogs in education is stimulating and engaging. Weblogs are unique spaces on the web. They are places where you or your students can write and publish about a topic or several topics. Unlike traditional websites, they offer instant publishing that can be done anywhere, anytime, and from any browser. Not only is it a quick process but it can be accomplished with minimal or even no cost. Weblogs have built in features that enable further discussion and interaction from a much wider audience than our classrooms.
	We have a wave of knowledge that is available to us now through the Internet. This wave of information requires us to rethink what it means to be literate. We have always defined it based on the 3 R’s.”Reading, “riting” ,Rrithmetic”. Of course those are still of paramount importance but  our continued future success is based on our ability to review our educational practices, affirm our accomplishment, modify the practices that are ineffective and seek educational innovations that emerge as best practices, especially in technology. So to continue my story……
	I have a story to share with you about the potential of using weblogs in your classroom. When I finish, I hope you will see the possibilities that weblogs can offer to help you turn your classrooms into “High Schools that work!”
	My story begins with the neglected “R”. (why I got into weblogs) American education will never realize its potential as an engine of opportunity and economic growth until a writing revolution puts language and communication in their proper place in the classroom. Writing is how students connect the dots in their knowledge. Although many models of effective ways to teach writing exist, both the teaching and practice of writing are increasingly shortchanged throughout the school and college years. Writing, always time-consuming for student and teacher, is today hard-pressed in the American classroom. Of the three ‘Rs,” writing is clearly the most neglected.” Writing needs to be put squarely in the center of the school agenda, and most importantly in your very own class agenda. Writing is not simply a way for your students to demonstrate what they know but it is a way to help them understand what they know. At its best, writing is learning. So my story continues with a story of taking facts, details and information and showing students how to use it in blogging as an act of discovery, a powerful way to see real meaning for writing.

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Once again I’m not there but I really am there! That to me is still so incredible.I am getting to attend the 2005 Building Learning Communities conference while sitting at my desk right here in Atlanta. I have to say that Steve Dembo really

bloggers like Steve. Start with his first post, From Liverpool to Fenway, and continue upward on his blog. You, too, can attend! Just think about tracking the attendance in this way! I like it!

Steve starts off with what is superb about this conference.

“That’s one of the best things about this conference; the

have in sign a book I guess). Same thing goes for smaller presenters.”

Steve

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Today I presented

choral director of Walhalla High School in South Carolina. See his Blogs4Teachers site. He is a fine arts teacher who really gets blogging.

conference.
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I spent most of the day yesterday working on a presentation for the 19th Annual High Schools That Work Staff Development  Conference that will be held in Nashville July 13-July 16. A few months back I got a call from the Southern Regional Education Board.

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I’m so excited! I learned about Skype and vSkype today by chatting with Steve Burt.

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Right now I am at J.H. House Elementary school working with my Wrinkles group. Something very special has happened for one of my students. That student is Emily! Emily has been featured as a guest blogger on BlogHeads. You can see her wonderful writing here. I was thrilled that Emily chose to talk about good introductions in writing. Last year I showed my NewsQuest group this slideshow. We spent a lot of time discussing how to grab a reader’s attention with an opening lead! I was amazed at how much Emily remembered! Now, Emily is a student who always steps up to the plate and tries her best! Her writing continues to get better and better! She puts her heart and soul into writing. She is a great blogger. I am so proud of her! So with that, I turn my blog over to Emily………..

OK!!!! That was unexpected. I was just reading what Mrs.Davis was typing and then BOOM!!! She hands her blog to me. Well, I’m absolutely flattered. One day I’m a regular blogger, but the next day, I’m a guest blogger on a blog!!!

This webloging group has showed me many opportunities. I have tought some other kids with my writing, which has been one of my dreams for a while. I have also learned from other webloggers. One main point I have learned from others is to always copy your writing before you post. Very, very helpful at times. Writing has shown me a career I am now considering to become(when I’m older). I can become a journalist! Now I know that journalism can be fun, exciting, and even exhillerating, not just boring.

All you people out there who say that elementry students can’t blog……You Are SO Wrong!!! Look what it’s done for me. It has taught me so much, while letting me have my voice shown across the web. I have been blogging for 2 years now and I haven’t had a problem yet. Each time I post a blog entry, I feel like I’m on Cloud 9. It feels like I just got elected for the first women president! It feels like I just gained a million really close friends! Get what I’m saying? It’s like your favorite thing, times 1000!!! Without blogging, I don’t know what I would do. Again, elementry students CAN BLOG!!!!!

I wondering who’s going to read this…..Oh well. Blog to ya later!

Well done, Emily! Well done! As Emily says, blog to ya later!