A trial in "independence"

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Using Classroom Blogging to Build Connections


Often times my classroom feels like a car repair shop. Students come in the room with problems or questions, we work together to fix them, and then they speed away to their next class. Despite my consistent planning and preparation, I frequently need to scrap lesson plans in order to assist students in solving their immediate issue at hand. I have to admit, this continually changing environment is part of what I love about working in special education, but it can also be quite frustrating. In my search for something to help establish a unifying, coherent connection, from student to student, as well as from day to day, I began to consider the use of blogging.

The concept of blogging is one that is becoming more relevant to education. Many conversations regarding educational blogging surround the belief that schools are supposed to prepare students for life. As I examine more research, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that blogging plays a dual role in supporting our students' futures. First, a large portion of both professional and personal life involves working with other people. Publishing in a blog format allows the opportunity for collaboration and interaction. Additionally, many aspects of life are becoming increasingly tied to technology. Regardless of a person's line of work, at some point during the day, they will need to utilize technology.

In his 5/6/08 blogpost, Darren Draper discusses that students and teachers from elementary schools to doctorate programs are beginning to blog. He also discusses the concepts of blog etiquette and responsibility for students. I believe that this is another important reason to begin blogging. How are children expected to learn Web 2.0 safety, if we do not instruct them in the use of Web 2.0 tools? There are a plentiful number of various Web 2.0 tools that can be incorporated into classrooms and used to increase student technology awareness. However, I agree with Richardson when he mentions in his text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, that blogs are "the most important, and the most reasonable place to begin your [technology] travels" (Richardson 58). Blogging provides teachers with the opportunity to begin small, and grow, as they and their class learn more about blogging.

As I have mentioned, I have found that Will Richarson’s blog and text provide a large amount of information regarding blogging in the classroom. I enjoy reading what he has to say because he logically breaks the broad concept of "blogging" into somewhat sequential steps. As a teacher that is beginning to blog, and has plans to blog with her class, chapter three of his text provides an excellent reference point. The large amount of classroom blogs available for access on the web, proves that teachers are utilizing this technology in their classrooms. Only time will tell if classroom blogs in the early stages will be able to be used to establish connections between student peers, and connections to educational concepts.

I plan to use blogging in my classroom in order to better facilitate a trusting classroom climate, and provide a continual processing opportunity for my students. I will do this through the following steps:

1.) Effective Internet Miner - This course has introduced me to blogger.com, and while I have explored blogs on edublogger.com, I feel that blogger.com provides a good location for my classroom blog. I also think that it will be fairly simple to introduce my students to blogger.com. In my district all teachers are required to have "eboards" on which assignments and other information is posted. I will post a link to my classroom blog on my eboard so that all of my students can access the blog.

2.) Integrator - The use of a classroom blog will greatly enhance the experience of students in my classroom. I believe that the learning support classroom needs to be a trusting and comfortable environment for students. I teach many children that are embarrassed to participate in classes. I feel that blogging will provide an alternate form of class participation that will benefit my students. I also teach a large number of students that need additional time to process new concepts, procedures, and themes. Providing a blog in which students can pose questions and thoughts regarding what they have learned in school, after the school day is over, offers a fantastic opportunity for clarification and learning.

3.) Policy Advisor - Currently my district is implementing a 1:1 student laptop program for the 2008-2009 school year. As a result of this program, our district AUD is being revised. I plan to provide this as an initial reference for my students as they research policies regarding blogging. I would like to assign my students the task of creating, with my assistance, a set of blogging etiquette rules for our classroom. I currently involve my students in creating classroom rules, so I feel that it is natural for them to actively take part in creating our responsible blogging guidelines. Once these are created, I will continually monitor the blog in order to lead discussions about post content and what is appropriate.

4.) Producer - I feel that once we establish our blog, our blogging responsibilities and etiquette expectations, and blogging procedures, we will be able to successfully begin. At this point I feel that I will begin using the blog as a place for students to ask and answer questions, while citing resources. As an introduction to online publishing, I want to have "Discussion Questions of the Week." My students love to talk, and I feel that discussion questions, on topics of student interest, will help to create the connection between talking and writing. Progressing from the response stage, I would like to begin to have students post their writing samples. My intention in student publishing is to allow for peer editing. We often discuss written response techniques and content in my classroom, and I think that the blog will provide background knowledge so that students are prepared for classroom discussions. Also, eventually this will provide a great way for parents to view student work.

Hopefully I can implement my plan next year!


References:

Draper, Darren, “EduBlogger Etiquette – Student Blogging.” [Weblog entry]
Drape’s Takes. 5/6/2008.
(http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2008/05/edublogger-etiquette-student-blogging.html)

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin P, 2006.

Richardson, Will. Retrieved 6-7-08 from
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

"Top 100 Education Blogs." Online Education Database. 10 June 2008 . http://oedbd.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs

Upton, Al, “Hello world – we’re back!” [Weblog entry] the miniLegends 08
(http://minilegends.edublogs.org/)

Upton, Al, “The title says whose blog this is.” [Weblog entry] Al Upton. 5/7/2008.
(http://alupton.edublogs.org/)

Response Blog #3

Maybe it is because I am participating in a technology course or because I spend so much time working with kids and computers during the day, but whatever the reason, it feels as though the “read/write web” is slowly infiltrating every aspect of daily life!

This year, my district decided to place a major focus on incorporating technology into the classroom. As a result of this focus, every scheduled in-service day this year has been spent exploring possible applications of our “technology initiative.” I began the school year excited about the opportunity to work with other teachers to create lessons that incorporate Web 2.0 practices. Unfortunately, we have received little guidance or instruction in the various possible resources that we could incorporate, and I feel as though the lesson that I helped create remains very “1.0.”

I have learned more tangible applications of Web 2.0 in the past 5 weeks of my graduate technology course than I have in the past 9 months of working on my district’s technology project. Had my district provided the teachers with the Will Richardson resources that we are using in class, I feel that this year would have been much more productive! Seriously, all they had to do was direct us to his resources wiki. I feel that our technology project can serve as proof that some scaffolding and/or modeling needs to be provided when new technology is expected to be used.

Next September my district is planning on implementing a one-to-one student laptop initiative in the high schools. I am trying to work with other teacher to spread the ideas that I am currently exploring. It is my hope that the laptop initiative succeeds, and I think that if the district provides a little more guidance, it will.

Aside from the “read/write web” playing a large role in my daily work, professional development, and my educational endeavors; it is now beginning to infiltrate my free time. As I sat in my car and listened to General Hospital on my drive home for work, I heard one of the characters discussing how she was creating a blog. Yes, blogging has now entered the realm of the serial drama. Who knows where Web 2.0 will pop up next? I haven’t dreamed about it yet, but at this rate, I am sure it will happen soon!

Response Blog #2

While most of my friends and neighbors were outside this Memorial Day weekend, I was inside the Pittsburgh Convention Center. Why, you might ask? Well, I coach Junior Olympic volleyball, and my team participated in a huge tournament over the long weekend.

The East Coast Championships (ECC) are held each year over Memorial Day weekend, and until this year, have always taken place at the PSU main campus in State College, PA. Personally, I prefer spending the holiday weekend in State College over Pittsburgh. Apparently Pittsburgh is somewhat of a "working" city. Hardly any restaurants were open the entire weekend.

This might seem inconsequential to many people, but try spending three days with ten fifteen year-old girls when there is no possibility of shopping or eating-out. Tempers begin to flare when teenage girls are tired, sore, bored, and hungry. To be honest, if you eliminate the boredom and hunger, they are still tired and sore which leads to a lot of drama in itself. In the past I've spent some time at the Cafe in order to "process" and "strategize" with other coaches and parents, but this option was also unavailable in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the restaurants that were open will spread the word that there is a plentitude of money to be made by staying open through the weekend, and next year there will be more options.

Clearly the restaurant and shop owners in downtown Pittsburgh do not realize what a big business youth sports have become! Perhaps they should visit the page of the East Coast Volleyball website that lists the teams that participated in this weekend's tournament. If they checked, they would see that there were teams in seven different age groups ranging from 12s to 18s. In each age group from 14-18, there were two divisions. Each division had an average of approximately 30 teams, and each team has an average of 10 players. When you do the math for those stats, and factor in the two younger age groups, you get a total of approximately 3,300 players. That number alone translate into a LOT of money. Parents weren't even factored into the above mathematical equation!

Technology has allowed parents are overly involved in the competitive process. There are now sites purely dedicated to discussion about Pennsylvania girls' volleyball. Pennlive is a forum where coaches, parents, and occasionally players post and respond to comments regarding high school and travel volleyball. During the ECC, parents could get live online scoring updates for certain matches, and could get updated lists of college coaches that were in attendance.

Parents are seeking college scholarship opportunities for their girls, which has made operating a travel volleyball club a competitive business. Many clubs have websites that offer club philosophies, coach bios, alumni player information, and current competitive results and schedules. The club that I coach for has such a site because parents and players now expect this technology.

I truly enjoy coaching volleyball, but a three day trek to Pittsburgh can be a little stressful. I hope that word spreads to the businesses of Pittsburgh, and next year I'll be able to relax in a dining establishment while my tired team eats a good meal!

I just had to share this...

Yes, that is a javelin going through someone's leg. Read about it.

RSS and Social Bookmarking

To be completely honest, after reading the chapters for this class each week, I am thankful that we meet as a class and that this is not a 100% online course! I was especially thankful for this after reading chapters five and six. I was definitely interested and excited after reading about the possible applications for Google Reader, del.icio.us and furl; however, I did not have a clue how to begin the process of using them.

After becoming familiarized with Google Reader, I am beginning to see applications to my personal and professional life. I agree with Dr. Fritz when she explains that she thinks we need to use something personally before we can apply it elsewhere. Personally, I love reading sports, entertainment, and the local news. I have already loaded my Google Reader with an RSS feed for Phillies news from philly.com. Professionally, I think that this would be a great tool for articles and reference sites. I am a special education teacher, and things are constantly changing in relation to my field. I can see that it would be a time-saver to have updates sent to me, rather than having to search for them all the time.

In regard to del.icio.us, I am having a more difficult time finding a useful application at this time. I think it is another really cool tool for organizing information, but I am not sure that I will be able to follow through and apply this one as quickly. Maybe it's because right now I don't know too many people that use this social bookmarking tool. I think that as/if I create a sort of community within social bookmarking, I might start to find it more useful.

As a side-note, I might be on "tech" overload because this has been a lot of new information for me!

Response Blog #1

I found my inspiration for this response in the "Minds on Fire" article that we read for the first class. Just as many other teachers do, I try to instill some life-long learning skills in my students. As I read the article, I noticed that John Seely cited the following comment by Richard J. Light, "...one of the strongest determinants of students' success in higher education --more important than the details of their instructors' teaching styles-- was their ability to form or participate in small study groups." I work everyday to improve my students' abilities to work with each other in a variety of ways, and I feel that my efforts were reaffirmed by the above quote.

I am constantly searching for new and interesting ways to incorporate group activities into my classroom. I work to collaborate with my fellow teachers in order to expand my portfolio of ideas, but in the constructs of our "open" campus, it is not always an easy feat. This is especially true when it comes to learning about, and incorporating, new technologies. In some instances, my colleagues use hardware and equipment that is not available in my classroom. In other cases, I have worked with friends that teach in other schools, only to later discover that my district does not have a certain software program, or has blocked a specific website. I was afraid that this would again be true for some of the ideas that we are discussing in this class.

I was intrigued when I was first introduced in class to bubbl.us - a website that serves as an organizational tool. I loved the concept for many reasons, including that a person is able to access their work from any computer, it is possible to view the work of other people, and it is possible to collaborate/edit each other's work. I immediately saw potential to use this tool in my classroom in multiple ways, but specifically as a way to build group-work skills.

After learning the basics of the site in class, I began to explore for more information on my own. I came across a bubble.us blog which has some helpful hints and additional information. I have also discovered a few new things as my students and I have put the site into action.

Currently, my Academic Literacy students and I are reading the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers. After I established an account for each student, I posted a "Question of the Day" under my bubbl.us account. Prior to reading the novel that day, I projected the question onto the screen at the front of the room. My students then worked on their responses, saved their organization charts, and granted me permission to view and edit their sheets. As a class, we went over student responses as I projected them onto the screen. I had high hopes for this activity, but it went even better than I had anticipated! My students applied collaboration skills and techniques that we have been working on throughout the year. They respectfully discussed opinions and answers, and arrived at thoughtful conclusions. This activity then lead directly into our reading for the day.

I am excited that I have a new tool that offers the opportunity to practice group-work skills, and that is relatively easy to utilize in my classroom. While using bubbl.us I do not have to worry about unavailable equipment or software, I can simply sign-in and work with my class. I look forward to continuing to use bubbl.us in my classroom as I work toward increasing my students' abilities to interact in small groups.

First Class Reflections

I have learned more in this first class meeting than I did in the entire seven weeks of my last course! (That may be a slight exaggeration.) I am truly excited to participate in this course and learn valuable tools and applications to use in my classroom. I am already thinking of way to incorporate 'bubbl.us" into my classes next week. I'm looking forward to the next class!

A Fresh Start!

I made a new blog to try and start over. Hopefully this one will last longer than a day!