EduBlog Insights

Over at Blogical Minds Mrs. C is trying out a new way to foster better proofreading by the students. The teacher prepared podcasts of their stories as written and posted this on the class blog:

I see your writing as a good start because you have your preliminary ideas on the blog. Now we need to do an initial proofing of your stories. This is something we need to talk about a bit. If you are proof-reading with only your eyes your writing may seem to flow and be OK. I think many times we read it as we are thinking it should sound and don’t always catch errors. What do you think? Sometimes those little bumps and hurdles that the eye does not catch can show up when you proof by reading aloud and listening. Let’s have a little fun today. I am going to do a podcast of each one of your stories. Then you will listen and we’ll all give feedback on this process.

Questions to think about:

• Does my story flow?
• Does it make sense?
• Is it sounding like I thought I had written it?
• Is reading aloud a good way to proof my work?
• Would I have read it the same way?
• Can punctuation help? How?
• Did misspellings change my meanings? How can I look out for that?

The students are on Thanksgiving break now but I look forward to seeing how this works out when they return. Next time the students can make the podcasts. What do you think? Any other proofreading techniques you’ve used that you’d like to share?

Since I can’t have the elementary students browsing through Flickr I figured out how to overcome that obstacle. I took Flickr to them through a PBWiki called Just Imagine!

Christine helped me by graciously allowing me to use her Flickr photos in this way. Now bear in mind that I could not give her credit on the wiki because that link would provide entry to Flickr. Now I still believe that elementary students can be taught responsible use of services such as Flickr but I don’t choose to put my energies into that battle just yet. I have students who have places to go, blogging to do, and many exciting things to learn. So I want to give credit to Christine for letting me use her wonderful Flickr photographs on the wiki. We had a grand impromptu lesson today. I shared this in an email to Christine.  I’ll share that part with you:

I love your pictures and it was so much fun browsing through the wiki
today with the students. Ooooohs and ahhhhhhs for all I think except the
mushrooms - dead silence for a moment there.  I wish you could have seen
their faces. The assignment for today was as listed on the wiki. They
are to be creative and simply write a story. I had them choose a photo
number - first come, first serve. The teachers were enchanted with the
pictures. I told the children that I had a good friend from Scotland who
was letting me use these pictures in this manner. I then asked if they
knew where Scotland was located. One lad raised his hand and said in
Asia. I shuddered but not visibly. I had two up at the globe and our
world map and finally they located Scotland and I asked them to give me
more info - one said it’s in London. Another invisible shudder from me.
My, some days I know my work is cut out for me but we had fun and they
finally got to the fact that it was part of the UK. I do love this type
of learning because they will remember the moment today - your pictures
sparked an interest and I will follow up with more info for them.
Perhaps we can extend on this learning later after they do some writing.
I see lots of possiblities here but first will see how they do with the
first writing. They will bring either jot notes or something written to
blog about in class next week. They have that choice. They will insert
their picture to go with their creative writing. I also asked them if
they could make any connections to what they are currently learning
(from the photo). That’s a leap they are not ready for yet but I am
planting seeds. 

Next week the students will be writing their stories. I can’t wait to see them. Remember that I am Mrs. C on that blog. If you want to see what they’ve been up to head over to Blogical Minds and leave a comment or two.

Just imagine what we can accomplish when we put our minds to it. Remember, turn those obstacles into opportunities! Small victories can grow into big ones!

If you want to see a very good student blog from the College of William and Mary just head over to Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach. Rachel will be graduating in the Spring of 2007 and she has viewed many edublogger’s sites. Her post about the Oregon Trail brought back some memories of my beginning days in technology with the kids. I taught a summer enrichment program and Oregon Trail was a big hit then!

The Jeopardy games are great fun too. My students would each create their own questions in Inspiration using the note feature and then the calculator to keep score. They tried to devise the best questions for their classmates to try out. It’s good to think back and then see now and where we are and then project ahead. Wow! It’s fun to imagine. It is a joy to view through the eyes of an emerging teacher. She talks about planning for the unexpected. I’ve always thought that the one with the most flexibility is the one in control and is able to use those unexpected moments and make the most of the opportunities they bring. I can tell Rachel is going to be one of those flexible teachers. Isn’t it great to see our student teachers blogging?

The professor I’ve been working with who has just started using blogs with her students this semester poses the following question on Bridging Literacies:

I would like to invite the readers of this blog to join us in defining the kinds of literacy and writing expected from teacher educators and their students on educational, as opposed to personal, blogs. What kind of writing and social practices should educational blogs model to teacher and student bloggers?

Read her entire post here. She is exploring the world of blogs and is seeking to have responsible, thoughtful blogging with her students on course content .  If you have a moment, share your thoughts with her.

I have not been blogging a lot lately. I have a reason for that. I am embarking on a new blogging project with elementary students. I am so excited because I have the opportunity to be part of a year long research project that involves blogging. I have been working, literally night and day on this project.I couldn’t be more thrilled. However, I find myself in a totally new arena and it’s an arena that has parameters and issues that I have not previously had to consider. My dilemma has been what can I say, what can’t I say? Not being sure, I just said nothing but I have missed the blogging. I have so many thoughts but have been totally unable to share and get input back from our “great” edublogging community. To make this project authentic I have to blog about it. That’s a big part of what makes blogging work for us and the kids. The blogging keeps me going, keeps me learning and is part of the process I need to do a good job. This give and take helps the students. Some things I will be able to post about, some things will have to wait until later. I am in a learning mode and ask for your understanding as I proceed.
I can point you to the class blog. It’s called Blogical Minds. Student blogs will be up in a couple of weeks. They are on the class blog now but not active yet as we are laying some groundwork first. The blogicians will be entering our wonderful community. Psedonyms will be used by the students and the teachers. The school will not be named. Part of making the project truly authentic is for me to be myself and proceed with the discussions so that those of you who wish to comment can do so, both on the class blogs and the student blogs. I hope many of you will comment to the students and have your students enter the discussions.I need your help in one very important area and that is in the privacy part. If you comment and or refer to the students or me about anything on the blogs please refer to me as Teacher C. Do not use my name. Some things I will be able to blog freely about, others I need to wait and at this point I am not really sure just what those things will be.
What is really of interest here is how things are changing and how we have to change as a result. This covers many more areas than just our classrooms. I’ll post more about that later. I just wanted to invite your participation. Please remember not to use my real name on those blogs and know I will be looking forward to your input. Feel free to email me if you are unsure about anything that would involve your participation. (adavis(AT)gsu(dot)com)

I have been involved in a lot of exciting projects, pending proposals and blogging creations and just have been unable to blog.  It has been a non-stop process full of many twists and turns. The twists and turns have been challenging as well as rewarding because the learning and creating is on full speed. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before I can get back in the school with students and proceed with the next blogging project. It’s funny how you feel a part of you is missing when you are sidetracked from blogging.

I am so excited about this emerging blogging community. I had previously posted A special welcome to EDLA 7550 Class Members. The students blogs are now listed on the sidebar on the class blog, EDLA 7550. So, please take a few  moments  to comment and give these new bloggers a  very warm welcome! If you didn’t look carefully at Bridging Literacies, do so now. It’s a must read. It is the professor’s blog and it is outstanding. This professor has done her homework. Be sure to give her a warm welcome, too!

I want to welcome you to the world of educational blogging. You are about to enter a journey that will take your learning to new heights. I am so impressed with your professor’s blog, Bridging Literacies. The objectives she has listed on her welcome post are excellent. I have to admit though that this one filled me with delight:

To model to our students meaningful, respectful, and thought-provoking collaborative learning with modern technology tools;

Now I know that you are on the path to becoming a teacher and may not have given a lot of thought to the importance of modeling for your students but you have a wonderful opportunity here to create a vibrant example of learning for your future students and your future colleagues. You can create a community of learning unlike any you have had before. It is in your hands. I know you will rise to the occasion! It is an opportunity that not many students at the university level get.

I can’t wait to show your blogs to my elementary students. They will be most anxious to comment on your blogs. They are always most interested in what “teachers” and “teachers-to-be” are learning and thinking. I can’t tell you what it means to them to see their learning talked about in respectful and insightful ways by other students who could even one day be their own teacher!

Course educational blogs have distinct purposes. Educational blogging is positive, transformational technology that should not be confused with social sites like Myspace. They serve different purposes. The best educational blogs are rich in ideas and set the stage for active exchanges and critiques.

Your professor has put a great deal of thought into the development of the criteria for your assignment with blogs. This is so commendable and exciting to me. You will be using the power of technology to enable deeper learning. Educational blogs should set an example of learning for others to follow. Your professor is entering new territory herself with her willingness to explore the pedagogical promise in blogging. Join her in making the journey one to celebrate!

You will be writing your thoughts about what you are learning. You will be contributing your ideas. You may provide links that add to the conversations. In turn, your colleagues will be doing the same. You get to reflect about your own thoughts as you pass them through the light of your class members’ postings. Then all of this is open to a much larger community and other readers will join the conversations. Making your thoughts explicit moves the discussion beyond the literal. Blogging leaves a record of the conversations and learners can return to posts to reconsider and improve their own understandings. Blogging can be a powerful tool for discovering and developing meaning. Enjoy the journey!

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.

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!