Back to School

Yikes, it is hard to believe that it is almost time for the beginning of the year. As summer comes to an end I am starting to think about how I am going to introduce the blog to my parents. At first, I thought I would change my blog to the FISD one, but am thinking I will keep the one that I have. I think having the past history will show the parents and the students how we use it for educational purposes. Plus, before they write on it, the students can read through what my students did last year. So many great ideas are popping into my head about things I want to do this year. I love at the beginning of the year I have all these great plans, but once school starts I start getting blogged down. Luckily, I feel that the blog is something I am familiar with and it won't be any problem to begin with a new group of kiddos.

Podcasting is a Success

So, this past week I had most of my students record their poetry and we posted it on the blog. They were SO excited. They had so much fun with it and I think they did a great job. What is exciting is that I had a student help me with the process. This was student who struggles in my class, but he exelled here. He was one of the first ones that I tried this with and he learned the process. He then helped the others with it.

I am going to try video next, but I am not sure how that will work. That is something I will have to play around with and see. Well, hope everyone enjoys 8 more days!

I am Getting Impatient

The poems are being written and the permission slips are coming in. At the end of the week we will be "podcasting" our poems. I am trying to describe how I am feeling about trying this out in my classroom, but there are no words. There seriously is excitement in the air when we talk about it in class. When we talk about it, I see smiles on their faces and they just get this "glow" about them. How cool is that? Especially with only 12 days or so left in the school year.

I will keep everyone posted on how it works. The ideas are already swimming in my head about everything we can do with this starting from day one.

Podcasting

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Is TAKS really over?

My class has not done much blogging due to the TAKS test and preparing for it. Now that it is done, I can't believe it is over. My mind is so numb from this week, that I am sure this post will be quite random.

We are about to start our unit on Poetry, so I am sure they will have their poems posted soon. I am excited about the thought of them having somewhere else to "publish" their poems.

Some time ago I added the feature of having to approve the comments before they are posted. I must say that I really like this feature. It serves two main functions 1. Keeps me logging in everyday because they want to see their comments posted. and 2. Keep any unwanted comments away. I have been observing another blog that is used for the classroom and while the students are using it, they have also began using it as a social tool. I am not sure I want my students doing that too early.

Last comment for today-the flu. I want my students to blog, but with how careful we are about germs, I am going to have to be extra careful to make sure the keyboards stay sanitized. I guess I will be purchasing some hand sanitizers to keep by keyboards as a reminder.

The next time I post, hopefully I will have some wonderful news about blogging and poetry.

This Week

This week began our figurative language study. In the past we had only answered questions over a book we have read. I wanted the students to use the blog to "publish" their writings and what they have created (or for some think they have created). Even though the response isn't like it was in the beginning, I am still okay with it. I have seen students want to create things so they can publish it. My next step is to have them maybe read what others are writing and then make positive comments. I am happy with what they are doing with it.

I was worried that the students wouldn't be as excited once I started to see their comments before they are published, however I was wrong. They are now more excited because they want to see if I accept what they wrote. For the most part they are, I have had many teachable moments with them as well discussing each comment and what corrections might need to be made.

It is also a great way for me to "police" the blog-I don't have to keep rereading to see if there is something new. It just shows up on my dashboard.

GoAnimate.com: Teacher and Librarian Collaboration


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Testing something out

To the right of this posting (and down some, not sure what that is about) you will see a short video I created for a class I am taking at TWU. It has nothing to do with blogging in the classroom, but I thought I would test it out here before I post it on my blog for TWU. Still trying to work out the quirks so hopefully soon, it will be the way I want.

Are They Trying to Frustrate me?

It has been a very LONG day so maybe I am not in the right frame of mind, but I am a little frustrated right now. We spent a whole class period revising and editing posts that we had previously published. We have talked about capitalization and punctuation until there is nothing left to talk about, yet they still have errors in their posts. Some people are just being downright silly. I have started rejecting what they have written and explaining why, it is just hard, because they continue to do so. I have 30 posts, that I will not accept because of some type of error. Tomorrow a good part of my class will be spent calling students up, having them read what it is they typed and discussing why I can't publish it.

Like I said, it has been a long day (study trip today) so maybe my mind frame will be different tomorrow.

Did you know that the computer changes what you type before it posts it on the blog?

This morning I gave the students their comments back so they could revise and edit their answers. I then asked them to explain to me what they have figured out. Most of the students responded with, "I didn't use a capital letter to begin my sentence." or " I forgot to capitalize I." The other responses were the same until one student raised her hand and said, 'The computer changed what I wrote. It mispelled some of the words and forgot to capitalize the beginning of the sentence." I just had to laugh....wasn't sure what else to do at that moment.

Apparently I Don't Teach Language Arts

It has been a while since I have last typed on here, but we have had Spring Break, so I didn't use the blog in my classroom as much. Since it had a been awhile, I was worried that the students might have gotten over the "fun" of it all. Luckily, I was wrong. When I returned to school on Wednesday (I took two extra days..) the first thing they asked was, "Can we blog some of our answers?" That really made my day.

Now that we have been blogging awhile, I am thinking a new lesson is in order: How to write properly on a blog. I think that since they see it as being on the "web" they don't have to worry about punctuation, spelling, etc. Well, what I plan on doing is printing off all the posts, cutting them up, and having them edit them next week. I hate that when some people read the blog, they might worry about their punctuation and grammar. I wanted to take things slowly and I feel this is a great next step.

In a few weeks, we will begin studying poetry and figurative language. Right now, we have just used the blogs to answer questions about the book we are reading. I am sure in a few weeks, they will be using it to publish their poems and such!

Hot Topic/Warning: Not sure if any of you read FOL, but this thread is getting pretty heated. It is just a reminder to me to make sure that IF we are on our computer when our students are in our classroom, we should be doing classroom things. If you haven't read it, you might want to check it out. There have been many times when I have read something on FOL and then something from administration has came out later on the topic.

Teacher's Personal Blog

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Have a good evening.

My Reply to the Parent and A Question I Wonder About

Here is my response to the parent who questioned why use blogging in my classroom and why teach them something they will learn on their own eventually.

I completely understand your concerns and your questions are quite valid. When I first heard about blogging in the classroom, I had the same thoughts. But after researching the topic, I have found some reasons why I feel this is appropriate to do in my classes.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to do this is to present technology and all the things that go with it is as valid educational tools. So many times we see the computer for playing purposes (like most of us thought blogging was). Even though blogging can be used as a social network, I want my students to know and understand how they can use it for educational purposes rather than just the “social” aspect that they will learn about in the future. As a teacher, I would rather them learn how to use it from me for that purposes, rather than a friend in the future just for “social” purposes.

Blogging has also reached some of my students who didn’t have much motivation or who are shy. Some of the questions that are asked on the blog are the same questions that I would give in whole group discussion. When we talk in whole group discussion, not everyone wants to speak up in class. With blogging, they feel comfortable in expressing their answers, thoughts, and sometimes their feelings by “blogging“ the answer.

In the future, we will be working on editing our pieces (right now I just wanted to get them used to the process). Blogging will help them with their editing skills, because they will know that what they write their classmates will see.

Another thing that I like about blogs is that it expands the walls of the classroom. I have some projects on there that students may work on outside of class-some have taken me up on it. Students are able to discuss the book and work on an assignment from home. That gives them ownership of their work and helps me feel connected to them and I hope in turn me to them.

One feature that I have added is that I have to prove every comment before it is published. I do try and skim through the blog each day, but this way I can keep any unwanted comments off. Please let me know if you have any more questions or comments, I hope I was able to answer your questions. I can send you some links to some websites that discuss using blogging in the classroom as well as a few pages from a text that I have read.

So that leaves me with this question: Will the students be okay with not seeing their comments on the blog right away? I think they might, but I do worry that it might discourage some. We shall see.

Open House

Overall, open house was a huge success. There were a few basic questions: Can they log on from home? How many times do they have to comment?. Comments of that nature-which were easy to answer. I had already sent a note home discussing this so it didn't catch me off gaurd.

Most of the parents enjoyed writing a note to their child at open house. I had a post where their child could teach them to blog. It was very cool to see the children teaching their parents. The students also enjoyed seeing what their parents wrote to them. It was nice because I had a parent who was worried because her husband couldn't come. She wanted to know if there was anything he could do to let his little girl know he was thinking of her. I showed her after school how to use the blog and in turn she showed her husband. He then left his daughter a note that she read when she was teaching mom how to blog. Her eyes lit up when she saw that her dad had written her from his office.

However, things were not perfect. I had one parent who questioned the use of the blog and wasn't sure she wanted her child to use it. She has an older child and I think she has only seen it be used as a social tool. I told her that I do monitor the blog at least every other day (which she looked at me like "really?" and that I delete posts that aren't appropriate. I also told her that I understand and respect her choice whatever it might be. I didn't think much of it until today. The same parents sent me an email today questioning me on why I should use it in my classroom (basically she asked what is the point?) and why push the students into something that they will learn on their own later on in life. (Which scares me because wouldn't we want to teach them how to use it properly first?) I still haven't answered her email, but will soon. Luckily, I have 24 hours to email her back-which will give me time to come up with some awesome reasons to give her.

Well, I am off-specials is over. Must get back to teaching.

Open House: What Will the Parents Think of the Blog?

Tonight is Open House. I had students (well those that have returned their permission forms) write a comment on our blog for their parents. I am also going to have a post where the students can "teach" their parents how to blog. When they "teach" them, their parents will have an opportunity to make a comment to their child.
I am a bit nervous about what the parents might say. I hope they see the value of the blog. I have one parent who has said she doesn't want her child to participate in the blog (and I am not sure why, given her current job position). It scares me to think that other parents might see it and say, "I don't want my child doing this." I hope that if they do think that, they will come to me so that we can discuss this. I have seen students say, "Can I blog? I am done with my work." For some students, they say this and I am shocked. It is the first time I have seen them work hard on something-they want to blog.
Well, conference time is over. I will let everyone know the responses I get.

Welcome

After ten years of teaching, I have learned many things. However, a few months ago I learned something that has sparked energy in some of my students when other things have not. We have started blogging in my classroom. During the last months, I have had many thoughts. Many of those thoughts I wished I had written down. Well, now here I am-using a blog, to write my thoughts down about blogging in my classroom.