I've been using Kidblog in my classroom for 3 years now and I absolutely LOVE how blogging engages kids in writing and representing and communicating. I don't think I truly understood the impact having an audience has on writing. I've always permitted my students to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted on their blog - within reason. We spend considerable time discussing what's appropriate and what isn't and I insist they treat our blog as an extension of our classroom. Other than that, they are free to use it as they see fit. I will often give them assignments on the blog as well and that opens up many opportunities for discussions around purpose and presentation. I've also been pretty tight with security. Like many people, I am wary of online predators, and we have many discussions about what we can do to stay safe online.
I think I'm ready to start taking more risks, though. I would like to open up my students' blogs to a wider audience and see what happens. I wonder how parents would feel about that? I think rather than dive right in, I would rather partner with one other class, somewhere else in the world, and have them share each others' blogs and see how that goes. I think it would also be really neat to create a story together with this other class using a wiki. Hmmmm. I need to start looking into that.
The first new thing I'm trying this year, though, is Edmodo. Our blogging space on Kidblog has turned into more of a Facebook type space than the "real" blogging I would like them to do. A friend of mine raves about Edmodo and has used it with much success in her junior high classes, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. So, my students have been told that their blog is a space to publish polished pieces of poetry and prose (sorry, got caught up in the alliteration) and that we would be using Edmodo for more social interactions and class discussions. I haven't played with it much myself yet, so I'm still not sure of all it can do, but it certainly appears to provide lots of opportunities. I've already posted a quick message to my class and 2 polls - simple "yes" or "no" questions about technology they have available to them. I'm excited to learn about what it can do right alongside my students.
Today, in the computer lab, I briefly introduced my students to Kidblog and had them start typing up a poem they had written in Language Arts. I was planning to introduce Edmodo as well, but we ran out of time. I quickly mentioned to them that if they wanted to check it out at home, they would have to go to the Edmodo website and that the group code they would need was in my Kidblog post. I didn't really think any of them would check it out just yet, but when I logged in tonight just to see, I discovered that 2 of them had. They had both left messages and one of them had even posted a picture and changed her profile pic!!! I so love seeing this kind of initiative!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Teachers and Researchers
I just got back from spending 3 days at CSSE 2012 - a national conference of educational researchers. I was invited as part of a panel of teachers and researchers to talk about my use of digital technologies in my Language Arts program. I was so focused on my part of the presentation that I don't think I gave much consideration to what I was going to get out of it apart from the experience of presenting my work to a larger audience. Turns out it was one of the best professional development experiences of my career so far and certainly gave me a lot to ponder.
As a classroom teacher, I haven't always had the most positive view of academic research. It often seemed so removed from the "real" classroom experience that it had little value to me and my practice. However, after spending a few days attending presentations and talking with a lot of researchers, I've come to the realization that I'm mostly just jealous. Most education researchers were classroom teachers. They know what it's like in there. But by moving to a more research-oriented stance they have the opportunity to do what I wish I had more time to do - reflect.
Teachers are all researchers. We spend all day gathering data from our students about what they can do and where we need to focus our instruction and attention. We use that data to plan our classes and help our students grow and learn, to figure out what works and what could use some tweaking. The complaint I hear most from teachers isn't about kids or parents or administrators, it's about time. We know that in order to analyze our data and become the most effective teachers we can be, we need more time to reflect, but by the time we get through a day in the classroom, attend meetings, make phone calls, assess student work, and plan what we do next, the time just isn't there to take a good hard look at everything we're doing and analyze its effectiveness or to search through the education research literature to see what the "experts" are saying. Not unless we wanted to live at school, like a lot of our students think we do!
That's why the research side of education is so important. Researchers are able to reflect more deeply on classroom practice than a lot of classroom practitioners have time for. But the most important lesson I've learned from my forays into the academic world of scientific research is that all teachers, to be really good at what they do, need to be researchers too. I think that the best way to improve education for our students is to build bridges between researchers and teachers, to open those lines of communication and have more dialogue and more partnerships between them. How do we make that happen?
As a classroom teacher, I haven't always had the most positive view of academic research. It often seemed so removed from the "real" classroom experience that it had little value to me and my practice. However, after spending a few days attending presentations and talking with a lot of researchers, I've come to the realization that I'm mostly just jealous. Most education researchers were classroom teachers. They know what it's like in there. But by moving to a more research-oriented stance they have the opportunity to do what I wish I had more time to do - reflect.
Teachers are all researchers. We spend all day gathering data from our students about what they can do and where we need to focus our instruction and attention. We use that data to plan our classes and help our students grow and learn, to figure out what works and what could use some tweaking. The complaint I hear most from teachers isn't about kids or parents or administrators, it's about time. We know that in order to analyze our data and become the most effective teachers we can be, we need more time to reflect, but by the time we get through a day in the classroom, attend meetings, make phone calls, assess student work, and plan what we do next, the time just isn't there to take a good hard look at everything we're doing and analyze its effectiveness or to search through the education research literature to see what the "experts" are saying. Not unless we wanted to live at school, like a lot of our students think we do!
That's why the research side of education is so important. Researchers are able to reflect more deeply on classroom practice than a lot of classroom practitioners have time for. But the most important lesson I've learned from my forays into the academic world of scientific research is that all teachers, to be really good at what they do, need to be researchers too. I think that the best way to improve education for our students is to build bridges between researchers and teachers, to open those lines of communication and have more dialogue and more partnerships between them. How do we make that happen?
Build Your Wild Self
Just came across the website http://buildyourwildself.com/. Considering that several of my students were talking about what animal they would be on Friday, it seems like the universe is handing me a way to build on their interests. I think I've just found the topic of their next assigned Kidblog post. I'm going to have them design their own wild self and then write a paragraph about why they chose each part. Now, if only Kidblog would let me post the assignment!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Welcome to Chaulk Talk
Welcome to my blog. I am a Grade 5 teacher as well as my school's librarian, resource teacher, and technology teacher. I teach a little music on the side and have recently started working on my Master's degree in education. I'm hoping to find the time and the self-discipline to blog regularly on my classroom experiences, particularly regarding using technology in the classroom - how I use it, what works for me, and some of the challenges I run into. I hope you find what I write useful.
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