When blogging is MY project

I admitted to some confusion or lack of ability to organize my thinking on project based learning in my last post. Then it suddenly hit me. I am in the middle of my own project!

When I attended the blogging workshop at the beginning of the summer, I started a blog in class. The title I gave to the blog, Book Curious, suggested one focus (books) and I envisioned one audience (students). But another assignment that day was to write our first post - "About Me." As we were presenting our blogs to the class, I realized that I had addressed a completely different audience (teachers) in my post (1).

After the training, I thought about the blog I had created, and realized that I had more to say than the original focus of my blog. I decided to create a second blog at home, which would focus on technology and education issues, and be directed at teachers. I revised the book blog to reflect it's clearer focus. (2)

I began to think about what I should write. I realized that the blogging workshop had some really great ideas, ones that I would like to use in class this year. But I also am working towards more lesson planning with the other 7th grade English teacher, who had not attended the training. SHE was attending other trainings this summer that I couldn't. What we needed was to share information. And suddenly I had ideas and a purpose for writing - at least on the teacher blog. (3)

I decided to blog, at least to begin with, about the trainings that I was attending over the summer break. It would combine some how-to entries, some links to further information, and some notes and reflections to remember the training. (4)

With my first entry, I realized that I wanted to include a graphic showing a web page, and identifying portions of it. I emailed a technology teacher, who told me how to make a screen capture, how to open it in Powerpoint, label it and draw shapes, and export it as a .jpg file, which I added to my post. (5)

Subsequent posts taught me that graphics help relieve the eye after so much text. I embedded videos, photos, and a slideshow. Many of the images I included did not load in a way that I thought was pleasing visually. So I checked the HTML code, found the image size measurements, and made changes. But I didn't want to distort the image, so I had to increase or decrease the measurements in the same proportion. (6)

Although it doesn't always seem like it, I learned to revise for grammar, spelling, and length (yes, some of these posts were longer.) I researched sites that I was recommending. I prioritized writing ideas, set goals, set (and broke, I admit) deadlines for completion. (7)

How would I feel if my students did this?

Are you kidding me?

Look what I've accomplished:

(1) completed class assignments, evaluated product, identified strengths and weaknesses.

(2) devised a solution for biggest weakness (lack of focus), identified audiences and purposes for writing two blogs, independent practice of skills taught in class to create second blog, edited first for focus

(3) established purpose and ideas for writing, researched information analyzed notes for instructions and resources

(4) explored different forms of writing, according to subject matter covered, analyzed notes for instructions and resources

(5) identified problem/need, researched solution, self-taught new skills (Synthesis level of Bloom's includes integrating training from several sources to solve a problem) - not to mention collaboration and reading of practical, instructional text

(6) still evaluating, assessing effectiveness, now I'm crossing curriculum to math (I've already asked the 7th grade math teacher when and how she teaches proportions, thinking I can use it in a blog lesson at the same time of the year)

(7) revised for content, usage, and mechanics. Published and sought (some) peer review.

I wrote this a couple of days ago, and was actually thinking of erasing it. It seemed so obvious both that I had done these things, and that they had educational value, especially if I can get students to do some or all of them, too.

But I'm going to go ahead and publish it, exactly because it wasn't obvious to me, especially while I was doing it. I did exactly what I would pray my students would do, with no requirements or trainer-given assignments other than the first two. I did it, determined what and when and how and how much. It became relevant to me, and truthfully very rewarding.

Now, I'm an intrinsically motivated person who loves learning so much that I would probably engage in a lesson on mold growth. I love it. I'll have students who don't. But if I could get 5-10 to do just half as much, and share it with their classmates, then I could see some very exciting things start to happen in my classroom.

What is your "project?" Did you ever think of turning it into a student project?

When learning is a project

If you've recovered from the clip of Matt Damon, let's get back to my summer workshops (if you haven't recovered, you have my permission to revisit the video and hit Replay as often as you feel necessary. As they say in some workshops, "Pull your own happiness wagon.")

The next workshop I attended was Connecting Students with Project Based Learning, again taught by the lovely and accomplished Oretha F. Here is the workshop wiki that she used (lots of good links, as always) and a little video she started us off with.



I have some intermittent notes, that I will share along with highlights from the wiki. The video above emphasizes three things in project based learning: critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. I'll give you another number to remember: two. The biggest keys to true project based learning are Choice and Time. "When your students' projects all look alike (all posters, all reports, or all powerpoints), then it's not true project based learning. It doesn't include the deep thinking involved in choice."

Of course, there were some questions - like how do you keep your sanity as a teacher when students are truly given choice? How do you manage a classroom and maintain control? I'm not sure we had comprehensive answers for that, but some thoughts might be that you change your definition of control. You establish rubrics, not just for what a finished product will look like, but also for time to complete stages of projects, for what content is important and what learning you (the teacher) need to see.

The article "Why Teach with Project Based Learning?" from Edutopia is an introduction to several articles and videos that they have on their site. It includes a 9:00 minute video that was interesting, but I found frustrating at times (it suggested dropping standards - not an option I'm given - and it concentrated heavily on science). But there was especially one paragraph that I liked.

Because students are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on the comparatively narrow rubrics defined by exams, essays, and written reports, assessment of project-based work is often more meaningful to them. They quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life issues -- and may even be inspired to pursue a career or engage in activism that relates to the project they developed. [italics added]

The idea of activism, of participating in the wider community, of developing a sense of social justice and involvement is one that has been recurring to me for a few months. I think this is a good way to engage students in an English class. They see my class as "boring" and just reading, writing, grammar. I think that the key - relevance - is found in how we use this area of study in the real world. And that all boils down to communication. I hope to explore that in class this year.

An example we were put through - Oretha gave us a "quiz" (like an anticipation guide) on child labor. After about 3 questions, and revealing the answers (without discussion), students could be given informational texts on sweatshops, child labor, child soldiers, child marriage.... They can also be shown images (we were shown this one of a child soldier) and engage in a Write Around (conversations on paper - one person writes their own thoughts for a period of time, then passes to next person in group. Read theirs, and comment or repeat your thoughts. Students really look forward to getting their papers back and reading others thoughts.) Now, what did you do? You just tricked a bunch of students into reading informational text with interest, thinking about it critically (in order to evaluate it, summarize, or assimilate it into new arguments) and write persuasively. That's a good day's work!

Anyway, there's lots to explore at Edutopia. Look around.

From notes:

"Applying technologies of our daily lives...."
Implications of this:
* Students will need technology skills
* Students will be expected to solve real world tasks with tech tools
* Technology will be the "toolbox" for project based learning
* Students will be evaluated on what they can do as well as what they know

There was a powerpoint with information that I made a note to try to get. It concerned the new Common Core Standards, but I believe they were in technology, not Language Arts. See, I'm used to the older thinking of keeping standards separate. But if I'm correct, the new standards are much more cross-curricular, with literacy standards in history and science, and possibly vice-versa. I need to get up-to-date, because I think it's a brilliant concept.

Most of the rest of my notes are comments on links we saw. We also spent some time looking at projects that she had with her from classes (newsletters, brochures, and especially the collages - that she modeled for students with a simple 2 row set of pictures, and they outdid her with complex, beautiful digital creations, all about books). Here are highlights (may be on the wiki, may not):

Technology and Common Core - link to a wiki for another workshop that she is teaching. I thought it might have the powerpoint that I mentioned above. On quick investigation I didn't see it, but saw other things to explore.

Project Based Learning for the 21st Century - the Buck Institute for Education, with lots of examples, videos, etc.



Designing Your Project is a planning site that will lead you through the steps of planning a project based lesson. The first step? Begin with the end in mind.

DoSomething.org - a social activism site with videos, news, and projects (not necessarily classroom ones). The description says, "Using the power of online to get teens to do good stuff offline."


Outta Ray's Head is a lesson plan collection. It started with one teacher, but has had many contributors add to it. His goal was that "lessons would be complete with a rationale for why I used them, and the handouts and evaluations" rather than just general descriptions. Some good projects under literature and poetry.

ReadWriteThink is an excellent resource, a joint project of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Explore to your heart's content from the main page, but here is an example of a project that uses adjectives to explore character traits, and another project that allows students to create social network-style profile pages (like for a literary character).

That's the notes, and links that I wanted to remember to explore. The truth is, this is such a vast topic that I still end up leaving a training a little confused. No, maybe confused isn't the right adjective, maybe it's overwhelmed. There are so many options and things to consider that it is hard to say immediately, "Aha! THIS is how I'm going to use this." We spent the afternoon, however, working on lesson planning, and I came a bit closer to a beginning of the year project that I have wanted to do for a while now. If I get it into shape, I'll post it here.

I'll leave you with this final question: How can technology support teaching and learning in your class today? If you can't clearly answer that question, then don't use it.

Then someone comes along and says it better....

To see him deliver a speech at the national Save Our Schools rally, click here.

Re-grounding myself in the why

I've actually debated whether or not to write this post, first because it is a departure from our training theme (Heavens, no! Not that!), and second because it just almost hurts to think of all this. It makes me tired, discouraged, sad. But we (teachers) are thinking of it anyway. We can't avoid it, really. So it's got to help to say it out loud. Right?

I'm deciding whether or not to see Waiting for Superman. That shouldn't be hard, just a yes or no decision. I'm curious about it - it's gotten so much attention. But I know that at least part of it is going to upset me, make me really mad, and maybe even give me a depressing sense of futility (about how my profession is perceived, not about students). And I'm asking myself if I want to go through that?

I'm not sure you realize, if you aren't a teacher, how much is being said and printed and recorded that is, at best, rationally critical, and at worst downright persecutorial about teachers and their failure in the American education system. I say American, because that's the system I know, but I recently asked a fellow blogger in Scotland if he feels a similar censure and he readily admitted it.

One teacher expressed it in some remarks he prepared for a panel discussion in California about the series of articles run by the L.A. Times** last year. He called what's happening lately an all-out media war on public schools and especially teachers. And it seems to grind on and on. The L.A. Times and Superman were last year, but my Yahoo news page keeps popping up headlines. In a 48 hour period this week, one news blog ran 10 news stories, 5 of them negative stories about education. Here's the sample:

A story about a teacher who anonymously blogged her uncensored thoughts about student attitudes last year.

A report that says that education (college) is basically futile for immigration students who can't use it to find better jobs anyway.

A poll that shows Americans' lack of confidence in public education.

A story examining teacher motivation in a couple of nationally reported scandals about cheating on state exams - yes, that's teachers (and administrators) cheating, not students. Be sure and check the link in the beginning of the story to the Atlanta scandal.

An article showing that school policies to curb violence and bad behavior in schools aren't working.

Click on these only if you want to read the articles. Because I've finally come to some conclusions about something.

I can feel as bad as I choose to feel about all this. There is plenty of legitimate bad news, and lots more blamecasters and naysayers that will weigh in, just because they can. It is bad.

But it's also good. Really good. There are lots of good teachers out there (yes, even in public schools), doing strong and exciting things. Most of these articles are chasing data that measures what we have done, sometimes not all that recently. Teachers know that things are changing so quickly now, in the world and in our classrooms, that we are already facing issues that the media won't be reporting on for another decade. Like how well we start transitioning to teaching a 21st Century understanding of literacy. Or how collaboration in the classroom may be the skill that is most needed by students for future professional success - and teaching it or measuring it will be a challenge.

The difference in how I feel will be what I choose to concentrate on. I believe I need to be aware of what is being said and what are the debates. But for me, spending too much time with it is like looking through a telescope - I focus in on one aspect (and the negative is easiest) without remembering to look at others.

So my reading must include articles like these, shared by our district's literacy coach:

Teaching Secrets: Managing October Exhaustion This article acknowledges that we all "hit a wall" at times, and has some really good suggestions for rejuvenating ourselves. I don't do all of these, but even just reading them makes me feel better. [and I owe this article for the title of my post today.]

How Teachers Fail -- and Thrive I read this in a workshop when I was struggling with just this issue - facing the failures that are an inevitable part of teaching. I was so relieved that I wasn't alone in feeling this.

Add to this reading about the things I want to teach, and new and better ways to teach them, and my reading plate is pretty full. The positive, more optimistic writers keep me going, while the critical stories make me want to go back to bed. Since that isn't an option, I guess I need to concentrate on reading the former.

One last thing. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about why I am a teacher. I'm 4 years into a mid-life career change, without the comfort of feeling like I have mastered the game. I don't feel that I'm an "A" teacher (yet). I was always an "A" student, so this is unsettling. Why, then, am I still so committed, so engaged; why do I love teaching?

You know what I've come up with? It's a little weird. I want to be a producer. I want to produce something, a service, a lesson, that I give directly to the consumer, to borrow some social science terms. I've read about how popular and marketable degrees in business are, and I've thought about people I know who join large businesses as some kind of middle management. What do they do? I'm not trying to offend anyone, I'm just saying that what their work consists of doesn't seem to be anything that I would feel reward in doing. I can't fathom working for something like the stock market, where little pieces of paper (sorry, data) may be money, sort of, some day, in an abstract kind of way. What good does that do? Do they know the faces (or even the siblings) of the people they affect in the world?

I do.

I may not know all the ultimate outcomes, good or bad, of my teaching. But for those 10 months, we have a direct exchange, my students and I. I know the value of what I'm trying to pass to them. They show me varying degrees of appreciation or respect. It is direct, rewarding, and relevant to my life and theirs.

Hmm. Relevance. That's a word that we get hit with a lot in teaching. We're told that it is vital that we make lessons relevant for students. I guess that's also a real-world measure. I love teaching because it has relevance for my life and for me. Other jobs wouldn't, or not in the same way.

So Superman will have to wait (pardon the pun). Right now I just don't want to go there. I want to concentrate, as I have been for a couple of weeks, on the students I'm going to meet in 2 weeks, and how I'm so excited about new things I want to do in class (like student blogging, and iPad lessons).

________________

**I chose one link, hopefully a fairly balanced one, that gave a quick summary of the L.A. Times series. But the series was big, and the response was massive. If you don't know about it, and want to, Google "L.A. Times," "value-added," and "teacher" and you'll get pages of articles, some supporting the paper's choices, some arguing, some ridiculing. And the comments are a revelation.

But can I take it with me?

As I worked on the last few posts, I would occasionally grab my iPad2 (summertime's new toy) and either try to continue working on it, or just surf around and want to look up something that I remembered. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. This, plus some well-placed advertisements on the websites I was visiting, made me aware that not everything works on tablet or mobile phone devices. ruh-roh

Our school, my department actually, has just gotten a classroom set of iPads to use with students. That was one reason I got my new toy, so that I could prepare lessons with it (you believe that, right?). Since my phone is 5 years old, and my son owns the iPod Touch, the iPad is the only mobile device I could check. But check I did.

In Blogger, I discovered that I could read my blogs, even watch videos and surf links with it. But posting was another story. Either the cursor or the keyboard doesn't like to show up in the post box. I found many, many frustrated questions about this in the Help forum, and the consensus was that Blogger, being a Google product, does not like to make apps for products of its rival, Apple. I don't have an Android OS phone to check this, but if it is going to work at all, my guess is that it will only work there. Another, smaller, complaint was the appearance. I have 2 blogs. The one I designed using a Blogger template shows up better (the background photo is replaced by a simple, complimentary-colored background). The blog I added a custom background image to looked awful. It was smaller and tiled in a strange way, scrolled with the page, so you saw lots of fractured images, instead of a background. Minimally functional, but pretty ugly.

For the mind-mapping software, we have 2 yeas, and 2 nays. Cacoo diagrams can be viewed on the iPad, but not edited, because editing takes Adobe Flash Player, something the iPad doesn't support. Bubbl.us cannot even be viewed, for this same reason. I'm not sure if this is a failing for them, or for the iPad. Many before me have commented that it should run Flash.

Mindmeister and Popplet both have iPad apps. Mindmeister has a free iPhone/iPod Touch app (that says it runs on iPad), and a $7.99 paid app - ouch! - one of the most expensive I've seen. Popplet has Popplet Lite (free) and a paid app for $4.99. To quote the write up in the App Store, "Popplet Lite will be free forever, but is limited to just one Popplet." They also caution that you cannot transfer a Popplet saved in the free version to your paid app. But this shouldn't be a big problem, because it is free forever. I guess it might not have some of the export options, though. Without the app, the website doesn't work because it, too, uses Flash Player.

But let's end on a happy note. Protopage comes up in Safari on the iPad just fine, with the RSS readers all working away. This is good to know, since it can still be used as a student start page whether on desktop, laptop, netbook, or iPad.

Brilliant!

Classroom websites using Protopage

I must confess to some past and current confusion on the subject of classroom webpages. When I started teaching, the first website service that I heard talked about within the district was PBWorks (formerly PBWiki). Wiki pages were being used both in my PD sessions, and by my instructors for their own classrooms. Then, within a year, I started hearing about teacher training for the 1:1 netbooks, and the teachers were using Protopages. Soon after that, I heard about Moodle, and that was just sooo much better than wikis or protopages. Moodle was where it was at.

I waited to see what was going to be next.

I'm still waiting, but I also realize that I don't know enough about any one of them, and I"m never going to if I don't start using them myself. I re-arranged my schedule to take classes on Protopage and PBWorks this summer. I opted not to take the 2-day Moodle training at this time. I figured I needed to know the ins and outs of the simpler systems before I tried Moodle, which I understand to be more feature rich, but also to have a steeper learning curve.

I'm taking things at my own pace.

[And I won't even go into the thought that everything I've learned about blogging means they, too, can make great class webpages.]

Here's something I didn't know about Protopage. It is set up as an RSS reader service. This allows you to get automatically updated information from many different sources, and Protopage has done a lot of the technical work for you. All you do is set up a page and start adding widgets.

Tips for Creating a Protopage

Protopage has its own minimal Welcome protopage, with some instructions for customizing your page, if you like. You can also click on the Help/Support tab at the top right of the page (once you have one) and it will click through a set of Basic and Advanced slides to teach you about different features. Pretty straight forward.

What confuses me is exactly how other teachers are using their protopages, because I certainly didn't see the RSS Reader function being a big selling point for classroom teachers. And I don't think it is. I think the linking, bookmarking and image posting is most helpful, with the Tabs feature helping you divide functions, assignments, categories, etc. But the sticky note feature also seems to be incredibly powerful with students, using it as a message board for students to post their notes and read others'.

I guess it goes back to what it says on the logo. A classroom protopage, properly named, could be a great Start page for your class, a portal to all your online endeavors, like blogs, wikis, webquests, bookmarks, email services, other classrooms, just about anything. This image will give you an idea of some uses (if you need it bigger, click on it, and use View/Zoom In on your browser).

This is Oretha's homepage. Yes, she does have a 1:1 classroom, and I can see how posting daily assignments would work, especially if you have the protopage set as the homepage in each netbook browser. Students would just open the browser and get to work. If you look around, she has a tab for a Technology Survey (that page has links for each of her classes to take an online survey she created in Survey Monkey). She also has a window that shows her wiki page (she has both). On her wiki she posts classwork and homework assignments (updated daily) and can upload documents and files that students can download. I haven't seen a file-sharing feature in Protopage - or Blogger for that matter - yet.

Other examples:

An elementary teacher with a lot of information and links.

Here is a site for a school director of Math and Science. Talk about a lot of resources all in one place.

Protopage seems like a website that you can customize over time; easily deleting expired daily items, but building a vast library of resources over years.

One thing that came up in class - you have to log in to make changes to a protopage, but once logged in, you can change anything on it. If you are interested in getting kids to participate, it might be best to have a teacher/master protopage that YOU create and control, then a separate protopage for each of your classes that has a log in that can be shared. You could put a link to that page on your master site. This would allow students to post sticky notes (that they can label with their first names) and comment on a discussion, without allowing them to delete all your hard work. And a page for each class doesn't require students to register separately. If not by class, you might set up a page by project.

It's not a comprehensive post about protopages, because my understanding is still limited. I don't yet know what I'm going to put on mine. But if you check back in the fall, I'm sure I'll have something.

Why would I want to map my mind?

The next workshop I attended was "Let Me Map That for You (Beginners)" and introduced me to 4 free mind/concept mapping tools that are on the internet. I had fun following the directions and completing diagrams, but I must confess to still being a little confused on how I would use it in class. Oretha had a few suggestions, and I'm sure I will find others (there was one that she claimed was especially good for helping students pre-plan their writing. ??? They do that?) I think I will try to work some of this in at least once this year, then see where it goes from there.

This will not be step-by-step instruction, like the blogging post was. You can sign on, play around, look at the help or tutorial offerings. If you have done any work in layout or design software you will recognize several elements - objects, stencils, drawing and grouping tools. Don't forget the Send Forward or Send Backward functions for layering images and text.

Have fun, and if you come up with a really good lesson, please share!

Cacoo was perhaps the simplest of the 4 to use. Upper elementary, middle school or junior high students would be appropriate users. Cacoo can be used for idea web-type planning or concept mapping, but is also a simple drawing tool (some of their examples show brainstorming layouts for web design, or drawing an office floor plan). It does allow you to add images.

When you sign up for a free account in Cacoo, your email address becomes your user name. You are allowed to save up to 25 pages/diagrams for free. You can publish them only in PNG format (I'm barely learning what this is - mainly publishes to internet?). Paid memberships have more diagrams and sharing options.

Ah, and that is the really cool feature. The diagrams are sharable, and can even be collaboratively worked on in real time. There is a chat feature that will allow the collaborators to communicate while planning/changing a diagram. I want to try this in class (it might be interesting to try it without seating collaborative groups together) and maybe have them try it as homework. Hmmm.

Here is the diagram I created for class. Yeah, I got a little fancy with it. Sorry.

Bubbl.us is more strictly a hierarchical concept map. It allows you to create a main bubble, then "child" bubbles and "sibling" bubbles. Most of this is created by just clicking, then you can move things around to suit. You can change colors and label connections, but you can't add pictures to these, and you can share as view only. The free account is limited to 3 saved sheets, but as Oretha pointed out, if you have students who each have an email account, they can each have 3 free sheets. And once the diagram is completed, you can save and/or publish an image of it, then delete it and start another.

Like this.

When Oretha told us about Mindmeister, she said the most exciting thing I heard all day. She said this software had really made a difference in her students' pre-planning of their writing (and by extension, their completed writing). This is probably the most complex of the mind mapping tools, and wouldn't work well for elementary children.

You can add images from your computer OR from the web (it takes a little longer, but will give images that work their way through school filtering software). And it can do it almost automatically. Kids will love that.

You can save up to 3 mind maps per account, but again you can publish then delete. This site also allows for sharing and collaborating. It is more complex to learn, but the help menus seem to be fairly extensive and easy to use.

According to Oretha, she used this to help students pre-plan writing, and they would go back and revise the plan before revising the writing. Each node allows you to add either a few words or long sentences. She then showed students how you can equate each level of nodes with a level in a formal outline, and they had an "Aha!" moment. Her students are 10th graders, 3 years older than mine, so I'll have to see if this could have a similar impact on my students or if it is just a little too involved for them yet.

Popplet was the newest site she shared, and I can't find if I created a map or not. So I'll let their welcome video speak for itself.



Popplet seems to be very image heavy and reminds me of another new thing that has been hitting my Facebook wall lately - Pinterest (don't ask, I don't have time for a new web addiction). But it looks fun, easy, and it does have a limited free or unlimited paid app on iTunes.

Popplet allows 5 diagrams for free on the website, maybe only one on the app. I will explore and report back.

This brings up the issue of mobile use of any of these tools. I plan to explore that in a future post.

Just a couple of the ideas that Oretha gave for using these sites in a secondary English class were:

* Map conflicts between characters (internal and external)

* Diagram an effect of setting on plot

* Diagram the plot. Could be done with more detail than a standard graphic organizer. In this case, you are having students make their own.

It was pointed out in class that "drag and drop" is a skill in the new Common Core State Standards (technology?). This site, and the others, can certainly allow practice of that skill.

Go play.

A pause to refresh

I wanted to post something light or inspirational from TeacherTube, to give you (me) a break and also prove that I remember how to embed videos. But I've been reading a blog all day called Just Trying to Be Better Than Yesterday. There was one post that talked about turning curriculum upside down. And somehow that seems to fit this YouTube video. If you are reading from a district computer this will be blocked, but check it out when you get home.

Never stop dreaming extraordinary things.

See what I mean?

No sooner had I closed that post, than I went back to ECNing to do some looking around. I found this post in a discussion on classroom blogging:

Reply by A. Cody
Visit my site: http://mscodysclass.wikispaces.com/
At the bottom of the home page is a link to my blogspot site- it lists tons of resources and ideas for using blogs and wikis.

Resource overload! I clicked on just ONE - 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers - more resources!!!

I read through the list, some I was familiar with, some not, until I came to the very last entry, Making It Interesting: What Would You Add to This Classroom? It wasn't this particular post that grabbed me (well, I did read it). But when I clicked on the blog title, it took me to the most recent posts. This is a math teacher, but he was describing lessons in citizenship and community involvement that blew me away. And suddenly I'm remembering the "Social Justice" focus I put on my instructional focus planning calendar in the spring, wheels start turning.....

I'm wondering if Sarah (my 7th grade counterpart) or our 7th grade Social Studies teachers would be into this?

Teaching Citizenship Part I - The WHY

Teaching Citizenship Part II - Pay It Forward

Teaching Citizenship Part III - 25 Cents a Day

I need some lunch.

Blogging 2.0

There were three important things that I didn't include in the first blogging post, partly because it was already soooo long and covered more than enough for one sitting. Partly because these three are important enough for their own post.

They are:

* Blogging sites/platforms for use in a classroom

* Student email accounts (needed for some of the above platforms)

* Guidelines and/or rubrics for student use of blogs

I'm sure that my post won't be an exhaustive look at these topics, just what I've learned while clicking around and getting more familiar with using blogs to promote student learning.

Blogging Platforms

Blogger		Google's blog platform and the host of this site. Sometimes blocked by FSPS, sometimes not. I'm hoping that it will be approved for use, as I'm sure it will work well with other Google tools. It even has video tutorials!
Gaggle		Provides safe, teacher-controlled email, blogs, message boards, and social “walls," all filtered. This is a paid service, but FSPS has paid for the entire district. All you have to do is take a PD training course. And one of the interesting things: the filters snag on “text language,” so students have to write real words! Bwahahaha!
Edublogs		Education-oriented site. Blogs can be free (with advertising) or a "premium" paid membership is available. This can be accessed on FSPS computers, but Oretha told us that since they have started a paid service, the free accounts can have automatic links created in your posts that take a viewer to sites that you don't control, and they can't be turned off.
Kidblog		While clicking around in the "Explore" area of the class wiki (mentioned in last post), I kept seeing references to this platform. It was created by a teacher in MN, and is set up especially for a simplified blogging experience for elementary and middle school ages. I don't know if it is accessible on district computers, but it looks like it would be a good addition.

There are many others. Some of the ones I see most are: Edmodo and 21classes, which are designed specifically for classroom use, and Wordpress or Live Journal (where I follow a YA author), which are more mainstream and therefore probably blocked on our district computers. This may be worth looking at in the future, because many bloggers seem to like some of the features of Wordpress (and their layouts), and educators have started talking about a newer feature called Buddypress, which allows for more shared spaces and conversations. If you like, you can explore these and other options. You might want to look at this page, which lists lots of collaborative online tools for class. The section "Blogs, Wikis, and Social Networks" is about halfway down the page.

Student Email Accounts

Creating individual student accounts in some of the above platforms requires each student have an email account. Your students may already have email accounts, but they may not, or they may be unwilling to share that information with the class. There may be lots of ways around this, but if you would like your students to have email accounts, I have two suggestions.

First, the one I will be using is Gaggle (mentioned above). This is a paid service, but if your district, like mine, has already paid - WHY NOT USE IT?? It offers multiple services and all are strongly filtered (some teachers have complained that it is too strongly filtered, but there can be advantages to that, too). It allows each student to have an email address and, at my discretion, to use other features like individual blogs, social "walls" that allow Facebook-like exchanges, message boards, digital lockers (where students can store work in progress, and continue it in other classes or on home computers) and electronic assignment submissions. In our district, teachers are required to attend a short PD training before their accounts are activated. I finally found time to take it this summer, and I'm glad that I did. I think I can use this immediately in my classes.

But if Gaggle is not an option for you at this time, you can set up dummy email accounts in Gmail. One caveat: Do NOT use your school email address for this. It can put a lot of notifications in your inbox and cause you to miss more important messages. Gmail accounts are free, so just set up a new one for yourself or for each of your classes. Then follow the instructions here to set up dummy accounts for each of your students. This will still give you access/control over the student email accounts.

Speaking of control, many teachers might worry about any appropriate use or liability issues with assigning students to create their own email or blog accounts (or other Web 2.0 tools). It's my opinion that if you were to use a mainstream blog platform (like Blogger, here) then you would need to monitor student use of that service pretty regularly. This is one reason that I am excited about using Gaggle this year. Until I know more about all these tools, until I have lesson plans in place and am more comfortable with the digital tasks I will be creating for students, I know I won't have time for extensive monitoring. I will rely on the filtering of Gaggle, along with spot checks (Oretha pointed out that we can use our projectors to show students exactly how easily we can get into their accounts - a little preventive instruction), to keep my students participating in a safe and responsible way. If later I need more features or flexibility, I can adapt from there.

Blog Guidelines and Rubrics

It was pointed out in the training that we may need to teach the students how to write blog posts or responsible comments to others' posts. Our students are experienced in text messaging and social network status updates, not necessarily the kind of writing we want them to create here (not that we need to insist on utter grammatical perfection or five paragraph style, either). I teach 7th graders, and they seem to be just starting to understand that we write, like we speak, in different ways for different situations.

This actually was the basis for the "lesson" that I was trying to create at the end of our blogging workshop. Most of the results (the current version) can be seen if you click on the "Blog Tips" at the top of this page. I'm sure I will be revising this as I need to.

As I read deeper, I have found a group on the English Companion Ning (if you haven't joined - uh, what are you waiting for?). The group is "Using Blogs and Wikis in the English Classroom," and particularly I was reading this post, where I heard such good reports of Kidblog, but also where the discussion veered off to rubrics and grading. One participant attached a document (which I unfortunately cannot do here - but I'll see if I can find a way around it later), but one posted his rubric, and others posted links. Here are the ones that (so far) I liked.

Simple blog rubric that C. Young uses to assess 75-100 blogs. Five criteria (2 points each).

An article K. Wagner wrote for creating a class-tailored blogging rubric.

Another article from C. Fisher that has good information itself, and several further links to explore.

One more article that has some links for rubrics, managing student blogs, etc. Goes into the arguments against grading.

I've found that this is the most endless reading that I've done on blogging yet, since each link or article that I follow leads to even more. Rather than list them endlessly, I invite you to surf around yourself.

Whew! These last two posts have worn me out. Look for something shorter in posts to come. While this is all good information, it is still summer break!

Blogging to teach

All of this information came from "Learning to Blog, Blogging to Learn" taught by Oretha F. at Southside. It was held the very first day of summer break, and already I have spent more time reflecting on it, looking up additional resources, and creating two new blogs for class than I ever spent on any summertime project ever. So I guess it was a very effective class. Have no fear, I'm going to share it here. :)

I can already tell this may be a LONG post, so here is a summary:
* Exploring why you would want to use a blog and how it can be an effective classroom tool.
* How to create a blog on Google Blogger (which is similar to most other blog platforms).
* Ideas for setting up lesson plans using blogs.
* Thoughts and additional info about all of the above.

The amazing thing is that I am going to do this all using (mostly) one website! Oretha's lesson was set up as a self-paced learning experience, and I have her permission to share the wiki for the class. I think sharing this wiki is a great way not only to share the learning about blogs (and there are plenty of links that can enrich your learning - I know, I've been clicking on them for several days), but also to show how you can use a wiki to structure a lesson for students (just remember, in this one, you are the student).

First thing, before class, when teachers were signing in, Oretha had a pre-assignment for reading blogs or about them. I, as usual, didn't arrive until just time for class, but was so glad I could check these out at home.

The workshop wiki is found here.

From the front page you see the 3 essential questions, the three objectives/tasks, and a TeacherTube video (which may not load well - come back to it if you want). That's all, clear and simple (remember, this is a model that you can use with students. Keep it simple and uncluttered, to help them focus).

On the right-hand side, under the heading "Sidebar," you will see a Home button and three others, corresponding to the three objectives. You just click on the first one, Explore, and follow the directions. We had time limits on our agenda to keep us moving forward, but otherwise were allowed to select, skim, or read more deeply from a list of articles, as we wanted. I'm intrigued by the idea of what a 7th grader would do with a similar choice. But I also loved that I could go on with the assignment and look up more info later (I always struggle with ideas for enrichment, and here is a brilliant solution).

When you get to the 2nd objective, Create, please take the time to look at the planning hints that are given. It helps you and your students to have a common theme or title. It makea all your web tools easier to remember and find. How many of you have started something at a training and then forgotten the URL or sign-in information? Use a theme that you know you will remember, or alliteration (your name and another word that starts with the same letter). Use something that will help students remember where to find you, and use it consistently. I didn't take this advice, and now have a wiki and a protopage and a blog with different themes/titles. Think about it before you sign up. Once you have entered a URL (check availability before submitting!!!), you will not be able to change it. You can change the passwords, blog titles, and almost everything else, but that URL is yours for good. Another good reason to double check spelling. :)

By the way, if your brilliant idea for a url/theme is taken, just add a little something to make it unique, like your school initials or separating the words with a hyphen or using a text abbreviation like 2 or U. Remember, the goal is to find something easy for you and students to remember.

For Design, the third objective, you won't need to create a poster or give a presentation, but notice how the wiki combines individual and group work with whole group presentation. This kind of lesson excites me, and I want to do more like it in my classroom. I wasn't as excited by the lesson plan forms - I'm still looking for one that I like.

There are also a couple of other links on the sidebar and even down in the "credit" that I clicked and explored. That is the nature of Internet communication, surfing from one place to another to another and another, finding connections we don't expect.

You may have noticed that the first 3 bullets on my summary above pretty much match those 3 objectives on the wiki. If you want to know about those, I challenge you to use the wiki to teach yourself. You can do it, just like we did in class. But I'll be happy to help, if you need me. Just email or post a comment here.

There were some additional things we discussed in class, as well. We talked about various uses for a blog. Maybe you want to create a blog just as a one-way communication tool between you and your students/parents. You don't have to enable the comments feature. You can just TELL. You could also post links to online articles or embed photos or videos that extend your assignments. Students seem to be willing to explore information online that they avoid in a textbook, especially if the digital information has movement or sound. We're all a little ADD, I guess.

Or you might want to post discussion questions and allow/assign students to comment to that post. If you have clicked around on the Explore page above, you will find examples of teachers who use this tool in class. Doing this may require you to sign the students in somehow, either by letting each of them sign up for Blogger accounts (must have their own individual email accounts to do this) or by creating a class account and sharing the sign-in and password (which might give them too much ability to change things you don't want changed). Look around, see what other teachers are doing, and copy what you like.

Students may require some guidelines for posting comments, or a rubric for grading their comments. I think there are some examples in the many links on the wiki, but I will also share some I have found in a later post.

Blogger has been blocked and unblocked by the district. Oretha has started the process of requesting that it remain unblocked. I feel confident enough of her success that I am (obviously) using Blogger for the two blogs I created for class - including this one. Should the district not unblock it, there are other options that are still available. Maybe I'll save that for my next post, too.

After all, you're supposed to be exploring that wiki! What are you doing still reading this?

About...

About Me:

Summary - I'm crazy

I'm a teacher. I teach 7th grade English/Language Arts in a junior high in middle America. I am also a career changer. After working for 12+ years and being a stay-at-home mother for 7 years, I chose to do this.

I spend my days trying to convince 12-14 year olds that language is rich, beautiful, structured, and worth knowing. I encourage reading with an evangelical zeal that they find hilarious, but sometimes might pay attention to, in spite of themselves. And I ask them, plead with them, threaten them, cajole them, and otherwise manipulate them to write. Then I attempt to wade through it, assess where they are, and take them just that one step farther. Anyone who has ever tried this knows what I'm talking about. See Summary, above.

About the Blog:

This blog is part of my expanding technology repertoire. Another blogger described it as a digital desk, a place where I can collect ideas and resources to share, mostly with other teachers, but perhaps with students or parents. These resources might be technology, teaching techniques, current issues, or instructional requirements (for example, our school will begin implementing Common Core Standards in one year, so I will surely share some of the process of the transition here). If I'm learning it or teaching it, it might show up on this blog.

I plan to start by documenting the tools I learn this summer. That way, I have a ready online resource that I can find my "notes" and reflections about how I want to use what I've learned. I can also share it with my colleagues who didn't get to attend, maybe work on a little collaborative lesson planning with my 7th grade counterpart. I've always struggled with implementing the ideas that I get from workshops or other teachers, mostly because I don't take the time (or have a designated place) to go over my notes, the examples, to perhaps take the lesson further by doing online research or writing a sample lesson plan. I can do that here. I hope that I will.

And I couldn't make it easy. I had to start two blogs at once, because I want to share lots about books, about reading, and about finding your way as a reader in a digital world. I will do that at Book Curious.

Check back. I'm just getting started.