www.gabrielweinberg.com
The real question is not about blogging or not blogging. Instead, KHS teachers wonder about the best way to transform blogs into powerful learning tools for their classrooms.
Trying something new in your classroom? Write a quick blurb once a week in your blog about your experiment and elicit feedback from students, parents, and peers there as well.
Asking your students to reflect on their learning and growth? Create a blog entry for the end of each unit where students summarize their learning, pose questions to peers about understanding they have not yet gleaned, and set goals for the next unit. Their blogs become a collaborative record of their risking, stumbling, and learning.
Tired of being the terminal audience for student work? Extend the reach of student learning through your blog. Invite parents, librarians, local business owners, and other schools to take part in the conversation.
If you have a blog, respond below with your name and URL so we can join in your learning.
If you want to join the blogging movement at KHS, send me an email and we can make that happen!
Students in Photojournalism II are blogging to share their work and the work that inspires them this semester. I am blogging with them. My blog is msembree.edublogs.org and their blogs are listed in one of my posts. Thanks for asking!
Lara, I love your blog. Very cool that students are creating their own blogs. How do you find the management of all of those blogs? Any tips for others who might try student blogs as well?
I experimented with blogs, but I’ve found that it is hard to keep track of who comments on what. There needs to be a website out there (perhaps one exists) that helps a teacher keep track. Thoughts?!
Michael,
I am not sure about tracking comment tools, but I wonder if you couldn’t achieve the same end differently. If your goal is to promote conversation that makes interdisciplinary links, for example, could students show you that depth with screen shots? So, if I am a student in your Spanish class, and I see connections to our study of aesthethics in my art class, I could write about it in your blog and elicit my peers to make their own connections. Next, I could take a screen shot of the resulting conversation and reflect on how it shifted or solidified my thinking. As a student whose thinking was changed by the comment posted, I could also take a screen shot of this virtual conversation with my comments added. The screen shots and reflection would be submitted to you, freeing you from counting the number of times I responded or the number of lines in my response.
I am experimenting with blogging in Sociology for the 1st time this semester. I use it for students to discuss and apply sociology concepts in the real world. I’m pleased with the process so far…I have found it helpful to alphabetize comments in my edublog dashboard to track student comments. Here is the site: jmrsociology.edublogs.org
Janet,
I sifted through the conversation on Yemen culture and marriage, and I thought it was powerful to see your students compare and contrast the tribal proverb with the Western view. What strategies have you used to encourage students to dig deep in their analysis and reflection? I can envision you pulling up certain comments as a jumping off point for a discussion or to highlight two sides of a debate in class. I also see students reflecting on their participation in a learning community–how did they draw others in with their ideas? How did they extend or strengthen someone else’s thinking? Where did they make connections to other classes/readings/experiences? Thanks for sharing!
I am blogging about Ipads in the classroom. I have a class set. Most of my entries are about day to day issues- what works, lesson ideas- etc..
http://ipadclassroom.edublogs.org/
My 10th graders blog each week about a book from Library of Congress Books That Shaped America. The intertextual prompts allow them to select from a plethora of sources to frame their responses.
Donna, one of the unique features of your blog is your extension of the audience to parents, administrators, and other staff members. The idea that you are not the terminal audience for student learning and conversation is exciting and empowering for our students. Combine that with the intertexual approach you have taken, and students are stretching far beyond the expectations for a single-text, classroom-based conversation.
I continue to learn so much from your blog, Rez. Would love to see some images of work you describe in your blog–the qr codes–pic stitch. Awesome!
My Creative Writing students share their writing on their blogs. You can view links to their assignments and updates about our class at my blog, http://mrslb.edublogs.org.
I also blog about life as a real live grown up at http://mygroweduplife.wordpress.org
Amy,
While I love reading your life via mygroweduplife, I had not read much from your class blog. I like how this is a one stop shop for assignments and questions for them to think about as they write/read.
Have you thought about upgrading to pro so your students could subscribe to your blog for updates?
I experimented with blogs in a few classes but became frustrated because students were running into firewall issues and could not post from school unless I logged them in which wasn’t efficient and allowed them freedom on the Internet that I wasn’t comfortable with. I see most of you are using edublogs. Any firewall issues with that hosting site? Another issue I ran into was getting students to think of a blog entry as an assignment and actually do it outside of the classroom. I had the same problem with Twitter.
Tami,
Edublogs is not blocked at school, and, as you see, we do have a bunch of teachers and students using it. I see your point about students seeing this as part of their responsibility/work for your class since it is a different form of commuication than they are accustomed to for classwork. Some suggestions I have would be to dedicate a small chunk of time to blogging in class as a way to reflect or to solidify thinking on the day’s topic. You could also pull up blog posts in class and highlight the great work some of your students have done–giving them the spotlight or basing classwork off of their ideas gives purpose to their blogging. Building in time when the group can reflect on the overall experience of the blog–how did it shape/extend thinking, where were the holes in the conversation, who posed powerful questions–could be a step in getting them to buy in as well. What strategies do others of you use to help students make the leap to and find value in blogging?
We are using the school’s website, Edline, to blog weekly reflections in our AP Art 2D class. Each week students post their reflections about their Concentration work onto our website. We have discussions about their blog posts during our in class critiques. Students are also free to reply comments directly to their classmates posts through the Edline Blog page.