Note to Doug

Welcome to my blog!
Please read the posts in this order...
First, please look through the tabs at the top (student blogs, contact us, blog guidelines, meaningful comments, internet safety, and links)
Next (the blog appears in chronological order from the most recent...) so please view it backwards
(you can start on the last page with the last post, and preceed to read the more recent posts)
Or you can click through these links.
Initial Thoughts
Implementation
Including Parents in Student Learning
Authentic Audience
Developing Digital Fluency
Literacy Skills

Halloween Math Lesson

Happy Halloween!!

ON YOUR MARK... GET SET.... THINK!!

Each lesson, students practice their math fluency using Sprints

Students eagerly participating

Thumb Thermostat about how well we understand 2-step word problems

  

Students showing their work on whiteboards

 

Miss G working with students on practice problems

A group of 3 students helped me write this blog post. I explained to them that I was trying out a new idea I had for my future teaching. I asked the students what they wanted to share about my math lesson, this is what they said: 

Literacy Skills

   Critical exposure to the blogging process allows a student to develop his or her literacy skills, and explore his or her interests. Through constant exposure to interactive writing and feedback from a wealth of sources, students gain the necessary knowledge to improve their writing. The active process of commenting from a diverse audience exposes students to reinforcement, conversation, agreements and disagreements. Receiving constructive feedback on blog posts helps a student realize his or her strengths and weaknesses.

            As a student gains comfortability creating posts and receiving feedback, he or she becomes more conscious of his or her respective audience. With an audience in mind, a student begins to exhibit a unique voice within his or her own writing. Students begin to get a sense of what it is like to take ideas and express them to a diverse audience. This strays students from a basic, typical, and formulated response they would write in a traditional academic setting. Instead, students develop a voice of their own to convey their thoughts in an interesting, passionate manner. Having a unique voice is a beneficial for students because it transforms writing into a medium that is more personal. As students define their voices, they learn more about themselves and their interests. Realizing these interests can help students peruse his or her passions. In turn, this process gives writing more meaning and importance. As students are able to delve deeper into their interests, they become more passionate about expressing their personality through their writing.

            As students establish an investment in their own blogs and writing, they will become more inclined to appropriate the literary conventions learned in mini lessons to better convey ideas to their audience. This will make the literacy skills taught in class feel not only more relevant but also more productive. Relating and applying conventions in context to student blog posts is more effective than stand alone lessons. The blog represents a more realistic opportunity to improve writing. Through the constant practice on their blogs, these skills will be transferred to other areas as well.

            Practicing these skills in student writing helps students communicate their ideas more clearly. Effective communication is an imperative skill for students to possess because it helps them succeed in school, as well as in the professional field. Providing students with a strong foundation of effective communication sets up students for greater growth and success. Practicing this skill from a young age is important so it can keep developing through their schooling.

Developing Digital Fluency

In this day and age, technology has become heavily integrated into our lives. Accordingly, children need to be equipped with skills to properly and effectively use technology so they can become productive members of society. Children see technology being used by their teachers, parents and siblings on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, even at a young age they can relate to the importance of technology. Our society's obsession with modern forms of interactive media will not disappear anytime soon. Accordingly, integrating technology into education can be an effective catalyst to launch our students into the modern world.

In my classroom, students will practice their literacy skills using a medium that is relevant, important, and trendy—Blogging. Blogging gives a student practice with important digital skills such as navigating the Internet, creating presentations, and fine tuning typing abilities My role as a teacher will be to  help prepare students with the digital skills he or she  needs to become successful in the future.

Through interactive blogging ,there are many opportunities to introduce students to the idea of digital citizenship.Students need to be explicitly taught that everything he or she  posts on the Internet is permanent, and can have repercussions. It is important to inform students that institutions including but not limited to colleges and employers, can easily track their digital footprint. By teaching students the importance of implementing a positive digital footprint early on, he or she can start positively representing his or herself through well formed  blog posts and comments.

Not only is it important to educate children that a digital footprint is permanent, but also it is necessary to educate them about using technology and the Internet in an appropriate  way. Introducing students to Blog Guidelines will help to ensure that they are behaving appropriately online. The guidelines dictating online behavior are established to teach students to be respectful, responsible, and safe. The process of communicating these rules creates a foundation for  students to develop and practice not only social manners, but also productive Internet behavior. These behaviors provide students with a good example of how he or she should consistently behave when posting on the Internet in order to maintain a positive digital footprint. It is also important to discuss with students the importance of Internet Safety so they can make sure they are not only protecting themselves but also being made aware of potential dangers on the internet. These are two very important steps to effectively instill good habits within a student for the digital world.

Clear communication begins with a page that is easy to read and navigate. Through exposure to a variety of different blogs, as well as designing one’s own blog, students will have experience designing a page that is aesthetically pleasing while also easy to read and maneuver. As the school year progresses, students will learn ways to integrate features including but not limited to  multimedia and hyperlinks into their posts to help further their communication. additionally, he or she will practice effective communication through his or her fully developed blog posts, and meaningful comments. Explicitly teaching students how to write meaningful comments will help him or her throughout his or her  technological careers. Students will focus on creating comments that add on to the preexisting discussion and allow him or her to engage in a introspective  conversation. Teaching these digital literacy skills from early will help  prepare students for online collaboration in later grades, as well as future employment. Giving students sufficient practice in these digital literacy skills helps them build confidence in using 21st century technology skills. This confidence helps students realize the full potential in the digital world.

Authentic Audience

Blogging in an engaged and controlled academic environment is imperative to increase student motivation and cooperation.

In a traditional classroom, students spend vast amounts time writing and creating ideas that are limited to the confines of his or her respective classroom. Traditionally, the wealth of ideas produced by students are dictated and controlled by a single teacher with a red pen in his or her hand. He or she is the one who reads, edits, and interprets the child’s work, without gaining insight from any external sources. I have found through my experience student teaching that it is hard for a student to stay motivated when he or she feels as though his or her work will go underappreciated.  

Fortunately, the solution to giving children a solid outlet to display their ideas can be found within the art of blogging. Blogging opens up the child’s work to a whole new audience, including but not limited to his or her classmates, friends, and family. Publishing a post online creates the opportunity for an endless audience. Topical enthusiasts in other towns, states, and even countries are reading and reacting to these blogs. A student having his or her work appreciated by external sources can make a significant difference in his of her motivation to produce work.  Therefore, Blogs opens the window to a wealth of new people willing to offer encouragement and feedback.

Blogging is a revolutionary new idea for students and their motivation to write. It provides an authentic educational outlet where his or her writing can be extended beyond the classroom, to their peers and the public. Blogging gives students a worthwhile audience, and a connection to the external world. The more the child feels like his or her work is affecting the world outside of the classroom, the more he or she will view the work as worthwhile.  This engaged external audience could help propel students' motivation through connecting, sharing, challenging, and discussing their ideas. Through engaged discussions on blog comments, an audience can enhance student learning by providing additional information, sharing opinions, and asking questions.  

Sources

Getting More Out of Student Blogging

The State of Educational Blogging in 2012

Parental Involvement

Blogging can used as a platform to not only include parents in student learning, but also bring student learning into the home. It is imperative that parents are invested in their children’s education because parental support has a positive impact on student achievement and success. That being said, parents can easily become more involved in student learning by participating in our user-friendly class blog. The blogging project will be introduced to parents during open house at the beginning of the school year. It will be made clear how parents will be an important part of this process. When discussing blogging with parents, I will highlight all the benefits the process will have on student’s literacy experience, digital citizenship, and global awareness.

This blogging assignment is important because it will unify parents and children within the learning process. The class blog will provide a window into what will be happening in our classroom. Keeping an updated classroom blog is comparable to a year round parent-teacher conference! With frequent updates and daily posts, parents will be the first to know what their children are learning about. This provides a more meaningful conversation between the parent and child.  

Under the care of the blogging process, parents can check the classroom news-feed and know exactly what their children are doing in class  so they can have an open dialogue.  Through these conversations, students can teach parents what they’ve learned, and parents can share their opinions and perspectives on important topics. Through engaging in consistent conversations, we can help bridge the learning  gap between the classroom and home.

Within our blogging community, parents will have the opportunity to play an important role in motivating students. It is vital for our parents to be a loyal and reliable audience for their children. A student's motivation thrives when he or she receives comments. Students being consciously aware of his or her parents viewing his or her posts will motivate him or her to improve the quality of his or her work. Parents will be encouraged to read thoroughly, ask questions, and leave comments on posts.

Maintaining an easily accessible blog page will provide an organized space for parents to access necessary information about our classroom. The blog will also provide necessary links to an online of the homework agenda, daily schedule, and interactive calendar of upcoming events. Engaging parents in the blogging process increases communication about important assignments and dates in our classroom. This blog will be used as the ultimate resource to integrate parent involvement and student learning.

Implementation

Initially, exposing students to blogging will be a gradual and delicate process. However, as students gain comfortability with the medium, blogging will be used more frequently. I will be following the scaffolding model below to introduce my students to blogging.

Through the class blog, Students will be introduced to blogging process. Initially, posts in the class blog will teacher written. The class blog will highlight topics the students are learning, and the day-to-day activities within our third grade classroom. This blog will highlight the learning we do in our classroom, and teach students about content related to what we are learning. There will be opportunities for the students to help the teacher write the blog posts as a class.

Students will learn about the importance of reciprocal feedback, and how to write a quality comment. An activity used to help students further practice write and comment on blog posts is making a Paper Blog. In this activity, students design their own blogs on a stock piece of paper, write a sample post, and also practice commenting using post-it notes. Students will be given a rubric with criteria and tips for writing meaningful comments. This hands on activity will help students understand the process of writing comments and engaging in discussion.

Once the teacher has reviewed the quality of the paper posts, and the students feel comfortable with their commenting ability, he or she will comment on the class blog posts. The class will practice writing thoughtful feedback to engage in an online discussion.

Next, students will create and design blogs of their own that reflect their individual  personalities. The students will learn how to make a blog page that is easy to read and navigate. Students will express themselves through their own posts, and develop as their classmates and parents provide comments and feedback. For each blog post assignment, general guidelines will be provided so students gain practice in writing an eclectic assortment of genres. Students will be given freedom to write about topics of interest to them. Futher more, students will be encouraged to incorporate different writing conventions from writer’s workshops, into his or her blog posts.

To extend the audience of our blog, I will be teaming up with other classes through a program called QuadBlogging. Quadblogging is a system that connects 4 classrooms throughout the world to ensure that a cooperative audience and enthusiastic commenters participating on your class blog. Each classroom will have a week to be the "focus blog", while the other three classes visit and comment during that week. This process will be repeated so each class will have a chance to be the "focus blog" numerous times. Throughout the year, students will be writing new posts on a weekly basis and commenting on a day to day basis.

Over time, students will build his or her audience and establish relationships with other bloggers. This development will help students feel more comfortable with the blogging process. As students practice their writing and receive quality feedback, he or she will develop his or her own voice within each piece of writing. By the end of the school year, students will become experts in effective online communication.