C4T #3

What Ed Said
Post #1

Edna Sackson  works at International Baccalaureate PYP school in Melbourne, Australia, as a Teaching and Learning Co-coordinator.  I commented on her October 1, 2012 post on 20 ways to think about your class blog.  Edna likes to encourage learning based on her school’s learning principles by promoting the use of class blogs. She feels that the blogs are mainly used to communicate with parents and to share the learning that takes place at school in the lower levels. As students mature and get into high school, the class blog can be so much more than that just a way to communicate with parents. Edna posted the following thoughts:

"I think that a class blog is not (just)…

• A  place to post questions, worksheet style, with an expectation that all students will respond.
• A space for teachers  to assess and comment publicly on students’ writing.
• A sort of online vacuum, into which students’ writing is sucked, never to be seen by anyone.
• A compulsory homework assignment.
• Something managed entirely by the teacher, who makes all the decisions as to what will be posted and when.
• An occasionally used alternative to writing on paper.

(With apologies if you use your blog successfully in some or all of these ways!)

Some questions to consider…

1. Do you teach students how to write meaningful comments that promote conversation?

2. Do you set aside time every day to check  for new comments and  discuss the comments that come in?

3. Do you encourage your students to respond to each other and whoever else comments?

4. Does your blog roll include other class blogs within your own school and are your students actively engaging with these?

5. Do you encourage your students to comment on class blogs at schools in your own and other parts of the world?

6. Have you and your students considered ways to involve their grandparents and retired people they know as a potential audience?

7. Do your students have ownership of the layout and theme of your class blog?

8. Do you frequently discuss the potential  audience and purpose of blog posts?

9. Do you model good writing for your students by blogging yourself? ( A collective in-school blog doesn’t require a great time commitment).

10. Do you regularly read and comment on other teachers’ blogs and discuss your learning with your students?

11. Do you encourage students to take photographs of great learning experiences and share their reflections with the world?

12. Do you have a visitors map or a flag counter and check them every day with your class to see who has visited and where they are in the world?

13. Have you considered a class Twitter account to share learning and tweet your posts to other classes?

14. Have you thought about blogging as authentic writing, rather than another separate thing you have to fit in?

15. Do your students choose where to post their writing and thinking, with the blog as just one option?

16. Have you exposed your students to great blogs (not just class ones) so that they can discover what makes a blog appealing and interesting?

17. Have you helped your students see how blogging is different from other writing? Can they drill down to the essence of something, add images and use  hyperlinks?

18. Do your students see the blog as an additional place to share and provoke thinking, and to make thinking visible?

19. Is your blog a place to continue the learning conversation from school to home and back?

20. Are you working on building a learning community which includes yourself, students, parents and other learners in your school and the world?" 

On October 7, 2012 I posted the following:  My name is Amber and I am a student at The University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am taking EDM310 and we are required to follow different blogs posted by teachers and students and then leave comments on their most recent post. You can follow my class blog at EDM310blogspot.com. I see a lot of teachers that have a class blog, but they are not being followed by parents and the students are not using them except for when they are at school. I know that where my kids go to school, many of the parents can not afford a computer at home. Some of the teachers blog and others do not blog at all. I think that class blogs are very useful, but I see that they are not for everyone. I do feel that the more we teach the younger kids the more it will become a part of everyday life. You have to just keep trying and never give up.

On October 17,2012 Edna Sackson posted "Snippets from the SOME."  She posted on how she interacts with students from across the world in other classrooms.  She tells about how the students are learning and having fun while doing so.  She did notice the students behaving different one day and realized they were more serious and quiet because their teacher was in the back of the classroom watching, but when she was not there they were more relaxed and laughing and they really enjoyed Ms. Sackson.  I posted on October 20,2012 that I thought it was great that she could contact with students from across the world.