High School students have American Pride

I was hunting around for school and found this awesome video by students. I thought I would share it with all of you.

Classroom Blogging

I think using blogs in a class to create excitement about writing is a great idea. For many students writing is a chore. I know that I enjoy writing on a computer better than on paper because of the ease to erase or move things around. Responding to a blog doesn’t seem as daunting a task as sitting down to write a paper. I like the idea that Julie Siporin had about having her third graders respond to Jefferson Bear’s questions (Collaborative Literacy article) The students weren’t threatened with feeling like their teacher was grading their thoughts because they were talking to a stuffed animal. When Brookover (Why We Blog)mentioned internal blogging for a department to keep communication open, it sparked an idea for me. I think a Media Specialist could keep a blog for people to read about the daily interactions in the Media Center. You can post about new books and have a short book talk about some great titles and people can read about this at home or while at school. Teachers can get behind this and even mention it in their classes very quickly. Having students and teachers post comments about the books is a great way to generate interest in literacy without it being yet ANOTHER ASSIGNMENT. The Talkback Project brings up a good point of administrators being able to see how collaboration became an important part of the students’ lives. The administrators and public are able to get a glimpse into a classroom without being intrusive. I think they are able to get a better picture of what is happening within the classroom by reading a blog. Students do not have to fear being watched, unlike a formal observation by a principal or administrator who visits the classroom. We all know how students and teachers can freeze up when being observed. I think it would be a great idea to send out an email inviting school board members and administrators to visit your blog and even post. It would be a simple way to create involvement by everyone in a low key way.

Blogging seems to be the “it” thing right now. Kids used to write in journals or diaries because they were the thing to do. But just like everything else journals have gone digital. Is this good or bad? I am not really sure. I think in some ways it is good to be digital and people can keep up with what you are doing. In the article Collaborative Literacy they state “Blogs are websites that allow individuals to create personal webpages of text, pictures, graphics, videos, and other multimedia with the same ease as creating a word processing document.” In starting my webpage I have found this to be true. It has been fun to create something that you can get started with my clicking on a background, clicking in a box and typing, and then hit the create button. Bam, you have a blog. I do have some concerns about blogging that Brookover addresses in her article, “consider why you will blog, the time commitment required, the scope of topics, whether or not to allow public comments, and how success will be measured.” I think that there is a time commitment that is easy to fulfill at the start of your blog, but later on the passion for posting can diminish and the blog becomes stagnant. As a teacher you need to think about how you will measure success or student progress along with the purpose of the blog. I think that we all need to be realistic about trying to integrate something new. Just as Witte talked about with her Talkback project, there will be some problems and the learning curve is sometimes steep. But we have to keep in mind the purpose is getting kids to be engaged in learning.In this day in age it means we need to embrace technology not run away from it. I plan to use technology and the internet to improve the way I engage my students. Hopefully this will spill over to other teachers as well.

Summer's over?!?

Where has the summer gone?  These 3 months fly by so quickly.  I am not quite ready for the school year routine.  I am glad that I adjust to the routine rather quickly.  It is a harsh reality when that alarm clock goes off so early each morning and my feet have to hit the floor to get ready for a new day.  I know that I am enjoying my last weekend of summer without the pressure of things that need to be completed.  I have to keep telling myself to take things one day at a time as well as one project at a time.  I hope that you have enjoyed this Labor Day weekend doing fun things.  This picture is from the Rose Gardens in Duluth.  It was taken a few years ago, but it reminds me that we are coming to the end of rose growing season.  I always hate to see that come to an end.  I love to go out on my day and smell the roses that I have growing, they always smell so good.