There is one obvious problem for me and blogs; it is so easy to get to "bird walking" as we said in the dark ages of teaching. It sure is nice to have that trail to follow back to where I started from. This is definitely cutting into my 'recreational' self selected reading.
When I was working to finish with Thing #3 I went to the link for How to comment like a king (or queen!) and ended up visiting many of the linked articles. Then when I came to the discovery exercise for this Thing I was naturally drawn to Cool Cat Teacher for the first selection I chose to read. I especially wanted to see her comments. I was intrigued that she chose to record her classes and then post those recordings. As I explored this blog I was led to a Wiki that was created by Cool Cat Teacher and Sharon Peters exploring the creation of an AUP that would cover the use of the recording and publishing in any format. She touched on concerns that all educators should be aware of and plan for.
The NeverEnding Search and PowerPoint reform was my next stop, and it too involved a trip to or all things a PowerPoint on how not to do them! The blog by a 5th grader really caught my attention because it seem to go so well with our school's use of Diana Day's vision management. How neat would it be to have each student's goals posted on a classroom blog. If a discipline referral ever came up the principal or assistant principal could just call it up on the blog and it could be reviewed and even responded to right there. I especially appreciated the teacher's reply which revealed his own struggles as a middle school student. Goodness knows we need to find every way we can to give our students the tools for success. They won't ever achieve a goal if it isn't envisioned to begin with.
Andy Carvin's response to a put down on cyberbullying was handled with taste and style. It gave the author room to respond without becoming defensive. It almost made me think that he'd followed the guidelines for responding to a blog. The last 'official' site I visited was from Wandering Ink and how our educational system stifles the creativity of our students. Our obsession with schedules and testing may very well be taking the wind out of the sails of many of our students!
Then just because I love having "critters" around, both at home and school, I tried to explore the Duck with a Blog, but that particular one always seemed to have me turning in circles.
When I was working to finish with Thing #3 I went to the link for How to comment like a king (or queen!) and ended up visiting many of the linked articles. Then when I came to the discovery exercise for this Thing I was naturally drawn to Cool Cat Teacher for the first selection I chose to read. I especially wanted to see her comments. I was intrigued that she chose to record her classes and then post those recordings. As I explored this blog I was led to a Wiki that was created by Cool Cat Teacher and Sharon Peters exploring the creation of an AUP that would cover the use of the recording and publishing in any format. She touched on concerns that all educators should be aware of and plan for.
The NeverEnding Search and PowerPoint reform was my next stop, and it too involved a trip to or all things a PowerPoint on how not to do them! The blog by a 5th grader really caught my attention because it seem to go so well with our school's use of Diana Day's vision management. How neat would it be to have each student's goals posted on a classroom blog. If a discipline referral ever came up the principal or assistant principal could just call it up on the blog and it could be reviewed and even responded to right there. I especially appreciated the teacher's reply which revealed his own struggles as a middle school student. Goodness knows we need to find every way we can to give our students the tools for success. They won't ever achieve a goal if it isn't envisioned to begin with.
Andy Carvin's response to a put down on cyberbullying was handled with taste and style. It gave the author room to respond without becoming defensive. It almost made me think that he'd followed the guidelines for responding to a blog. The last 'official' site I visited was from Wandering Ink and how our educational system stifles the creativity of our students. Our obsession with schedules and testing may very well be taking the wind out of the sails of many of our students!
Then just because I love having "critters" around, both at home and school, I tried to explore the Duck with a Blog, but that particular one always seemed to have me turning in circles.
Wow Mary Ann: What a great post. I love your idea to use blogging with Diana Day's Vision Management. DD is not new to me (Smith, you know), and we will be utilizing it this year for the first time at Galloway. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog post. I took much the same "trip" that you did! The stifling creativity blog was disturbing to me at the least. We really do this by almost declaring a "hands off" atmosphere as far as technology goes with our students. Students catch on quickly that thinking outside the box is not going to be rewarded. How sad is that? Your post was very insightful and helped me to assimilate my reflections on blogging.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Devoted Bookmama! I love the way you are providing links for your readers too. This is one of the great things about blogs - the way they allow me to click through and read for myself the information that the blogger is talking about.
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