Paper Blogging: Take Two!

Now launching - year two of the 4x blogs!  

Last year's experiment went really well - 4x published over 500 blogs posts!  Over 500 pieces of writing, artistic projects, personal experiences, and you tube videos about raining tacos were shared amongst a growing community of writers and communicators.  I couldn't have been prouder.  I learned a lot (which I mean to write about in a separate post) and I am really excited to see what this class of students does with the opportunity. 

This year's students really took the paper blogging challenge on with gusto (click here for a post on last year's lesson).  First we watched a really great video from BrainPop on exactly what blogs are and discussed the purpose of a blog: to share ideas and connect with other people.  I explained that paper blogging would let us practice the three roles of blogging (writers, readers, and commenters) offline before we moved online to our KidBlogs.  Then students got to work writing their first blog posts on something that they loved.  

It was really fun learning more about my kids and the things in their lives that they like and love to do.  I think they enjoyed learning more about each other too - an added community building bonus!  They added an artistic design and submitted it for "publishing".  This year we "published" the paper blogs on lockers.  We used post-its for "comments" and everyone was encouraged to make sure they continued the conversation.  They actually are going back to read each other's comments, ask questions, answer questions and generally make their paper blogs a really vibrant place for discussion.   Some students took the opportunity to redesign their blogs or added updated posts - all really cool ideas that they will be be able to do with their online blogs.  The next steps are to transfer these skills online, get used to KidBlog as an app/website, and start sharing, documenting, and reflecting on our work! 

Blogging about Blogging

It's been awhile (6 months - yikes!) since I've posted.  I have several drafts saved, but nothing published yet. Where did all the time go? I need to figure out how to maintain my blog entries while teaching at the same time.  Here's to a summer filled with time to complete a few reflective entries!

This school year was my first adventure with personal blogging, but also blogging with kids.  The whole experience has been wonderful and I highly encourage other educators to dip their toes into the blogosphere.  I have learned a whole lot and am excited about doing a second year in the fall with my students.

Working with our Idea Lab Coordinator, I set up a class account on KidBlog.
 I like KidBlog for many reasons:
1) They have a great app for the iPad which is wonderful in a 1-1 iPad setting
2) The kids don't have to have an email address to use this site or provide any personal information
3) Teachers have administrative control over all the student blogs allowing them to invite parents and others if and when needed.
4) The blogs are private, unless the teacher makes them public.
5) The site allows students to create video or text entries - LOVE!

Check it out: Kidblog.org

Prior to launching into writing entries we had discussions about our digital footprints.  These discussions were powerful and I intend to "beef" them up next school year.  We talked a lot about the lasting impression of our words online.  I wanted the kids to be thoughtful about what they wrote and how they presented themselves to their classmates and any others that might see their blog. We talked about how the presentation of their content was important and would leave readers with a lasting impression on who they were as a learner.  What lasting impression did they want to leave?

Stealing an idea from my colleagues, we started our blogs - on paper. Yep. Paper.  Baby Steps!
The beauty of the paper blog is that everyone could see all the blogs around the room at one time.  It was also a wonderful way to discuss commenting.    What was a productive comment?  What would be considered helpful or hurtful?

Our paper blogs had a border around the outside that the students decorated at home as an expression of themselves.  Then, the students wrote an entry about a small moment in their lives.  We brainstormed suggestions about what to draft and since we did this right around Halloween, many of the entries were about favorite costumes or trick-or-treating.  Once all the entries were complete it was time to read each other's work and comment.  We used post its to write our comments and off we went.

The kids loved this process but the best part was the reflection at the end. All of the students took the time to read their classmates' comments and then we came together.  I asked them, "What did you think about the comments?" We ended up with this chart:

This lesson is a keeper! When we went on to online blogging, the kids were aware of how their comments would impact the author.  One suggestion for myself for next year is to do this lesson again after they have had experience posting and commenting. I think that would elevate the comments even farther.

Getting up and running with KidBlog was super easy and the kids took to blogging like champs!  I invited the parents to join our blogging community by creating an Explain Everything movie with step by step instructions about how to sign in and comment.  To be honest, very few parents checked the blog, but when they did  leave comments, the kids were ecstatic!

When we first started blogging I had a lot of controls up. For instance, I made it so that I read every comment before it was posted.  I told the students that putting on those controls was similar to training wheels. I just wanted to make sure we were all in the same mindset.  One of my more witty students wrote the following comment:  "This is very fun but I hope you let go of the bike later and let us make decisions on our own."  

Hmmm.  Good point - thanks Nan.  So, I took off the controls and off they went.  I spot checked all the comments, but there was never a problem.  Sometimes a student would leave an inadequate comment, but the kids would call each other out and state that the comment needed more development.  Parents were even chiming in to their own child's blogs - which the kids LOVED.

The Aha! Moment 
What I quickly realized is that KidBlog wasn't for me to assess work or to see how well they were writing. Kidblog was about the kids.  It became an online extension of our classroom community where the students could share ideas, comment on work - have a conversation.  It is a beautiful thing.

Some of the posts we all did:

Reading Fluency
The kids used the video capture to record themselves reading their current read aloud.  After listening to their reading, the wrote a reflection on what they noticed and set a goal for the next trimester.  We did this twice in the year.  I would definitely do it more often.

Book Sharing and Reflections
After finishing each independent reading book, they posted a summary/book intro and a short reflection about the story.  It was a great way to track their independent reading but also a huge resource for the class to discover new selections.

Digital Portfolio
I'm still messing around with the best way to collect and share student work so we used KidBlog as part of this process creating a digital record of some of their work.  We posted pictures and/or videos of the projects kids shared with their classmates.  So, during the presentations the kids took notes and wrote down questions for their classmates. I made sure to take a picture of them and then airdropped it to their iPads.  Afterwards they uploaded their picture (and sometimes their presentation if it was a video) creating a new post.  Then the whole class added their comments for each of their classmates.  This kept their presentations alive long after the actual presentation.

Blog Mentors
One of our favorite blogging activities was helping a 1st grade class get acquainted with KidBlog.  The 4th grade students mentored a first grader and helped them log in for the first time.  The mentors helped the 1st graders create a video post as well as add their picture and change the background to personalize their blog.  Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!  We definitely plan to do it again next year!

So, there is my year of blogging with kids.  I'm super pumped about the next year and know that we will continue to explore KidBlog and how it can enhance our 4Z learning community! One idea I'm working on is connecting with another classroom and allowing online buddies to share blogs.  I have a friend that teaches in Hong Kong so this would also create a global aspect that is intriguing.

The sky is the limit!

Carrie Strine
http://theclassroommuddler.blogspot.com
Twitter: @carreenstrine

Proactively Teaching Digital Citizenship

The children are connected and online.   And now they are connected not just at home, but in school too.  With powerful tools, students are ever more able to find out what they want to know, to share that knowledge with people around the world, and to actualize their own ideas.   How does the role of the teacher evolve in the connected classroom?  Teaching with iPads has challenged me in ways I wasn't expecting and keeps me on my toes because while it's reasonable to expect a 10 year old to teach themselves to use a camera or an app, it is our job to teach them how to do what they are capable of well and responsibly.

I feel this responsibility most when we are discussing digital citizenship.  In the fourth grade we want our kids to be online in ways that are meaningful, but "Safety" and "Privacy" are illusions.  We can't promise to protect our students from all of the possible troubles being online brings, as much as we would like to.  We can teach students to proactively use technology in a wise and kind way.  We can teach them to decide what kind of mark they want to leave before saving, sending, or posting.  We can teach them to be good digital citizens.

Our fourth grade curriculum has a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, digital citizenship program that is co-taught by classroom teachers, our technology coordinator, and our librarian.  Good digital citizenship is not just an individual aspiration, it is a community necessity.   Ideas and norms are reinforced by all of the other adults and students in the building as we all work with the same lessons and language. Consistency is important in a connected school.  The expectations have to be the same for everyone whether they are 4 or 40.

 iPad Rollout Training Sessions and "Just In Time" Lessons

Our first sessions with the iPad are designed to introduce the technology (without assuming every child has had the same level of experience with the device) and its power.  After exploring the buttons and icons, we talk about what our tech coordinator calls "the most powerful app", the camera.  We spend time role playing different scenarios where a photo of someone might need to be taken and how to gain permission from others to take those photos.  Children are given the power and language to say no: they don't want to be photographed or they don't approve of an image or they aren't comfortable with how the photographer intends to use it.  Our class came up with norms and an agreement that we have posted and will refer to throughout the year.

This exercise made the teachers rethink how we document what is happening in the class (often taking pictures of kids in action without asking their permission).  We also developed a contract and those children who don't mind us taking their pictures for our Haiku page or this blog have signed it.  Those who are not comfortable with having their image shared will not be featured in any photos or video.

We are now preparing for training in Google Drive and our school Email system.  We will spend some time explaining how to use these accounts for our work flows, but we will also touch on the idea that these are their "professional" accounts to be used for school business.  We will review the major points of our school's responsible use policy, and we will practice email etiquette.

Our classroom generally suggests that students not email other students with their Sidwell Friends account unless it is school and work related.  We don't have the capacity to truly restrict their access so we do it on an honor system, and last year it worked fairly well.  This recommendation is always a debate, but it exists out of respect for different policies about email access among our families and to discourage writing and answering personal emails during the school day.  Fourth graders are also still learning to manage offline relationships and need to practice asking for playdates, joking, and apologizing in person.

Our technology coordinator is also developing a series of "just in time" lessons that will be touchstones throughout the year.  The topics include integrity, balance, and digital sharing.  With this model in place we are prepared to address any new situations that arise.  We hope that starting this dialogue in elementary school will impact our students' choices later on and that common language and experiences will enable them to navigate future opportunities with compassion and respect.

Project Redwood Literacy Connection

For the past two years, we have developed an interdisciplinary literature unit using a book called Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French, a SFS alum.

This book is taught as a piece of literature, and we explore the characters, settings, plots, and themes. Sustainability and stewardship connections are made, and students do research about the plight of the California Redwoods.  The characters also engage in questionable digital activities, which gives our students a chance to collectively discuss and evaluate such behavior in a meaningful way.  With lessons co-developed and taught by our librarian, technology coordinator, and the classroom teachers, students are fully supported as they grow their sense of citizenship in our digital world.

"May I take your picture?" - iPad Photography in the Classroom

Last week we had another introductory lesson for iPad use with our First Grade students, which focused on taking pictures.  We started by discussing why we might need to take a photo of someone.  Perhaps the student might need an image of a person in the story he is writing.  Maybe she is creating a photo collage to demonstrate something learned.  Teachers want to have photos of students to document what is happening in the classroom.  There are so many reasons why we might need to take a picture at school.  Now with iPads in the classroom, it is ridiculously easy to take multiple photographs.

In the classroom – how do you make sure everyone is ok with the picture?  To demonstrate, the First Graders acted out several scenarios and we created a flow chart on the board. 

1. Ask the other person if you can take their picture.  If they say no – stop.  Go find another person and start over.

How often do teachers just start snapping away in class to document the activity? 

2.  If the other person says yes, take the picture, and then show it to the other person for approval.  If he doesn’t like it, retake the picture until it meets his approval.

I know as a teacher, I am often guilty of not doing this step.  When every child asks, “Can I see the picture?” I am thinking that I have 24 kids to photograph and showing each of them the picture will take time.  In reality, it isn’t too much time to show the picture and retake it if the child requests.  More often than not, children are happy with what they see!

3.  Once the picture is taken and approved, tell the other person what you are planning to do with it.  Then show them!

All of these steps may seem like very strict guidelines, but we are looking at a life lesson here.  If children can learn at this young age that they need to ask to first take then share someone’s image first, maybe then as these students get older, they will think twice before posting an embarrassing picture of their friend.

One of my goals for the year is to constantly be aware of when I am photographing the students in my class and letting them know.  I plan on telling the children that I am going to post the pictures to our class website and then showing it to them.  I was able to put this process in practice immediately as we made a grade wide movie trailer for a school assembly last week.  I had to explain to all 48 first graders what was happening, why we were photographing them and retaking several shots when students weren’t satisfied with the initial results.  It didn’t take as much time as I thought it would, and was a nice reminder to me that this is an important practice to demonstrate as we are asking the students to do the same thing.

iPrep for iPads: The Game Plan (and Blogging!)

With a great deal of deliberation, 4x has not launched the iPads yet. We will this week – the fourth week of school.  It is the halfway point in the first six weeks – a critical time for routine setting and generally getting to know one’s students.  We waited for a few reasons.  One, a guiding philosophy is that the iPad is a tool and one tool of many that students are equipped with.  It can be perfect or wrong depending on the task, and our students need to now when to use it and when to put it down. Two, we don’t want the iPads (or any particular technology) to be the center of our classroom or our curriculum so we have been doing other stuff with books and color pencils and paper and glue and scissors and poster board.  The pedagogy is leading, and the iPads will literally follow.

When we do launch the iPads on Monday, we are going in with a game plan.  Our tech integration and rollout plan will include “just in time” digital citizenship lessons taught by our Technology and Idea Coordinator, guided discoveries of apps, introductions to supplementary accounts with GoogleDrive and Haiku, email etiquette and protocols, and the piloting of student blogs via KidBlog.

I've selected a few guiding principles or "professional development mantras" to help me stay focused throughout the year, and I look forward to conversing with colleagues about what motivates and guides them.

           We will focus on introducing open ended, creativity apps through meaningful curricular tasks and assignments. When exploring apps, we give minimal instruction.  There is usually a list of things to find or include; part of the learning process is figuring out exactly how to do so.  They teach themselves, each other, and often their teachers! Once the children know enough about these apps, the goal becomes enabling them to choose how to demonstrate what they are learning.  We want them to select the digital or non-digital method/format that is right for them.  We want students to think: 

• How can I best communicate what is in my head? 
• What project can I manage effectively and efficiently?  
• "What can I do well?"  
• "What risk could I take?"

I am most excited about our KidBlog pilot where students will curate their best work and reflect on their learning. Creating digital portfolios is an important next step - the absence of which left last year's program feeling incomplete. We have heard many good things about this platform, and I am hopeful it will help us achieve our goals. We are currently in the process of developing curriculum on publishing and commenting. Some inspiring work comes from:

http://www.notesfrommcteach.com/2010/09/learning-to-blog-using-paper.html

http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

If you have blogged with students (especially elementary school students) and have some advice, we would love to hear from you!