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Course 5 Final Project

April 16, 2013
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Student Engagement

Our students were definitely engaged throughout the blogging process.  Our blogging project was a BIG first step for our class toward technology integration.  We were starting at very little technology being used in the class so far this year (due to the slow start of our 1:1 iPad initiative), so using iPads and creating blogs, adding photos, writing posts, and commenting on each others’ posts was certainly a good start.

Next steps

As we get more technology in our classrooms, we hope to get all 6 Grade 3 teachers on board with kidblog so that our students can blog with other students in different classes.  Inviting another class (or classes) from other countries would be a goal as well to keep our student engagement high and make our assignments more purposeful.

COETAIL

Coetail has made me more aware of the importance of digital learning and I know that the end of this course is not the end of my learning.  I have seen the student and teacher engagement and the thinking skills that digital learning promotes.  All 5 of the Coetail Courses were engaging and purposeful for me. I think all teachers should be required to take them so we can properly prepare our students for the 21st Century.  Thank you COETAIL for a great learning journey!   It was just the start I needed and I feel better equipped to continue on this journey with the support group I have established.

Engaging Students

March 26, 2013
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This YouTube video, A Vision of K-12 Students Today by Barbara Nesbitt really spoke to me.  Before I started the Coetail Course I was in the 76% of teachers that had never used wikis or blogs.  This course has made me see the need to engage ourselves and our students to think, create and analyze as digital learners.

The grade 3 students I have worked with that created blogs over that past couple of months have been engaged and are thinking, analyzing and creating.  They have learned so much, but in teaching them, I have also learned more.  

I wanted to share some of the websites I found helpful over the past couple of months as we got our students set up with blogs.

Blogging Platform:

The first thing we had to do was choose a blogging platform for our class.  In the article, Educational Blogging Platforms for Students by Bright Hub Education Write several platforms were listed.  We ended up going with kidblog.org because it is user-friendly and free.  I would recommend it if you are starting the blogging process in your class.

Blogging – Tips and Reasons:

Other blogs that were helpful in getting us started were Blogging with Elementary Students, 8 Tips for Blogging With Students and 12 Reasons to Blog with Your Students.  30 Digital Blogs From Around The World is a good resource to see some samples of student blogs.

Commenting on Blogs:

Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog has an excellent video to share with students about commenting on other blogs.

As we work on putting together the video for our final project I am still challenged to work harder on my own blogging.  As we encourage our students to write posts that provoke the reader to think and comments that connect with the reader I need to take my own advice (but that is often hard to do). I look back at many of my posts and they are usually just information about what I have learned or what I am working on.  My comments are not usually good conversation starters either… so I will continue on my blogging journey and learn with my students. 

I want to leave you with a question: 

Are you engaging your students?

Back to Blogging

March 24, 2013
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A lot has happened since my last blog post nearly 2 months ago.  I have been using technology more than ever, but unfortunately have not been updating my blog.  To recap, Karen Robb and I are working with her Grade 3 class.  Students created their own blogs as part of their transactional writing unit.  The focus of the blogging is on their Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry on Plants.  I will address the next steps that I mentioned in my last blog post and how Karen and I have addressed them.

  1. Student blogs
    1. We decided on kidblog.org as our blogging platform and have been very happy with how user friendly it is.
    2. We got permission from parents for our blogging project.  Positive feedback from parents has stated that their children are engaged in blogging and are excited to read and write posts and comments at home.
    3. We gave students some guidance with blogging, but did let them be inquirers and ‘mess around’ with kidblog.org to see what they could do on their own.  Students enjoyed choosing their own backgrounds, avatars…
    4. Students were given some structured Blogging Assignments and were allowed to do Free Posts on topics of their choice.
    5. We met individually with each student to give them immediate feedback on their blog posts and comments.  Each student set a goal to work on.
  2. Tech Coaches
    1. We have met regularly with Matt Smith, one of our technology coaches.  He has presented information to the class about passwords, digital citizenship, how to post and comment… (more information about that in our final video).
  3. iPads
    1. There were some issues with the internet and iPads, but we were able to let students use the teacher iPads and the class computer so all students had class time to blog.

We are finding this student blogging journey to be very rewarding.  In the next couple of days I will post some of the websites and blogs I found to be useful over the past couple of months.

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