Miss W. and her Smartboard

I tend to forget to write on my personal blog.  I often though write on the class blog - maybe I will do some cross posting, as many of the posts would also be handy for the teachers who are just starting blogging at our school.  I don’t know how some people can keep three or more blogs going - maybe each one is for a specific purpose - not like mine which is a mish mash of a lot of things.

So here is the first cross posting:  Using WORDLE

A lot of teachers are writing about this website, which allows you to cut and paste some text into a program which will then print out the most common words used.  Maybe you could put in the blog posts you have written, and find out what are your major topics.  Here is one I did by copying and pasting the major parts of the wikipedia article on Sumo wrestling.

How could doing this help you when studying for an exam or test?

It was 10.30am; my parents, brother and niece, my aunt and her partner and I were all sitting in the hall; waiting, waiting, waiting.  Was anyone going to come to the reunion?

Do we have enough signs up directing people to the hall? (that’s mum)

The charts were all laid out on the table; the convict history and records were on the wall; the marriage certificates were there for everyone to see.  But where was everyone?

I had been posted as lookout - hadn’t that car been around a couple of times?  Maybe it was a relative I didn’t know.  Wave the arms frantically - yes, yes, yes.  They’re coming over to me.

You must be Sue, they said.

Finally our first load of relatives had arrived.  Within 15 minutes of the first carload, we had about 60 people in the hall.  First cousins, second cousins, relatives by marriage - everyone had signed in at the door, were looking at the records, adding new bits to the charts or collaring myself at the computer to input the data directly into the genealogy software.

We had an enjoyable 4 hours meeting relatives some who had flown over from the mainland just for the reunion - but planned to stay longer and do some touring as well.  As people left with smiles and thanks, they ordered updates on the family tree printed as descendant indented charts - so now my work begins again, adding all the new data to the database and waiting for others to send me more information by snail mail or email.

Do it again?  Certainly would.

I am a very keen genealogist and have researched my family extensively.  I have one branch back to 1603 in Bedfordshire, England but most branches I have placed in England in the early 1800’s or late 1700’s. As you can gather from the dates, I probably have convict blood in me - well I am proud to say, I have so far found eight convicts in my direct line of ancestors. But I have also got some free settlers interspersed in there as well.  I wonder how families reacted when a child of convict parents married a child of free settler parents?

Next weekend, I might hear some stories of just that.   My great grandfather Henry Lewis ENGLAND was the son of convict parents John ENGLAND and Rebecca Jackson.  My great grandmother Julia Charlotte ENGLAND (nee CHANDLER) was the daughter of two free settlers, William Charles CHANDLER and Caroline CHANDLER (nee BRYANT).

In the 1858 Valuation Roll for the City of Hobart Town both John and William were occupiers of houses not owners, despite William coming out as a free settler. But he and his family did move around as he was a gardener and had worked on estates at Monavale as well as Government House in Hobart.   John though was an labourer back in England before being transported and by the time of the birth of his second son, my great grandfather, John was listed as a moulder.

Back now to running the reunion.  A few things to do to make sure it runs smoothly. 
Before the reunion

• Contact relatives you know who live locally and send them their part of the tree to update.  They usually then contact others and ask for information to add to their part of the tree. 
•  Always have a phone number or email address for people to contact to ask questions or give information.
• Start the organization at least a year in advance so you have a chance to contact people interstate and overseas.  Some might want to plan a holiday around the reunion date.
• Put an advert in the local newspaper, the local genealogy magazine, internet reunion pages, rootsweb email lists etc.  Publicise a lot.

At the reunion

• Have a sign in book for visitors to include a phone number or email address so you can keep in touch or use for the next reunion.
• Have sticky labels using different colours for different branches, so people can easily find direct relatives or members of their branch.
• Have the tree displayed so visitors can add to it.
• Preferably have a computer, printer and scanner available with someone adding to the family tree on the computer software programme.
• Have an area for photographs or newspaper clippings etc to be displayed.   
• Have refreshments like tea, coffee and biscuits.  This then allows for chatting among the relatives.
• Have a definite begin and end time for the reunion.

Well, I think I am nearly ready for the reunion next weekend.  Just have to update my software programme and add in the extra dates I have received, then maybe print out some copies ready for people to take away with them.

OK I just checked my posts recently written - the last eight were all to do with the Comment Challenge.  Well, now is time for a change - my next two posts will be about running a family reunion which I will be doing next weekend and also a post about wikis and student opinions about them.  I wrote a post earlier about wikis and did mention that I would do a follow up on just that - student comments ( not that word again!!) about using wikis.

Late again!  Maybe too many kitkats last week, but time now for a hot chocolate.

Day 26 Other ways to comment - I am still learning how to use wikis and blogs properly and have only just started with photostory.  But I did enjoy watching those people with audio and video skills comment on various blogs.

Day 27 My personal brand - I think my brand would be as a teacher because I tend to comment very directly, say things in the least possible number of words and rarely waffle on.  Maybe 140 characters in Twitter is helping me be more succinct in my commenting.

Day 28 Blog commenting strategy - When I began blogging, I was commenting everywhere, because I had so many questions to ask those more experienced members of the edublogosphere.  Now working with students, I am praising their efforts and giving clues as to how to improve their own commenting.  I try to comment regularly on my students’ blogs and reply to comments in either my class or personal blog.

Day 29 A commenting guide for students - I’ve decided I will actually do that with my students next term.  To begin their thinking I have written a survey for them to fill out about what makes a good comment.

Day 30 Change my teaching practices - I know that I am going to be using posts and comments as practical examples for improving students’ communication skills.  Also I am going to create a page with the students called “Reflections on my learning” that will be password protected so only they can write on it.  I feel students need to be able to reflect on what they have learnt and be prepared to give reasons for their thinking.  But I don’t think this is easy to do, so instead of it being in the posts of their blogs, they can do it like a comment on their own page.

Day 31 Top five lessons

• Most students just like commenting but not necessarily thinking about improving their comments.
• You meet a lot of new people when taking part in a challenge.
• Commenting daily is easy, but writing up about the challenge in posts takes time.
• I am not a wordy person, rather I write exactly what I mean and don’t do a lot of extra explanation - maybe why some kids also find it hard.
• I am loving blogging and the enthusiasm has gradually won over some teachers at my school.

Wow about time for a total day of rest, feet up in front of the fire (cold here in Tasmania today) and let’s have a Kit Kat.  But no you say, you haven’t written about the challenges yet since day 19. Well I suppose I had better earn my Kit Kat (in fact it is a Cadbury’s Old Gold Peppermint chocolate I am eating)  Better for me than a Kit Kat.

Day 19 Respond to a commenter on your own blog This is easy.  I do it all the time especially if I have asked a question and they have come back with some great suggestions.  Being a newbie to blogging, every comment is useful in some way or another.

Day 20 Three links out  This was interesting; thought I would start with a link on my blogroll that I rarely go to, Mister Park, a soldier in Afghanistan who as a teacher of English is keeping in touch with schools in a blog. 

 I then jumped to his blogroll Are we doing anything today? and read about the disdain in which teachers are held in USA but how the reverse happens in France where parents are often looked down upon by teachers. 

Another jump in the blogroll and I saw Ms Frizzle.  I have always loved the books about her and her bus and the fantastic trips she takes with her class - no money involved there - so decided I would stop my link journey here.

But found Ms Frizzle had also finished her blog journey in 2006 and was moving to India as an exchange teacher so she ended with some great reflections from her and her science students. 

Day 21 Make a recommendation I often do this but kept having to ask Sue Waters how to make hyperlinks within a comment.  She sent me off to visit Vicki Davis and her post about hyperlinking and using HTML within a comment.

Day 22 Highlight a favourite comment  I have lots of favourite comments mainly because they are so useful to me as a newbie blogger.  But I really like this one from Anne Mirtschin because it has virtually nothing to do with technology, just a bit of personal chit chat, which I rarely indulge in in my blog. It also includes commentary on some of my student bloggers.

I just laughed and laughed when I read your first paragraph as I can just see it all happening!!! I agree that Lisa has been a great little activist and she will go a long way in life. One of your boys has been good too. I had enrolled for the challenge but as cocomment kept crashing my internet I gave up. So, now I just enjoy reading what everyone else is doing. HOpe we can catch up next week. Hope you dont have to buy another pair of shoes before it is all over. My kids do their own moderation as I could not keep up with them at all.

Day 23 What makes a great comment?  I think I might do a survey with the students in my class on Monday to see what they think makes a great comment.  At this stage of my blogging, a great comment includes something useful I can use in class or something to make me think more carefully about what I am doing using Web 2.0 in class.

Day 24 Comment on a blog written in a foreign language  One of my very first comments was from Spain, written in Spanish asking for me to participate in a survey with the commenter.  I had to use a translater to find out what the questions were all about and then write back.  Must admit, I could get the general idea of the questions without translating, having learnt French, German, Japanese and some other basic phrases in other European languages while travelling.  Also knowing the roots of English words can help with working out a basic meaning of a phrase.  But I still think I will find a French or Japanese blog to write a comment on.

Now can I take a break and eat my chocolate?

I have been blogging since January, the class since February, some students since March and today I created the final blogs for individual students. Some students in the class decided they didn’t want their own blog after I mentioned a few rules.  These were:

• Both the student and I are administrators until someone does something wrong - that person will then become  an editor.  As a class we have done a lot of work on being internet safe and also looking out for each other as part of life skills.  Hopefully I will not have to demote anyone!
• They will have to write comments on blogs belonging to students in our room as well as those on our blogroll from other parts of the world.
• They will have to make sure they respond to people who write comments on their blog.
• They will have to write at least one BTN report on their blog every month and one post about something that interests them every month.  So at least two posts per month.
• They cannot publish a post until they have emailed me, I have viewed the post and sent an email back to them with my approval for publishing.
• All photos must be sourced, preferably from Flickr Creative Commons or permission must have been gained from the photographer via email and acknowledged on the bottom of the post.

Am I being too tough on my students in grade 6/7? 

I know this means a lot of work on my behalf reading posts  before they are published and emailing back to students suggestions for improvement eg spelling and grammar. But at this stage of their blogging experience, I am prepared to put in the extra time.

I’m on my blog every day checking out the comments to moderate, doing the same for my class blog and the blogs of students in my class.  I thought I will keep up with the comment challenge fairly easily.  Should only take up half an hour or so every day and considering I am on the computer every night when I get home from school …………  but what happens??

Here it is day 19 and when did I last post about the challenge … Day 10

    Photo source 

So now I am having to change the Aussie thongs on my feet for some running shoes which I have just had to go and buy.

Day 11: Writing a blog comment policy - why should I need to do this?  As a teacher, I moderate all my blogs including the student ones, so nothing nasty gets through.  As long as there is no foul language used or spam, then most anything is acceptable especially if you can explain your point of view if disagreeing with something I have written.

Day 12: Comment friendly blog technology - I am sorry for those readers who comment more than once on my blogs but for the safety of students, I moderate everything.  Therefore nothing gets published until I have read it.  In the four months I have been blogging, I have received a couple of ‘doubtful’ trackbacks but no negative comments or spam, so fingers crossed, this will continue in the future. I could though, change my technology on my personal blog to let through second time commenters without moderation.

Day 13: Write a post based on comments - I think I accomplished this during my audit on day 10 when I virtually wrote a post about “Why is no-one commenting?”

Day 14: Turning blog over to readers - already finished.

   Day 15: This commenter badge goes to one of the students in my class who has her own blog.  She always visits blogs from other students in the room and also students included in our class blogroll.  I have had teachers write back to me about her and her comments.  Well done, Lisa!!  She is also a student who will come to teacher sessions on Monday after school to help teachers with their blogging skills.

Day 16: Catch up on something - I still haven’t completed days 5 and 8. I think these are two challenges that might be done during the last couple of days of the month once I am on holidays.

Day 17: Five in five - this can be fairly easy when doing it with my student blogs because I have already read the post before it was published. But I have come across a few students taking part in the challenge who have some very insightful posts about the environment and how they can make a change in the world - I certainly took more than five minutes to read and comment on these blogs. 

Day 18: Analyze the comments -

• Batting 1000+ (11)
• Creating a classroom blog (10)
• Why has no-one commented? (13)
• Newbie asking questions (10)

Similarities in these posts - they all asked the readers for their opinion and to give clues to me as a newbie blogger. All four of those posts generated quality as well as quantity - many comments in all four posts came from the same people who were willing to share their knowedge with me and recommend other blogs to read or programs to use. 

At the stage of writing those posts, I was not a member of Twitter, but since joining, I notice there are less comments on the posts because I can get immediate answers by sending out a tweet.

Well this has now taken nearly two hours to complete and I am still behind in the challenge.  Oh well, less than half the month to go …..

Today I thought it would be appropriate to jump ahead to challenge 14 - Turn your blog over to your readers.

Since beginning to blog in January this year, I have tried to get staff enthused about using Web 2.0 especially blogging in their everyday classroom activities.  Until a couple of weeks ago, I had been unsuccessful.  I had had a few staff watch me while I was commenting or writing blog posts during my time off and preparation lessons. (I usually use a computer near the photocopier as more traffic comes that way) A couple had made comments about how interesting that looked but they wouldn’t have time to do that with their other commitments.

But last week I held a blogging session after school for about an hour.  Four staff including the school chaplain turned up.  I had organized with a couple of my students to stay behind and help in the session. From my point of view it went well and the staff have been asking for more help with avatars and blogrolls which hopefully we will do next week.

But if you don’t have enough time to actually write your own blog, I would have thought every teacher could spend just 15-30 minutes once a week or fortnight in writing comments on students blogs.

So my question is:  How do we get staff involved in commenting on blogs onto which our 21st century students are putting so much effort to gain a wider audience than their own teacher?

Day 4: Ask a question - this one I do every day.  Whenever I make a comment I usually end with a question - I suppose this just automatic as I comment on so many student posts, that questioning is easy.

Day 5: A blog post I don’t agree with - this is one I am going to have to put off till later.  My blog roll is usually only people who are of a like mind to me.  Maybe I will head to a principal’s blog or a politician’s.

Day 6: Engage another commenter in discussion - this has been made simpler because of the co.mment and cocomment tracking devises.  I found a great article on Christy Tucker’s blog about teen writing and blogging.  The conversation went back and forward with her also visiting my blog on the way.

Day 7: Three lessons I’ve learned - I comment often on student blogs, but now I look at it, more often it is on their emails before they actually publish their posts.  Most of my comments are on student blogs, but often from other schools around the world.  Secondly - I  need time to extend my network to find great blogs to comment on that are not necessarily on educational topics. Finally, thank goodness for cocomments and Twitter - a range of blogs to visit, read and comment on.

Day 8: A blog outside my niche - another challenge to do by the end of the month.

Day 9: Should we be commenting on blogs?  The article made very interesting reading and certainly made me think about why I am blogging.  On my personal blog, I post about my experiences using Web 2.0 tools this year but some of my posts end with a question or activity. To me, this means I welcome comments. But my class blog is a totally different place. Here I expect students to have a go at an activity, visit websites through the links and also to send me posts of things that interest them. When commenting, I expect them to show they are computer and internet savvy in what they say and how they represent themselves. I also expect them to comment on the topic or activity they have had a go at.

Day 10: Comment audit on your own blog - this will be interesting.  I know in my first week of blogging, I wrote my 5th post on “Why is no-one commenting”.  I didn’t realise at that time about developing a PLN (personal learning network), I had never heard of Twitter and I don’t think I had commented on anyone else’s blog.  Well the comments started coming in after Sue Waters twittered about my post and these were the hints to improve my chances on receiving comments.

• Use Twitter
• Add some links to your posts - make a ‘ping’ to another blog - the blogger might then visit your blog
• Write for yourself and put your heart into it
• Make sure your ‘About’ page tells more about you as a person
• Follow a great example like Sue Waters for hints, info and mentoring
• Decide what type of blog you want - informational, reflective, thousands to choose from….
• Have a blog RSS feed so interested readers can follow you
• Have a picture of yourself on the blog - makes a more personal feel
• Write posts that give guidelines or how-to do something, provide explicit opinions on your profession
• Read and make comments on other people’s blogs
• Treat every post as a conversation - comment on comments from your readers

I took all these comments to heart and hopefully have improved my chances of having someone comment on my blog. 

But maybe, you have a different opinion. 

Feel free to leave your point of view.