Miss W. and her Smartboard

Logged in this evening to Twitter and there she was - Sue Waters asking us to write a post or comment about blogging and what it means to us.  She also invited us to join in an Open PD session via Ustream or Skype but this was going to be 7am my time in Tasmania.  I might make it but …….if I don’t, here are some answers to her questions.

Where you blog and how long you have been blogging for?

I have been blogging since January this year.  I have a personal blog which you are reading now but since February I have also been teaching students using a class blog.  A few of them have earned the right to have their own blogs in the last couple of weeks.

Why you blog? How does it benefit you or your work?

I blog about my experiences using Web 2.0 tools which are new to me this year. This includes blogging, smartboards and using wikis.  I have also been using teachertube and as Sue knows I have tried a Skype conversation with a little success. The students are definitely more on task when being allowed to blog, and those students with their own blogs are continuously sending me emails during the evening asking about other things they can add to their blogs or posts.  So far at work, blogging has not had much benefit for other staff as they don’t seem to have the time to do it especially if, as a teacher, you are moderating the students’ blogs.

How blogging has helped your students and how long have you been blogging with students (if applicable)

Blogging has helped the students to improve their written literacy skills and has allowed them to tell their classmates and visitors to their blogs more about the things that interest them out of school hours.

Why you feel blogging is important ?

I feel blogging is important for 21st century students because it can be a safe way to start building a network especially for the tween years and early teens.  As long as the teacher is prepared to put in the effort and keep overall control of the experience, students can gradually be allowed more and more freedom within their blogs.  It is also a way for students to see there is a wider world than just that of the town or state they live in, and that other students around the world have similar interests to them.

What are the 3 most important tips you would share with a new blogger?

Blog for yourself first and get used to writing posts with links.

Read and comment on lots of other blogs - easy way is read comments on Edublogger and Edublogs and visit the blogs of those people - make a comment on their blog and lo and behold they come and visit your blog.

If working with students, be prepared to have a large load in the beginning with a class blog - then as students show they can be responsible internet and blogging users, allow them their own blog but with you or their parents as co-moderators.

Being a virtual newbie to blogging (only started personally in January 2008 and with students February 2008), I wondered how safe was it going to be to introduce blogging to students.  No-one else in my school had done this before so I was virtually “on my own”.

I looked at the Australian Government website about internet safety, ran lessons and activities for the students about being internet savvy digital citizens then finally decided to have a go at blogging with the consent of parents.  I still have a couple of students who have not brought back that form so they can only make comments on our class blog.  They will not be allowed to write posts or have their own blog.

Then I decided to look at some statistics relating to blogging.  How likely was it that someone would find our class blog or my own personal blog? Technorati seemed to have the most up-to-date data I could find.  WOW!! I was going to be one in 70 million blogs around the world. How would someone ever find our blogs?  That’s like trying to find me in three times the population of Australia.  Miss W, where are you?

Thank goodness I had made my blog using edublogs.  At least I was with a group of like minded people with education as their main interest.  I had been blogging for about a week when I wrote a post about “Why has nobody commented?”  Suddenly, bloggers were coming into my blog.  Sue Waters, of the Edublogger fame, had “twittered” about my post.  Now I was being given lots of clues as to how I could build up that network of people who might visit my blog on a regular basis.

I needed to build up a PLN (Personal Learning Network); a group of people who would help answer my queries and guide me in my learning about Web 2.0 technologies that I was using with my students. I joined Classroom 2.0 ning as well as a Smartboard teachers ning.

So back to the main topic: safety in blogging.  Would anyone have found my blog or the class blog if I hadn’t used that network of educationalists who were prepared to share their learning with me?  Maybe we would have been safer just having the other students from our class writing comments.  But the thrill I see in students faces when they realise someone from a grade 8 class in New Zealand has written something in their blog makes it all worthwhile. Blogging is all about writing for an audience and with 21st century students needing to be global students, why should we be limiting them to just their local community?

I made a decision this weekend.  Four students in my class have submitted posts for me to publish; they have written lots of comments in our class blog; they have commented back to students who commented on their posts.  I feel they deserve to have their own blog.

Edublogs has a new create a blog and user function that I thought I would use.  One of those alerts at the top of your dashboard…..  All went well, created their name and blog, email was sent to the students but then I had a problem.

I could get onto their blog by typing in the URL, but then it wouldn’t let me into their site admin.  It kept sending me back to my own personal dashboard.  This happened with all four blogs I had created.  Was it something I had forgotten to do?

I got onto the edublogs blog and made a comment about what had happened and it was recommended that I put the problem with all technical details on the edublogs forum.  I did this and within an hour the problem was solved.

I can now get into the admin side of each student’s blog.  But I think I will leave them as co-administrators until Easter and I will spend this week with them getting their presentation, blogroll and sidebar widgets organized.  Once that is done I will then drop them to editor status so there is less chance of mishaps.  If they want to then make changes they can negotiate a time with me to help them do that.

Nearly two weeks since my last post.  Things at work have been frantic.  Less than a month back at school and we are already talking about our interim reports for after Easter.  What do we have to report on?  Has the Education Department sent us the subjects we HAVE to report on or can we make a school decision?  Oh, no, there are three teachers doing subjects under the heading of ARTS -  will there be a collaborative report or will each write their own?   I usually help organize the mid year and end of year reports but with the changeover to the Tasmanian Curriculum this year, we will need to find out if we can use the same type of report we have used the last few years.  I know I will have to write about Literacy/English which also includes LOTE, Numeracy/Math, History and Health and Well Being which is part of our Social Skills program.  Two subjects, though, must be assessed in all other areas and these are ICT and thinking.  I wonder how some of the teachers will do this? 

 I haven’t had time to make comments in other teacher’s blogs but I am glad that I have RSS feeds to at least ten blogs that I can easily read in my Google Reader, so  I can find out about what has been happening especially in the USA with all the conferences that have been happening.  Julie Lindsay, Vicki Davis and Larry Ferlazzo always have great blogs with lots of interesting information or del.icio.us links to look at.

 I have also started my history class on a wikispace about our community.  As we have never used this form of Web 2.0 technology, it is a learning experience for both myself and the students.  As well as the history wikispace, our grade 6/7 team is doing our planning for our Social skilling program on a wiki.  Again, a great learning opportunity.  I have had two of the staff actually add information to it.  I know it will be successful when most of the staff had added their bit of wisdom to the discussions.

Finally, the smartboard is now  permanently set up in the room.  Some students will be writing a post for our classroom blog about this momentous event in our room.  A couple of students were reporters and photographers for the day while the board was being set up.  They interviewed the workers and took some digital photos to use in their blog post.

Last week I asked for students to write a post that I could put in our class blog. Three students replied from my class and I have now posted the first of their attempts.  Choc (nickname) has written a piece about stamp collecting.  She included a great picture but because it was bitmap, it would not upload properly.  In my comment to her I mentioned about finding jpeg images and also about acknowledging her image source.  I hope this is the first of many posts by my students in the class blog and it would be great to have some comments from other educators about ways to improve a post.  This can then help them in future posts and when they get their own blog as well.

I wondered what these were all about.  I had come across a few of them during my reading of many blogs in my early days of blogging eg last month.  I have now been tagged by Kate Olson

The rules are simple.
1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Exploring the wide world but within the safety of our own backyard.

By introducing my students to blogging, wikis and using the smartboard this month, I feel I am expanding the students’ worlds but doing it so both they and their parents feel they are safe still within their own backyards. 

As I am not on Twitter or Pownce, I will choose five people whose blogs I have enjoyed reading or who have taught me a lot in my month of blogging. 

Sue Waters from The Edublogger who has given me so much help beginning blogging

Al Upton and his minilegends where I found out how to include a photo in this post

Mrs C from Victoria who is helping with comments from her class

Teachers love smartboards for great ideas to use

Frieda Foxworth who always mixes both personal and professional thoughts on her blog

Photo source

The students are keen and eager so far.  They have brought back their parental permission forms and some have actually started commenting on the blogs. But they need to start practising writing comments on other class or student blogs.  I have added the link for Global Bloggers to the blogroll and will soon include the minilegends at Al Upton’s blog.  But are there any other classes grades 5-8 preferably who would be interested in having my students comment on their blogs?

From the interest shown so quickly I think a few of my students will soon be able to have their own blogs which of course I will link to my class blog as well as my personal blog. Maybe after Easter, I also will be calling for some mentors for students in my class.

Been back at work now for two days.  Mentioned to the students about blogging and using lots of different technologies in the room - their responses ranged from looks of boredom in having to use the computer and oohs and aahs about having a world wide audience look at their work.

 The Smartboard has not been installed yet, so my lessons on Internet safety that I had put together with Ros will have to wait a few days. But this does allow time for discussions about what the students already know.  I decided to use a lot of the cartoon clips from Cyberquoll which was developed by the Australian government.  Some great worksheets and follow up activities including storyboarding - I’ll see what the students come up with as a way to create a video.

A very wide range of ability levels in my class this year - I was about to give away some of my teacher reference books for lower ability and younger students but I have had to drag them out again to use this year. The students have worked well for two days - been helpful towards each other, polite and courteous, a few chatterers but overall a great start to their year.

I spoke to the principal about using blogs in the room and as long as I had parent permission, separate from the school’s computer user agreement, then it was OK for me to use them.  Some other teachers have asked me about blogging and will be interested in the way students use them and the difference in their attitude towards writing this year. I gave the students a brief introduction to our blog pages just before I gave them the notice they would have to bring back to class; their keenness is shown in that I have had 20 replies to my blogging notice, while only seven replies are back about school computer use.

My niece and nephew spent a day setting up the classroom last week.  They do this every year and it only costs me a bit of money and lunch at the “Golden Arches”. Desks and chairs are set up, posters and pictures put up around the walls of the room, card kits used in the room are sorted into the correct order and all the teacher equipment for the five grade 6/7 classes are sorted and sent to the teachers’ rooms - blu tac, scissors, cardboard, pens, textas etc. Those necessities for everyday life in the classroom.

As part of our agreement with the Education Department we have to do professional development for at least one day before school goes back.  This year there is a big push on using the “First Steps” program which originated in Western Australia nearly 20 years ago.  It has been updated and revised and is a great program for reading and writing.  We looked at the writing program in our PD day and it reminded me of my years teaching in the primary school - charts in the room, creating word lists, describing the steps for writing a great piece of work - then I looked around my middle school class - there were the charts and the steps for good spelling and writing.  Once a primary teacher, always a primary teacher!! Despite having taught through to grade 9, I always have charts and posters on the walls of my room.

My big question for today is  ….  Do I create

 a single classroom blog where all students can create posts and make comments with me as moderator?

or

 one blog for each student  linked to my blog but where I have admin moderation control over each student blog?

Can I create these by using edublogs or do I need to do it in learnerblogs?  I have looked in the forums at edublogs and the responses are so confusing.  Would it be easier with classblogmeister or 21classes ?

Teachers who blog with their students - do you have one class blog or a separate blog for each student attached to a general class blog?

I have about one week left to get myself ready to start with blogging with the students in my new class for 2008.

Well, Friday is the day.  I am heading to visit Ros, who is going to help me design some lessons for my Smartboard to use with my new class when we get back to school.  Yesterday and today, I visited many websites and blogs that already have lessons to use and hints for writing lessons using Notebook software. 

 My first lesson is going to be about Internet safety  and I would love to embed some videos or podcasts into my lesson.  I visited the website where Faux Paw shows students how to be safe on the internet .  Perhaps my students could design a wiki about Internet Safety.  Or they could produce something similar to a Voicethread program I saw on creating new American Holidays but use different rules for being internet safe.

I don’t know what these students already know about being internet safe or how often they use the computer both at school or outside of school, so perhaps a survey would also be interesting to organize. 

WOW!! This is going to be so much more interesting than photocopied sheets or standing in front of the class and lecturing.