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?