This coming Wednesday I have been asked to do professional development for all the staff at Peachgrove Intermediate and was wondering if you could help me by posting your thoughts to any of the following questions.
- In what ways have you discovered that blogging can be of value for teachers?
- Will blogging create more work for teachers?
- How have you helped other teachers to promote blogging in their classrooms?
Your time of commenting on this post is very much appreciated.
Please invite your students to post their thoughts on the
"Why students blog?"posts
11 comments:
A great post.
1. Blogging can be supporting the teacher by motivating and involving the students in publishing their work. My blog is primarily student centred in that we mainly publish the work of students in the classroom, we do feature the odd bit of teacher resources but most if not all of what we publish is students work. It's a wonderful way to motivate students and for them to literally get international feedback on work and share it with a large audience. Currently my classes 2009 site has between 2700-4500 visitors from over 50 countries. The 2008 site my class had managed 30,000 visitors/views of material and is still a resource and still getting visits from around the world.
Online we've also networked with Schools in Australia this year sharing our culture and hope to do some more of this later in the year.
2. Blogging can create more work for teachers, but it depends on how you approach it. On my blog we publish a new piece of work every day, this keeps the site 'fresh' with something new to do , and keeps the audience coming back
but having trained up students to do the filming and the editing over the last term I'm reducing my input, if I follow what happened last year by term three students will be filming,editing and producing the videos in full.
3. At present our classroom blog is very much a 'test' for our school, as we haven't had an online presence before the school is obviously watching how things progress closely and its important that we present as professional site as possible.
Mr Webb. Room 8, Melville Intermediate, Hamilton.
Hey,
I think blogging is a very powerful medium to use in the classroom and for teachers. My students have not only been stoked by the amount of views that they get for their work but also by the fact their work is being used by teachers around the world as models! It really gives the students a driving force as they have an authentic audience that extends past the four walls of their classroom and the pages of their books.
I myself blog, as a teacher, because it gives me an outlet to reflect and discuss things in my school and classroom. I am in a position of e-learning co-ordinator for our school so it is nice to have feedback, feed forward and discussions with other people in my position around the world. It doesn't become more work, but rather part of the process of developing my teaching and my ICT role. Often I find that by reflecting or taking part in discussions with others through blogs and the comments I get, that I have less workload as I can use what other people have suggested to me. I work with a few other teachers to blog in their classes and our lead ICT teachers blog. Some are more into it than others in all honesty!
Amanda Signal
http://heymilly.blogspot.com
http:/room25eps.blogspot.com
My own professional blog has helped me enormously in shaping my thinking and understanding what it means to be part of a connected world. I have created a very positive digital footprint for myself and have made vital connections that have been beneficial for both myself and the students I teach.
I don't subscribe to the idea that all students should be writing blogs. I don't think blogging is for everyone; it is its own science and requires intrinsic motivation on the part of the blogger. That's why I am using a ning environment in my classroom. It enables us to be connected to the other classes in our Year level and students can contribute at their own pace. I don't want to be forcing the technology on them; I think that can turn them off.
This Ning environment has been beneficial for teachers for the same reason. They can enter it at their own pace and those that have have learnt a great deal along the way. Support and encouragement are vital; you have to work these things to ensure you build a vital and supportive learning community.
Great topic.
1. My answer to this question also applies to question #2. In many ways blogging creates less work for teachers as it allows for rapid, widespread communication with parents and students. Maintaining a blog provides teachers, administrators, parents, and students with an ongoing record of the academic year. I post documents and digital copies of assignments on a blog for students and parents to access for those times when a student loses something that you've distributed in the classroom. I also post slideshows and outlines of lectures for students to access. Doing all of these things cuts down on the amount of time I spend photocopying and answering emails/ voicemails which gives me more time for meaningful communication with parents and students. This is particularly true if you have a student load of 100+ as I do every year.
3. Yes, I've helped quite a few teachers start their classroom blogs. One of the most creative ways that I've seen a blog used by a teacher was in a literature course. The teacher had students assume the roles of characters from a novel (I believe it was To Kill a Mockingbird) and blog as those characters.
I have four different blogs for three quite distinct purposes.
The first is the one that I started with- my personal family blog which helps hold the family together from all over the globe- as well as blogging my photos I add family events emailed to me by others.
The second is a class blog to record and share the learning in my classroom.
Moturoa Class Blog. The children mostly do this one and it is very child focussed.
The third is my own edublog Life is not a Race. I write this blog for my educational colleagues and as a way to communicate with other educators. I write mainly for myself but get a real thrill when someone gives me feedback on my blog.
My fourth blog is on how to blog! Bling4yrblog. I write on this one as something comes to mind of a sort of technical nature.
Does blogging take time- yes! But lots of things take time- I have made a decision to drop some things to make room. I don't spend my nights makiing fill in the gaps worksheets for reading. I use maths games linked through the class blog instead of photocopying worksheets for children to complete independently- that sort of thing.
Through blogging I have extending my means of professional development and shared my world with others- generally people seem interested and it adds a great new dimension to what I do in the classroom.
Allanah K
The professional collaboration opportunities have been HUGE since using blogging in the classroom. It has opened up a whole new world of contacts that I collaborate with regularly for classroom activities as well as professional reflection and idea sharing.
The blog motivates my students to produce quality work and gives them a real audience to produce for, not just for me as the teacher.
I think there is a little more work involved in setting up a blog, but the benefits make it well worthwhile. As the year progresses, more blog posts are prepared by students and eventually, I hope most of the posts will be student managed.
Since beginning blogging this year, we have helped 3 other classes at our school set up their own blogs. The best part of this has been that my students are supporting teachers and other classes to do this.
I have found blogging to very valuable to me as a teacher by allowing me to meet other teachers that have similar interests with using tech in the classroom. I have found blogging to be valuable to my students because they can share their learning with a much wider audience. I think this gives a new reason to learn.
Blogging does create more work for teachers, but not like you would think. Making a blog and creating posts does take time, but the more you do it the easier it gets. The actual work is more mental for me. I am always trying to think of new ways to involve my students in more creative and student centered ways. Since I started my blog, my mind is constantly thinking about my teaching because I know that others will see what I am having my students do and that makes me examine why and how I give assignments.
I haven't had much success in my building with encouraging teachers to blog. I actually think Joe McClung has been more successful with getting other teachers interested. I hope with my new position I can change some attitudes.
I am sorry, but I am out of school now. I don't have any students to respond....
1a. We have a Year 4 class lbog primarily as a publishing medium for children's work - students don't have their own login nor do they have immediate access to it from outside school. It is a great motivator and some children have begun emailling in their writing for posting or adding it to our class wiki for copying across. Children love looking at the widgets that show where our visitors have come from. It gives students an authentic, global audience for their work - work that would otherwise only be seen by myself, the students and a few parents.
1b. I have a personal blog (in fact I have few scattered around the ether) that provides a space for me to share resources and ideas, but it's also a place for focus and reflection. I may not post many reflective pieces, but just having an outlet means that I am constantly thinking about what I could include, reflecting on my practice and the effectiveness of the tools I use in class.
My other point would be that teachers have to have, or contribute to, a blog of their own to learn blog specific skills and how to use the numerous plugins and addons that are available to enhance and add to children's work.
2. I honestly can't say that, after the initial bedding in period, a blog creates much more work for teachers. In the beginning it was, but that was part of learning to use a new tool and blog entries were usually published by me. Now I feel more able to let children publish their own work in class, read other blogs and add comments as part of our literacy cycle. This integration is something I'm still working on after having a class blog for nearly four years.
3. I've helped another teacher set up a blog for her class and have presented our class blog to the rest of the staff, with mixed positive and negative responses.
" Wow, that's great."
"I didn't know 8 year old kids could do that."
"That's an awesome audience for their work."
"What does this have to do with teaching and learning, or anything?"
Michael F.
glenview9
teachernz
@teachernz
Creating a learning community online with kids makes learning more real, 'fluid' and fun. It is not creating more work for me because I love it. Manage it at your own level. In many cases it takes the place of marking in books as the kids are writing and creating online so you can access and place feedback online at your leisure. They are also more likely to read your feedback online as it means more to them than in a book which they don't tend to find as exciting. Kids are more enthralled by creating for a genuine worldwide audience rather than just one adult - the teacher - who may or may not even care or give meaningful feedback about their work. In online communities, which they are part of anyway, they get encouragement from each other and much wider audience.
Also, for teachers, PLN's [personal learning networks] online are valuable environments for like-minded, forward thinking professionals to meet, share ideas, engage in thoughtful debate and offer encouragement that may not be available in the limited scope of the school environment they work in.
Matua Haami - I can tell from the feedback placed here my greatly respected educators from around the world that you are doing a great job!!!
Interesting to read these ideas. I can appreciate the use of a blog now...hmmm well done grasshopper
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