Kids love to blog with kidblog!

As a reading interventionist, I have found it difficult to incorporate more technology, without veering away from the explicit instruction the students need to meet their learning goals. For me, blogging with students has answered the "how" in overcoming this challenge and has enhanced lessons, improved engagement and eased data tracking and feedback.

I am using kidblog with my students, which I prefer over edublogs, simply due to its simplistic navigation, but I would suggest exploring these or any other forums, to determine which is best for you and your students.

At first I decided to incorporate blogging into a fourth grade vocabulary group. For this group, I am utilizing a vocabulary program that is not engaging for students. Another goal for this group is to improve their written response capabilities. Below you can see some of the fourth graders engaged in a watching a YouTube video related to the content from the current unit in their vocabulary program.

I create posts related to their vocabulary words and units. The posts contain application questions about their words or supplement their understanding of the content with digital media. Students then create posts on their own blogs to respond to my questions, create reflections and provide feedback to one another.

One challenge with introducing blogging, that is a struggle in all of education, has been time. These students are not skilled at typing and therefore creating posts takes them longer than writing answers with pencil and paper. This is difficult when I only meet with students for 30 minutes each day. Aside from this, the overall blogging experience has been positive for me and for my students. I have observed students that do not usually talk much, find their "voice" and students that dislike writing are interested.

After seeing the changes in my fourth grade students, I decided to add blogging to both a second grade and a third grade reading group, as well. Currently, these groups have been synthesizing information from multiple resources and responding through their posts. I hope that I will soon be able to move away from this more "restrictive" blogging, and begin to allow students to post about their own interests and learning adventures. Below, a second grader is combining information from a printed article, online kid-news site and a video about fossils, to explain whether or not he would want to be a paleontologist.

I recommend blogging with your students in anyway you can. Now that my students have had a little practice with blogging, they are logging in from their homes and creating posts about books they are reading on their own time- writing summaries and simple reactions. Who would have thought that students would be completing extra work, on their own time, because they want to!

But don't just take my word for it, check out what these students are saying:

or these, or these, or these...you get the point! Its more than worth it!

Poll Your Thoughts

Take a minute to let the digital story sink in. Now I bet that wasn't the mystery person you were thinking of! Ok minute is up, now take another to leave your feedback.

Check out this post to learn more about using this digital story in the classroom or to get more information about creating surveys (like this one) with Google docs.

Can you guess who this is about?

Below is my digital story that is based on the works of the late radio personality, Paul Harvey Jr. Paul Harvey was well known for a series titled, "The Rest of the Story." Many of his stories from this series can be found and downloaded including here, from Torrentz. The most extensive list I have been able to find is the Paul Harvey Archives, but as of this post the archives have been taken down. I was introduced to these stories recently and thought that they could be used in numerous ways in the classroom.

The stories tell the unknown tales of faces from history and of famous actors. In my work in remedial reading, students need to understand story structure and this story, along with the rest in the series, is a great depiction of cause-and-effect. I also believe it will be interesting for students to understand how the event portrayed in this digital story, changed this person's life, and the lives of many, still to this day.

The "Rest of the Story" series will will keep you guessing, see if you can figure out who this story is about:



Unfortunately, after uploading the video it lost some of its timing and the pictures and narration got a little off track. This was a bit frustrating after taking so much time to play around with the timeline but I didn't think it was too distracting.

Please leave any constructive feedback but be sure to comment to let me know what use you see for this in your own classroom. 

Hey teachers! What does technology use look like in your classroom?

Teachers, I am interested to see how often and why technology is being used in schools. Please take this survey:

"But I don't like any of these books!?"

Any teacher has heard that comment before. However, with using in the classroom RSS you may never hear it again. Students can create their own RSS feeds to aggregate sites about their favorite things. Or if you do not feel comfortable with each student having their own reader you could create one for the class. This poses as a fantastic way to learn more about your students and for them to build connections with one another based on common interests. Troy Hicks presented this idea in chapter 2 of The Digital Writing Workshop.

I was so amazed by the simplicity of this idea and the large spectrum of impact this could have on students. I think of elementary boys that are interested in sports and science and cars, but do not have the books to foster their interests. These students can, with your help, find websites related to their interests that they can access through their personal or class RSS.

Wouldn't it be remarkable to have every student in your class reading and not only would they be reading, but they would be interested and engaged! Oh the power of technology!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Join over 4 million students in the largest learning event. Ages 4-18.

Sign up your students to represent the United States in the World Education Games. 

They are next week, they are free and they will spark an excitement for learning!

Cast Your Vote!

I was reading an article today that referenced a site that lead me to another that lead me to edublogs that intrigued me to explore more that led me to this and I actually stopped my adventure to share it!

It's the nominees for 2012 Edublogs Awards, category: ed tech blogs! I have only explored a few so far, but I like what I see. Vote by leaving a comment which one you like best and why. With everyone's feedback we will know which ones to check out and what they contain. Two that I will definitely return to are Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners (Susan Oxnevad) and iLearn Technology (Kelly Tenkley). CoolTools has great professional development sources for teachers to enhance their technology use. iLearn's focus is more on specific lesson and content ideas...it is thorough!

But without further ado, here are the nominees:

Cool Cat Teacher – Vicki Davis

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners – Susan Oxnevad

Doug Belshaw’s Open Educational Thinkering

Doug off the record – Doug Peterson

Educational Technology and mobile learning

Educational Technology Guy – David Andrade

Edudemic

Edukwest

Edutopia

Free Technology for Teachers – Richard Byrne

Gridjumper’s Blog

Hack Education – Audrey Watters

Ideas and Thoughts – Dean Shareski

iLearn Technology – Kelly Tenkely

Integrating Tech in the Primary Classroom – Kathleen Morris

Kleinspiration – Erin Klein

Langwitches Blog – Silvia Tolisano

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

Middleweb

MindShift        

Nik’s Learning Technology Blog – Nik Peachey

Nik’s QuickShout – Nik Peachey

Ozge Karaoglu’s Blog

Pediastaff

Speech Techie – Sean J. Sweeney

Teacher Reboot Camp – Shelly Terrell

TechChef4u

Technology Enhanced Learning Blog – David Hopkins

Technology Tidbits – David Kapuler

The Frog Blog

The Innovative Educator – Lisa Nielsen

The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom – Steven W. Anderson

wwwatanabe – Tracy Watanabe

Digital Learning Becoming a Feasible Possibility?

Get out the champagne, noise makers and dancing shoes: LET'S CELEBRATE! 

A new bill has been introduced to the House of Representatives that promotes digital learning and reform of educational practice. The bill, "Transforming Education Through Technology Act," fosters the ideals set forth in the National Education Technology Standards for teachers and students. 

Included in the draft of the bill are implications for funding from the federal government to support state and local agencies in implementing technology usage effectively in all K-12 schools. The funds are not only to be used to strengthen school infrastructure, but also to provide educators with professional development. An important note is that the document includes objective skills for students to develop but also for teachers and administrators. For an overview of the bill you can read this blog post from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

A New Level of Sportsmanship

I just wanted to share this video that a colleague showed me recently. I know it isn't related to using technology in schools but it was an amazing example of student sportsmanship and maturity. Its a tear-jerker so be prepared.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

This Friday is Read Across America Day in celebration of Dr. Seuss's Birthday!

What are you doing with your students?

You may be inspired, but have you ever been webspired?

In an ongoing discussion with a colleague, on how we can help our school adapt to using more technology to create in depth learning experiences, we came across webspiration. Webspiration is a software option offered by Inspiration, a program known for its concept map and outline creations. I think teachers will be most open to using more technology in lessons if they are all introduced to the same resources. That way they can more easily access tech support from their colleagues and collaborate on lessons. I embedded the tutorial video but I am curious to see if anyone has used webspiration, either for a class or with their class. If so, did you like it? Was it easy to navigate? What age group do you think it seemed best aligned to? Or just any other feedback you may have. 

Finding the Time

It's hard to feel inspired and overwhelmed at the same time. I truly want to offer my students a 21st century education that allows them to share and display their learning with the technological resources that are available to them. We are all familiar with research that points to technology as the vessel for students to develop higher order thinking skills, but when it comes down to it, this picture says it all.

Common advise would say start slow and pick one thing to start with and build from there, this sounds easy but with so much new information being introduced at once about different resources it can be difficult to pick that one item to integrate into learning practices, in order to get the "most bang for your buck." We teachers know that trying something new requires extra planning, which means extra time, which leads to the "when" that no one has an answer for. Here are some links that should help to alleviate "the when" and make it easier to understand just how you could use some tech resources in your classroom.

1. iPad Apps for collaborative learning
2. iPad Apps by grade level
3. Ways to use Skype
4. Twitter 

Or if you feel confident in the quality of your Web 2.0 Classroom check out these other ideas! All of these links are posts that came from the edudemic blog, which is worth "the time" when you have it.

Is a picture worth a thousand words?

No, a picture is probably worth much more than a thousand words. New resources are available that are appropriate for supplementing, enhancing and assessing learning. I refer to these tools as "new resources," simply because they are completely new to me. I had not heard of them in general, let alone knowing their educational potential and value.

Flickr can be used as a source to create digital stories as presentations, slideshows, picture field trips, illustrations of poetry, portfolios of school work and opportunities to locate places and teach geography with Google Earth (Richardson, 2010). I love the idea of creating picture field trips or annotated picture biographies or autobiographies. Ficktion is a game where students can select a random picture to write about and post their story to the picture, click on the link to see some that have already been posted. To expand your learning about Flickr check out the Flickr FAQ or if you are already familiar with the basics take a look at this list of 100+ Tools for Flickr Addicts.  Another similar tool I came across was the PixnTell App that can also be used to create digital stories or videos. This blog post discussed how a third grade class used PixnTell with iPads. Students worked in pairs to create videos for classroom procedures.

The cohesiveness of these tools is their best attribute; I am impressed with Flickr being connected to Google Earth and that you can subscribe to picture libraries on Flickr by adding a specific topic search to Google Reader or other RSS feeds. I am beginning to understand the depth to the Read/Write Web. These resources create opportunities for learners to write creatively, analyze and synthesize information and to become producers and editors. Using these tools our students can create original pieces of work and use them to foster conversations with other classrooms, post on a class webpage to open communications between school and family or explore an unknown world through a collection of pictures. Providing students with ways to use these technologies will build their understanding of becoming 21st century learners and contributors. These options make it clear that yes, a picture is, without a doubt, worth more an a thousand words.

New Release!

Hi Bloggers! After bouncing some ideas around with a colleague I have updated my Animoto: Characteristics and Feelings to Foster Connections. Here is the new release, hot off the web:

Characteristics and Feelings to Foster Connections

Its February, and in my school that means we are in the middle of "CMT Push." An unpleasant time when we cram as much testing taking practice and comprehension skills into our reading instruction. One area that is a heavy-hitter on the CMT is good-ole Strand C: Making Connections. My students generally struggle with the making a connection verse identifying a mere a coincidence. I teach students to make their personal connections to a character action, feeling or an overarching theme. I created this Animoto to foster inferencing of characteristics and feelings through the analysis of pictures- check it out!

I even thought that as an extension activity: students could each select their own characteristic and comply pictures that depict that characteristic! Can you think of other ways students could explore this content further with Animoto?

Have you met my friend Diigo?

No, not Diego, Diigo. If you haven't met its about time you did. Diigo is my personal librarian and is a tool for you to collect, organize and analyze any and all information you find interesting. From literature and links related to your occupation to websites you want to save when you have some room on your weekend To-Do list.

Diigo allows you not only to save these links, similar to bookmarking, but you can also access your library from any computer! Take a look at how Diigo came to be...

I have used Diigo everyday since I subscribed just a few weeks ago and my Diigo library already contains over 30 items. It is important to tag, label and highlight each item so that you can keep everything organized for easy access. I have found Diigo super helpful in organizing my favorite recipes and keeping track of trucks for my husband, since he is in the midst of a vehicle search. Don't just take my word for it see how Lucy has used Diigo as well. No matter your personal interests or occupational obligations Diigo can help make life easier! Some of its basic features are spotlighted in this diagram. 

Subscribe to Your Own Personal Newspaper

Do you feel the same way? Are you sick paying for the whole paper when you just want the sports section or to glance at an overview of the weather?

If you like the sound of reading material being personalized to your interests and delivered directly to you, not on a daily basis but in constant updates, you need to subscribe to an RSS: Really Simple Syndication. If you have a Google account then you already have access to the Google RSS tool, Google Reader, or click the link to subscribe to both. Google Reader, is one of many RSS feeds, that allows you to "subscribe" to the sights you are interested in and then allows you to view all of their updates from one location. If you are interested in learning more, explore the Google Reader Blog or its video for beginners posted below.

Now get started with selecting the pages for your personalized daily read!

Communication Evolution

In reading through posts on the Integrating Technology and Literacy blog and 

the blogs of my colleagues I found myself wondering two things:

1. How will technologies change education as we know it? 

and

2. When will local governments/districts accept these changes and provide teachers with the support they need to integrate the available tools into the learning environment?

My first question popped into my head when I was reading Judy's post about the New York Times article:  Education Needs a Digital Upgrade. Its hard to imagine what changes will occur because education is so slow to make any type of change in the first place. It seems as though by the time a change has occurred it is already outdated. For example, schools that may have purchased new computers five or so years ago are now missing out on the conveniences of a rolling cart of thirty iPads. Just check out this timeline of technology starting at the turn of the century from the blog Dusty World in a post about Forecasting the 2015 Classroom.

How can districts even afford to keep up with the changes? I am in complete agreement that it is the job of teachers to transform the mind of a child into a "global citizen" that is ready to be a member of the 21st century workforce. But how can you mold a student and prepare them for something that we have not yet heard of? Teachers, it seems, need to be competent users of all the newest tools and technologies in order to turn-key our learning to the next generation.

This brings me to my second thought. If society is asking teachers to be prepared and willing to participate in an education make-over, then other questions need to be addressed and answers need to be constructed. I don't believe we should be scrutinizing teachers for not using enough technology or not using it in the right ways, but the watchful eye needs to be evaluating the opportunities local governments and districts are proposing for teachers to learn about these tools and develop these competencies. I briefly commented about this on Brian's World because similarly I have been excited to try new things with my students. In my own school, I see a lot of technology being wasted and 9 times out of 10 it is not because teachers do not see the benefits or motivation technology instills in children; it is mostly because the teachers have not had the time to be exposed to how the tools can supplement their lessons and they are also not given the time to try out the new skills or collaborate with peers.

Does your school have access to updated technology?

Do you see the technology in your school being used effectively? 

How much support are your districts providing you with in this implementation shift?

and

If you are not in the education field, how is technology changing your line of work?

Age Doesn't Matter

I am shocked.

Youngest Person to develop a mobile game App, and the award goes to....

The Starting Line: blogs and wikis

After reading chapters 3 and 4 in Richardson I thought about how it is easy for teachers to think of how to scaffold learning for their students but for some reason it seems like we forget that step when it comes to our own learning. We can't just expect to know how to do this the right way the first time and instead need to scaffold our learning, or in this case our blogging and start to the Read/Write Web. Richardson suggested that if blogs are new to you start by exploring other blogs to see the potential uses, formatting and the commonalities between blog posts. Richardson states, "As you get more settled into the rhythm of posting, begin to write more in depth about your reading, drawing on your own personal experiences and reflections. In this way, you'll come to understand the true mental work that is blogging."

I think the "mental work" that Richardson is referring to is the crafty voice that many blog authors have, along with the connections bloggers include in their posts: pictures, links or videos. However, I see the mental work differently. In creating my posts I rethink everything sentence I write because I know that anyone could read it. I think this "mental work" will be similar for my students because they will be more cautious about their writing and responses since they know their peers or even parents can read their work. Hmmm, what is that I smell? Ownership? Accountability? Motivation? Engagement?

If you want to take that first step and just start exploring the who/what/when/where/why of blogging, signing up through Google Blogger is really easy (take it from me who is a newbie to this). Those of you interested in blogging with your class a couple of good start up options I'd suggest looking into: Edublogs.org or 21classes.com. Both of these options allow the teacher to monitor posts and set access. Edublogs has over 300,000 education blogs!

And on the idea of wikis, what do you think: Wikipedia or Whackypedia?

I was always under the impression that it was more of a "whackypedia" but in reading some of the facts and research included in Chapter 4 of Richardson I am beginning to think otherwise

Online Collaborative Inquiry: Classroom Blogging and Multiple Literacies

This article is such a strong representation of how blogging can be and is incorporated into classrooms of all grade levels. I love the list of blogging ideas Arzt provides and it is a great way for teacher's to begin their blogging adventures. For those of you like me that haven't used blogging in school (or ever) or are skeptical to how blogging can change the learning experience, get exploring! One first grade teacher used a blog to showcase student work but said that students wrote from home because they "wanted to" and the blog was visited over 21,000 times! WOW! These bloggers are children in first grade! Although the class blog is mostly a collection of work and the class's learning adventures, you can see how moving it would be for a busy parent to go to the page and feel completely connected to their child's life at school. With this connection, parents can use what they see on the blog to foster conversations with their children and ask questions about what and why they are doing certain things in school.

I was also blown-away by the possibility of international learning connections. Classrooms can participate in Quadblogging or in the Global Read Aloud Project that allows them to learn, connect and communicate with students from around the world. How moving!--its experiences like this that will make our students global citizens.

animoto and engagement

Animoto is an easy tool to learn to use, you just need to take the time to think about the curriculum you teach to see how you can use Animoto videos to engage students in learning or create ways for students to use Animoto as an assessment tool for them to demonstrate learning. There are many sites providing educator's examples of how to set up and use Animoto. I found this simple to follow, "how to" video, that provides step-by-step instructions for signing up.

In school I work as a small group reading teacher that focuses on the explicit needs of the students. At first I was stumped as to how I could incorporate Animoto into my lessons. Then through investigating previously created videos I realized an Animoto could be created for just about anything. One video displayed the sight words that a kindergarten class created using pretzels. The video could be sent to families or used in class to build sight word fluency. To me, it seems like Animoto is a great tool to build home-school connections. Video links could be sent home so that parents can see what their child is working on at school or the video can introduce the new words students are learning that week, so that parents can be more involved in their child's school experience.

What a great opportunity for students to share their learning! Students can create Animoto videos to demonstrate learning through pictures and words. I have seen student Animoto's that are responding to a set of reading comprehension questions and ones that are culminating projects to a unit. This would be perfect for fourth grade students to use to demonstrate what they learned through their Social Studies unit on states. It could be similar to this grade 6 student's video on Northern Africa. Using Animoto as an assessment tool supports the NETS for students, standard 1: Creativity and Innovation.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

How has searching through the blogs of students and educators inspired me?

Better question: how hasn't it?

I guess I never thought of blogging as a profound technology that can create endless learning possibilities but that is exactly what it is. I always think of how inspiring it is when a teacher actually has the time to sit down with a colleague and bounce ideas off one another- its great when it happens, but these times seem to occur so rarely because time is usually not on our side.

Blogging doesn't require a mutual time slot for this. You can post or search through blogs on your own time, you can find ideas you like and ask questions about implementation or post a question to your blog followers for ideas and await their responses. Endless possibilities.

For example, in my searches this morning I found this wonderful post: What's the Hype with Skype? from Krissy Venosdale's blog that shared ways to use Skype as an educational tool. I have only used Skype once in the school setting. When I used Skype it was when I was filling in for a co-worker on maternity leave and we Skyped with her each Friday so that she could maintain a connection with the class. The students would present to her what we had been learning but I never thought of the possibilities beyond this and wow are these ideas something to think about.

Has anyone used Skype in their teaching? If so, what did you use it for?

Oh the Possibilities

After reading just the first two chapters of Richardson, I feel inspired. I know I can't do it all but I am excited to start. I am looking forward to using the free tools that are available to us, as teachers and as citizens, to create interactive learning opportunities for my students. One of my favorite quotes from the reading is the comparisons between writing and blogging: "Writing stops; blogging continues. Writing is inside; blogging is outside. Writing is monologue; blogging is conversation. Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis." I liked this so much because it seems that a lot of formative assessment is handing in a culminating paper or responding in a journal that a teacher scores and gets back to you, but a blog provides feedback opportunities from someone other than the teacher and the conversation and learning can continue beyond handing it in; publishing is NOT the end.

One issue that has continually been brought up at school has been how to motivate our students and how to get them to that "next level of achievement." How do we move beyond proficiency and push our students to achieve at the goal and advanced performance levels? I think that blogging could be the answer we have been looking for; blogs are tools that engage readers with ideas, questions and links and they seek response and commentary and advocate collaboration. We want students to take ownership in their work and seek further knowledge. 

To me it seems that blogging opens doors to endless possibilities and provides opportunities for students to submit works and receive feedback from peers and contributors that are not always their teacher (fancy that). I think this work is easier said than done and that a lot of planning and pre-teaching must be happen to have a classroom blog work as an effective learning tool. Even at a whole school level, positive implications can be seen, take the school webpage from Meriwether Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR for example. This page shows a wide range of interaction possibilities. In exploring the page it is obvious the second that it loads that the school's site is more of a news outlet than a site to answer the who, what, where of the school. Just the homepage features 5 posts of school activities in the past week, what an easy way to build a school community and create rapport and bonds between classes, families and community members.  Are blogs the answer to student engagement and family involvement?

New Literacies and NETS

When I think of New Literacies, in its upper case form, I am reminded of my coursework in emergent literacy development. I connected the idea of New Literacies to the visual representation that is commonly connected to phonological awareness- a large umbrella. The umbrella was the overarching skill (phonological awareness) and underneath were the components of this "bigger picture." To me, the umbrella of New Literacies, is the skills students and global citizens need to have to successfully interact with the internet as a learning tool. In "Comments on Greenhow, Robelia and Hughes: Expanding the New Literacies Conversation,", the authors state how new literacies can have different meaning to different people. New literacies, in its lowercase form, were those underlying skills of the umbrella, the concepts that need to be achieved in order to reach full aptitude of the overarching idea. In the case of New Literacies, it was important to note that although the new literacies build and further learning possibilities, these skills are continually changing along with the bigger picture. Also, new literacies differ for each person because each persons motives and objectives differ as well.

Think about the constant improvements and changes being made to the internet and the endless possibilities it holds. Parallel this thought with the many schools already behind in educational technologies and think, will education ever catch up and maximize the potential in the internet as a learning tool- as an instructional means to extend learning and increase engagement, collaboration and reflection?

In the recent years of educational reform there has been lots of attention and time focused on learning standards; state standards, national standards, content standards. Although they have been mentioned and grazed over there has not been much thorough discussion on technology standards (at least not at my school).  Administrators look for technology use in lessons and teachers experiment with using the internet to supplement their instruction, but without a rigorous expectation of technology integration and accountability, education will continue to be well behind in instructional options.

The National Educational Technology Standards mirror the lack of discussion in the manner that they too are vague and lack specificity. The NETS for teachers and students both follow five main ideologies. Interesting to me, were the standards for teachers and the action verbs used to describe teacher roles in student learning:  facilitate and inspire, design and develop, model, promote and engage in growth and leadership. It isn't that I do not think this is too much responsibility on a teacher, because these are the things we do for our students on a daily basis, but in terms of technology to teachers have the skill set or opportunities to develop their own tech skills in order to teach today's students? 

From these initial readings and looking closely at the standards, I think an easy way to start incorporating technology into lessons would be modeling the way I navigate the internet to show students the videos or articles I was already planning on sharing. Teachers (including myself) will often have links imbedded into presentations or sites already up and waiting for lessons however I could see getting to these resources a lesson in itself. Students, especially elementary students, could benefit from seeing how to search a webpage or check validity of written works. 

Meet Me

Hi everyone,
My name is Shannon. I teach reading to PK-grade 6 students at CREC Montessori Magnet School in Hartford. I have taught there for 3 years and teaching students how to read/expand their literacy skills is a unique challenge but the students can always bring a smile to my face.

I just got married in the fall and we are currently making updates to our condo in order to sell it and start house searching. My husband and I have a 3 year old hound-mix, Bo. I love doing things outdoors, trying new things and anything that involves traveling.