Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Cool Multi Grade Blog
Did you see what I added to the Check This Out! feature? Duck Diaries is a really cute science inquiry blog about Daisy, the mother duck who built her nest on a school playground. With a narrow focus, a real purpose, a clear audience, and a finite "life," this blog serves as a great example of using technology to serve an authentic purpose. It won an Edublog Award a couple of years ago.
Digital Tools Galore!
Chapter 2 of Beach's book was exciting and frustrating at the same time. I find myself wanting to know more about digital notetaking, mapping, storing, etc. I'd like spend days immersed in the latest ideas and resources contained in the book's wiki. At the same time, I am frustrated by the frantic pace of life and how each week comes so quickly that I have barely started chewing on one topic before we move on to the next one.
Digital Notetaking
In this chapter, the digital notetaking intrigues me because I like to take notes on my computer, using plain old Word. I’ve used Google Docs to collaborate on minutes and notes from meetings. Now I’d like to try Google Notebook to be able to capture and link websites to my notes.
In that same section of the chapter, the Tablet PC example where students take simultaneous notes reminded me of an incident that happened this week during a workshop on equity. The presenter asked everyone to close their computers because she didn’t want people doing emails or hiding their face behind a screen during uncomfortable conversations about race. A group of administrators challenged her thinking and explained that they were using their three Tablet PCs to take notes for the other administrators who stayed at their building but were following the workshop through these notes. They were exchanging information and opinions in real time, while collaborating on a synthesized version of their notes on Google Docs. Wow! They were extending learning outside the workshop. The presenter highlighted their work as a great example of opening up communication within their team. The computers stayed on.
My Favorite Survey Tool!
In this same chapter, Beach talks about collecting research data through surveys and polls. Tools like SurveyMonkey lend themselves well to multi-question surveys. But these tools are not free and the surveys can get quite lengthy. For elementary kids, there is a one-question survey feature on the student blogs of Think.com but those can only be accessed by people in the class.
If you want to extend a question to those outside the class, my favorite tool is Doodle. Doodle lets you create a poll (the survey question) in any of 21 languages. There is a yes/no/maybe option called making a choice that works very well for a quick survey. You enter a possible answer and, for each potential answer, people tell you if they agree (yes), disagree (no), or are neutral (maybe). You could use it to ask kids what their favorite fruit is, to check if they understood the meaning of a vocabulary word, or to find out who is working on pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and who needs to conference with you. Students could answer the survey by rotating through 1-2 computers at school. Families could be polled by emailing them the link to a particular survey. I’ve used it to figure out what toppings people wanted on the pizza we ordered for our CoP, as well as finding a meeting date & time for people around the metro area. It’s super easy to use!
Digital Notetaking
In this chapter, the digital notetaking intrigues me because I like to take notes on my computer, using plain old Word. I’ve used Google Docs to collaborate on minutes and notes from meetings. Now I’d like to try Google Notebook to be able to capture and link websites to my notes.
In that same section of the chapter, the Tablet PC example where students take simultaneous notes reminded me of an incident that happened this week during a workshop on equity. The presenter asked everyone to close their computers because she didn’t want people doing emails or hiding their face behind a screen during uncomfortable conversations about race. A group of administrators challenged her thinking and explained that they were using their three Tablet PCs to take notes for the other administrators who stayed at their building but were following the workshop through these notes. They were exchanging information and opinions in real time, while collaborating on a synthesized version of their notes on Google Docs. Wow! They were extending learning outside the workshop. The presenter highlighted their work as a great example of opening up communication within their team. The computers stayed on.
My Favorite Survey Tool!
In this same chapter, Beach talks about collecting research data through surveys and polls. Tools like SurveyMonkey lend themselves well to multi-question surveys. But these tools are not free and the surveys can get quite lengthy. For elementary kids, there is a one-question survey feature on the student blogs of Think.com but those can only be accessed by people in the class.
If you want to extend a question to those outside the class, my favorite tool is Doodle. Doodle lets you create a poll (the survey question) in any of 21 languages. There is a yes/no/maybe option called making a choice that works very well for a quick survey. You enter a possible answer and, for each potential answer, people tell you if they agree (yes), disagree (no), or are neutral (maybe). You could use it to ask kids what their favorite fruit is, to check if they understood the meaning of a vocabulary word, or to find out who is working on pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and who needs to conference with you. Students could answer the survey by rotating through 1-2 computers at school. Families could be polled by emailing them the link to a particular survey. I’ve used it to figure out what toppings people wanted on the pizza we ordered for our CoP, as well as finding a meeting date & time for people around the metro area. It’s super easy to use!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Blogging Resources on the R: Drive
Molly S. and Mike W. have put some great blogging resources on the R: drive:
- Blogging Do's and Don'ts for students
- Web 2.0 permission letter for parents
- Blog Overview (includes ideas for classroom and individual blogs)
- Cheat sheets for using various blogging sites
Check it out on R:\Technology\Blogs!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Take Aways from HOT Blogging Article
Let me preface this by stating that my struggle with blogging is keeping the posts short! So I decided to write my reflections in a Word document and only post small snippets. Here are two paragraphs from my 2-page thinking process...
There are two pieces from the Zawilinski article that I want to act upon. They are both from the HOT blogging stages. In the “Prime the pump” stage, students prepare for a class discussion by reading others’ posts and comments. Then, during the discussion, they share others’ posted comments, not theirs. This year for LINKS—our monthly course for new teachers—we’re trying individual blogs. I would like to structure our face-to-face conversation about the online discussions using a similar format. It would ensure "better listening" of what others are saying (i.e. deeper reading) and I also think it would help the online communication remain at an excellent level.
The second quote that resonated with me came from the “Make multiplicity explicit” stage:
“Students read their classmates’ responses, noting which are similar and different and in what ways, and these responses show students how diverse perspectives can further deepen and enrich one’s own thinking (p. 658).” My ah-ha moment was connecting this with the equity work we are all engaged in. Digital writing is a way to give every student a voice, even the ELL who has difficulty producing perfectly edited text but can record a podcast. By sharing perspectives and experiences and by asking students to focus their thinking on understanding the other person’s point of view won’t we build a more tolerant, more equitable community? It’s a win-win situation!
P.S. Did you know that the International Reading Association has an ongoing "Blogging in the classroom" discussion on Facebook? Check it out!
There are two pieces from the Zawilinski article that I want to act upon. They are both from the HOT blogging stages. In the “Prime the pump” stage, students prepare for a class discussion by reading others’ posts and comments. Then, during the discussion, they share others’ posted comments, not theirs. This year for LINKS—our monthly course for new teachers—we’re trying individual blogs. I would like to structure our face-to-face conversation about the online discussions using a similar format. It would ensure "better listening" of what others are saying (i.e. deeper reading) and I also think it would help the online communication remain at an excellent level.
The second quote that resonated with me came from the “Make multiplicity explicit” stage:
“Students read their classmates’ responses, noting which are similar and different and in what ways, and these responses show students how diverse perspectives can further deepen and enrich one’s own thinking (p. 658).” My ah-ha moment was connecting this with the equity work we are all engaged in. Digital writing is a way to give every student a voice, even the ELL who has difficulty producing perfectly edited text but can record a podcast. By sharing perspectives and experiences and by asking students to focus their thinking on understanding the other person’s point of view won’t we build a more tolerant, more equitable community? It’s a win-win situation!
P.S. Did you know that the International Reading Association has an ongoing "Blogging in the classroom" discussion on Facebook? Check it out!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Elements of Successful Blogs
While reading Beach’s chapter on “Using blogs in the classroom” two things stood out.
- The most successful blogs are the ones where students take full ownership for the blogs: they have individual blogs and they interact continuously through their blogs, using each other as both audience and resource. These blogs “created a sense of community where students were free to exchange ideas and anxieties, protest and receive feedback, without fear of reprisal or a lower grade (p. 118).” I'd like to get there someday. I think the first step to getting there is being crystal clear on the purpose for blogging.
- The five stages of blog entry (below) helped me label the various blogs I have read, some effective and interesting, while others seemed superficial and incomplete. The stages helped me think about blogging on a continuum: it's OK to not have the perfect blog right away. It's about the journey. As the teacher, that journey is also about how to set up the blog to encourage those higher levels.
The five stages of blog entries move from least to most sophisticated:
- Discover: looking at blogs to define a topic of interest
- Define: post entries to begin sharing ideas; much like this blog right now
- Immerse: research a topic through links & RSS feeds
- Build: posts show new learning and interaction with others
- Contribute: create resources for others that show thorough understanding of the topic
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