Making the Most of Your Blogs

Now that you've decided to incorporate blogs into your classroom, it's time to decide how you want to utilize this tool. This blog will include helpful tips and some ideas to make your blogs be more than just words on a website. Here's the top ten ideas to make the most out of your blogs.

1. First, determine your purpose. How will your students use this? Will it serve as a general comment to a blog you begin or their own blog page so others can comment them? Find a site that provides what you’re looking for. Make sure the site you choose isn’t blocked in your district.

2. Plan how you will assess. Thoughtful conversations will be taking place on your blog. This might be the best way to determine if your students really “get it” or not. What do you want to assess? Detailed explanations? Thinking skills? Problem and solution? Grammar? Find the most important areas to assess and allow your students to create the scoring guide. This allows them to carry the tools and purpose personally. Copy the scoring guide so every student has one available to check when writing their blog. Model to your students how to use the program and provide some practice time with it. Younger students will need some experience before they’re ready for assessment. Fifth grade and up might only need one practice session

3. Find another teacher to collaborate with and discuss your expectations with them. This could be someone in your own district or from farther away. Assign each student a “blog buddy” based on ability or interests. This will allow for consistent comments instead of one student receiving an onslaught of comments while someone else doesn’t receive any.

Need some help finding teachers?

• Use the collaborator tool on Blogmeister
• Join Classroom2.0 to network with other teachers

4. Make students aware of their audience. When they realize the entire world is reading their classwork, they’re more motivated and thoughtful.

5. Use multimedia. Pictures, slideshows, and movies within your blog will engage students and provide visual literacy skills to reach higher order thinking. Slide.com or Picasa Web Albums are great tools to store your pictures online. Simply copy and paste the html code into the bottom of your post and your picture will appear upon publishing.

Keep in mind, though, multimedia should be used to enhance learning. Parents and community members love to see class pictures, however, your main job is to enrich the learning experience.

6. The purpose of comments are to make both the reader and the writer think. Meris Stansbury explained it well in the linked article. Students will learn more from adding information, providing challenges or asking questions. Cheerleading, or general praise from students regarding the initial post, only serve purpose to more cheerleading.

7. Include more types of collaboration than just the blog. If you have the capabilities, hold a virtual field trip to study with your collaborating class. Students can write their own questions and then quiz the participating class. Skype is a great way to communicate with others either via chat or through a live call. If a webcam or digital camcorder is available, use it to provide a visual for students.

8. Reflection is an important part of the learning experience so that students can learn from mistakes, look at what they've done well, and plan for future experiences. In order to encourage student reflection, provide prompts. In the prompt, list what needs to be included in the blog. Ask students to use details, examples, and evidence to back up their ideas and thoughts.

9. As stated in Stansbury's article, questioning and challenging provide the most opportunity for student growth. When commenting, pull up an example blog and model how to question for understanding, clarification, or even to challenge the writer with different ideas. At the beginning of a lesson, provide an essential question for the students. Often, questioning an essential question is a great way to get students motivated, engaged, and thinking critically about the lesson.

10. Use the tools frequently and consistently. After using the blogs on a regular basis, students will treat it like a discussion. They will form bonds with their partners and provide a great learning experience for them.

Wiki Wiki

In my last post, I gave the ins and outs of different blog sites and the benefits of utilizing blogs in your classroom. There are, however, many more tools than just blogs that can be used to motivate and encourage student learning.

One tool that is actually quite popular is the wiki. More than likely, we are all familiar with Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that provides up to date information regarding just about any topic imaginable. Just like Wikipedia, classroom wikis require users to have an account or user key that is provided by the teacher. Once the students have the account, they are free to edit the webpage as desired. Watch this video for a basic overview of wikis:

Like the video suggests, wikis are a perfect avenue for collaboration, or group work. I remember when I was in school and the teacher assigned a group project. This usually meant getting together in the evening or on the weekends, and working around busy schedules could be difficult to manage. With a wiki, the group could work together at their own convenience.

I have found wikis to be a great brainstorming tool. Furthermore, they provide the perfect structure to incorporate cooperative learning strategies. Vocabulary and test review are a few of the ways my students have used the wiki in our class. Take a look at the following examples:

Test Review: In this example, students created most of the review questions. Students logged into the wiki using the invite key, and then answered the question to the best of their ability. After a given time, they rotated to another station where a different question was waiting to be answered. The process continued until all questions were answered multiple times. Students were asked to not delete information, but either add to previous answers or state reasons for disagreement.

Vocabulary: I have a great speech teacher who always asks for new vocabulary words to assist with students in pull-out situations. In the past, I looked up vocabulary words and their definitions and emailed them to her. With the use of the wiki, this is no longer necessary. I simply add the vocabulary words to the wiki, and students use a jigsaw activity to add definitions. As in the previous example, if definitions are already given from another class, the students add to their definition. Because it's best to provide definitions with kid-language, all of the definitions differ to some degree. Pictures can even be scanned in and added. With this feature, I no longer have to make the vocabulary list. Not only is it now student led, but the information is available to all students and teachers anytime they need it.

Editing: Ever seen writing workshop in action? If so, you're familiar with students reading, editing, and revising classmates' writing. Following a given number of edits, the teacher conferences with the student and reviews the writing along with the student individually. With this example, students and even the teacher can edit and revise the work right on the computer. This can also simplify the process of teaching a mini-lesson for the teacher. There would be no need to make transparencies or scans of student work. The writing is held right on the Internet and ready to go.

I like the classroom applications Wetpaint suggests for wikis:

• Group projects
• Collaborative writing, such as newspapers
• Resource storage
• Communication for students/parents
• Assignment information and details
• Peer Review
• Frequently Asked Questions

Wikis are also an easy alternative to a class website if the software isn't available to you. In addition, they're free! Take a look at pbwiki, wikispaces, or wetpaint to find a format you like.

Thinking About Blogging?

I've spent the day working on all sorts of Web 2.0 tools, but my favorite is the blog. One reason I like it so much is because it is so versatile. It can be used to journal thoughts, ask questions, reflect upon lessons, or respond to videos, photos, or a given prompt.

There are lots of blogs students and teachers can use in their classrooms. At my district, there are four that can be accessed through the filters of our secure system. These are Blogmeister, Gaggle, 21 Classes, and Edublogs. I have a basic overview of the ins and outs of each site on my website. I've used more than one site to host blogs. I started out with Blogmeister, switched to Gaggle, and then back to Blogmeister because it is user-friendly for elementary students.

Blogging is beneficial for students in many ways. In an action research project, I found that students using blogs were more motivated and engaged. Students using blogs to both write, question, reflect, and comment others showed greater gains over a period of time and became deeper thinkers than students who were not blogging. One unexpected occurrence was peer teaching. After students began blogging, those that commented confirmed their ideas, strengthened hypotheses, corrected misconceptions, and even broadened understandings of various vocabulary terms. My favorite was when my class ran out of time while gathering background knowledge and vocabulary. I thought I'd have to use the next day's class time for that until I saw that our partner class had finished their activity and actually taught it to my students through their blogs. Way to reinforce our learning!

In addition, blogs are a way that the school day can be lengthened. In the above example, I could have easily assigned the homework of reading their partner's blogs and commenting them. If a student is absent, they can still participate in class as long as they have access to the Internet. Although we all teach students who fall in Title I status, a computer with Internet access in the home is almost as commonplace as a family vehicle. Libraries also offer free access.

In every classroom, there is "that one student," not the one that gets in trouble, but the one who is so painfully shy that you don't know if they truly understand or not. They'd never tell you. They don't want to speak up and risk the embarrassment. Blogs are a great way to get all students involved in discussions. They can also hamper the enthusiasm of the kid that never stops talking long enough for anyone else to put in their two cents. Because blogs can be posted instantly, you can immediately know if your students understand the lesson simply by checking your email.

So if you've been tossing around the idea of integrating some technology into your classroom, blogging is a great place to start. It's free, simple, and meaningful. You can even set up your account so all blog articles and comments go straight to your email for approval. Take a look at the above mentioned tools and see what you like. Happy blogging!

Welcome to My Blog!

Welcome!

This blog site was created to share tech tricks and tips as I learn them. One can only send so many emails before they realize they've got to be annoying people by shoving ideas in their faces constantly.

I hope you enjoy the information you find and can put it to use in your classroom.