I decided to enter my class in this year’s blogging challenge. I do not have all the details worked out I must admit, but I like the student blogs I have visited. I am also interested in connecting my class to others around the world.  Some of my students have done well with writing their blog posts in their journals, so I am going to dive right in. Wish me luck.

I have had to let the idea of having a classroom Ning go. The site is blocked by my school district and I need to get my student’s into blogging ASAP.  I have decided not to do the wiki for my students. I think wiki’s look boring. I want more flash.  That decision was easy. The hard part is deciding to give all my students a blog to decorate and write on, or should I just give them access to the one 4thgradetech blog.  Let’s weigh them in.

All on one blog:

All of my students will blog on Thursday’s at the computer lab. I am not sure if the edublogs server could have that many kids publishing to the same space at the same time.

With everything on one page parents can easily click on the link from the class website.  I will not have to deal with students losing their blog address.

I am not sure if one blog will help me get the students where I want them. My idea was for each of my students to have special interest blogs where they got to choose the topics  and write all about that. For example: Jack’s All About Basketball Blog. If I put them all on one blog it won’t have that option.

Since the students will be writing in their journals and then the blogs, this may take time- more time for some than others. With one blog it may be more regularly updated. Also, the students may be required to have an email account. Our schools do not provide them, and I am not sure if  I want that responsibility.

I am ready to introduce blogging to the kids now. I could have them on the 4th grade blog sooner than the individual blogs.

I can use the 4th grade blogs for free!!

What do you all think?

In an effort to build a culture of reading, listening, speaking, and sharing I have been looking for that perfect web2.0 feature that will do it all.

First I looked to wikis.  I found that a wiki would be good for is group projects where students can collaborate and put all the information they found onto their wiki page.  The finished project would have each student’s contribution.  I used the wiki to publish information for my parents, but the no so good part of this was I alone was responsible for managing putting new information on the wiki.  Since I am moving toward more parental involvement and tapping into parent and community resources, I am not sure if a wiki is the best fit for my idea. Besides its not very eye catching. I need something that is eyecatching or is easy to make it so.

Then I considered blogging. At first 4thgradetech seemed to fit all my needs: sharing, reading, etc.  I or even the students made posts and commented on them. But, to keep it current meant I had to make post or I had to instruct the children on making post. Even when they learned how, they never got really excited about it. The other teacher blogs I saw that were active were all teacher posted or if the students posted, it seemed restricted to a few students. I assumed these were the students that were most motivated to do so. Another thing is you can’t see all the blog posts with out scrolling down and clicking to see older posts. Its like you have 3 seconds to catch people’s attention or they change the channel. I am not saying its the blog or the teacher’s  fault. I know I have to keep it going and stay excited about it before anybody else will.

I needed something that was a joy to do, keeps going even if I don’t post an activity or blog post, and met all the criteria I outlined. 

I think a ning is the answer.  I discovered ning when my the high school I graduated from started one.  When you signed up, you got your own little web page. You can upload pictures and video, start discussions, and blog if you like. If you choose to make you posts private only you can see them. Public posts are for everyone with access to the site.  I really got hooked on it and visited just to see what everybody else was doing. Then I found a ning that was dedicated to a hobby of mine. Ohh how the floodgates opened. I found myself finding videos and posting them, starting discussions, and posting updates on my blog.  With an ning there is a lot to choose from right there at the start up page. You can view someone’s video and or pictures they posted, check out who’s on at that time, see what discussions are going on, chat, see recent blog posts (I think I said everything. There may be more.) I started to think I had found the answer!

Get a ning going for your class. Right away I foresee a number of benefits:

1. Parents and students can build their own websites where they can blog about their families and personal celebrations.

2. The ning is not completely dependent on me posting or giving my students assignments on it.

3. The ning is right in line with the direction I am going this year- facilitating the students as they broaden their knowledge in things they are interested it.  If a child is interested in gymnastics they can blog about gymnastics, upload gymnastics videos,  upload pictures of famous gymnasts, and start discussions about gymnastics for others to share. Of course the ning will not be just self interests. There will be assignments and class info.

4. Even when my students move on to 5th grade they can keep their nings up by continuing to post. I can keep in touch with them and they can still contribute.

Just like blogs and wikis comments and posting are moderated. I plan on designating as many parents as I can get to be moderators. They will help me preview and approve posts.  There are drawbacks unfortunately. One is my school district blocks my ning site. So this means I cannot allow the class time I hoped for my students to use the ning. Another drawback is getting parents to participate as fully as I am counting on. I’d plan on using it with the kids everyday. One benefit of this would be for them to go home and tell their parents about how great it is. Then they would be more compelled to help with moderating. So I am still in limbo. Until I can find a way for the district to allow my site, I am going to have to do something else. So for now, I will link to the ning from the class blog and talk about it everyday to generate excitement. By parent night I hope the parents will have caught the fever and flood me with my request for them to help moderate.

Anybody else out there had experience with a ning? Got any tips?

My dreams of podcasting came to a halt when it took me an hour to edit a podcast my students did. The school district I work for implemented a ton of new initiatives and podcasting slid down from number 2 to number 100 on the priority list. But it is now summer and I am refreshed. So much so I bought a new Mac Mini. Thanks to Microcenter in Cincinnati I saved $200 over what I would pay here in Memphis. My children and husband have already started playing with  Garage Band. They’ve plugged in their guitars and recorded some tracks. I just read a review about Comic Life and Comic Life Magic that’s got me excited all over again. I want to bring the student’s stories to life and I was looking for a comic strip maker. Apple seems to score again with a user friendly, simple to use, awesome product making app. I can’t wait to dive in.

Last week I had the pleasure of working like a scientist. I was apart of a design team of rising 5th and 6th graders. We worked on designing things that would “cheat air” as we studied, “How Things Fall.” We had 4 challenges. The first was to build a better book support using only index cards, paper clips, and rubber bands. The second challenge was to control the way water fell so that we could get as many drops of water on the head of a penny as possible. The next challenge was to design a toy helicopter for a cereal company that would fall as slowly as possible as it twirled in the air. The last challenge was to design a parachute that fell slowly.

To complete these challenges we worked together. We offered ideas on how to improve our ideas in meetings called Solution Briefings. We took each others ideas to make the best product we could that met the criteria set under the constraints we had to work in. When we developed a final product we held an Investigation Expo to explain to other scientists what we had done. My group won second place in the whirligig contest. It hovered and twirled over three seconds in the air!

What do you think a President should do? What kind of person should he be?

Techie Teacher’s Weigh In.

I have posted a free audiobooks site before, but I would like to add this one. I found Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. As a parent I find that audiobooks help readers who enjoy a good story but get tired when reading.

Learninginhand – Podcasting in Education

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