Wednesday, September 16, 2009
How will I use this in my classroom?
Thinking about using a blog in my Primary Grade Computer Lab has my head spinning and swimming with ideas of how I will use it in the lab. I will definitely take it slow, as Will Richardson suggests in our text, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009). I think starting out with the in class chat feature that we have on our Vision program is a good way to get the students accustomed to writing publicly and responding to their peers in real time. I would probably want them to discuss the stories they are reading in their language arts curriculum to get them thinking about articulating their ideas and sharing them with their classmates. I hope this would give them a forum for preparing for writing assignments, quizzes and exams that their homeroom teachers are assigning. Giving the homeroom teachers an opportunity to see a hard copy of the discussion may help them assess whether or not the students are comprehending the concepts that each unit is trying to teach. It may give the teachers a heads up on what they may need to review or reiterate. If the in class discussions go well then I would like to take it to a blog on our schools website that all the 3rd graders and their teachers have access to read and post comments.
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John,
ReplyDeleteHow do you hold students accountable for their discussions? Do you think you'll have any issues with students having their own conversations on the side? I think it's a great idea to have hard copies of discussions for teachers, but I worry that by the time a teacher gets the transcript and reads it, it might already be too late to use it for teaching and grading purposes. What are your thoughts on this?
John, I also feel overwhelmed with ideas especially from our current Master's class. There are so many great technology tools that are out there to assist us in teaching to get away from direct instruction. When you post an assignment about a story, how do you get away for repetitive answers? My sixth grade colleagues use blogging on a daily basis. The students love it and are really motivated to answer the question daily. As a teacher that has not introduced it in my class yet, I am curious how to get students thinking outside of the box and not feeding off of other students responses. Have you considered this? I like the idea of using it as a review and seeing what needs to be retaught. Students would not be as nervous to answer if it was online verse a class discussion.
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ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteGiving transcripts of the students' conversations to teachers is a great idea. I know teachers that would find it interesting to see what students are writing about while "outside," the classroom walls. In writing classes instructors could assess the best ways to help students with writing complete sentences, fully developing ideas with topics, examples, support information, etc.
Other educators in your building might also find it useful to use some of the transcripts (changing names of course) as examples of how to edit sentences, decide if comments have enough information, correct grammar. I'm a history teacher and listen to me go on and on about teaching English. Believe me, I promise when it comes to teaching English I am not the teacher you want in the front of the room but I will be passing some of the ideas I have read on your blog to my friend who teachers writing courses to ELL students in my building.
I just started experimenting with the room chat feature last year and it is possible to monitor the discussion in real time. If students posted something inappropriate and/or off topic, I have the option of locking them out of the discussion. We discuss online etiquette before going into the chat area and they are aware that they are being monitored. I haven't had a chance to explore the full potential of this tool as I was out on sick leave since last February following an accident. I am looking forward to using it again with my 3rd graders this year. As far as getting a hard copy to the teacher, I have a network printer in my lab which I can send the transcript to while we are logging off and hand it to the teacher as they walk out the door. I do this with different assessments we have on our schools server as well. The teachers appreciate they instant feedback.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great idea it is important to start small in primary grades. You could even front them sentence starters due to the fact that some of them may not know how to start an online conversation. Also giving their teachers the opportunity to read the children's blog would be great feedback.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I would appreciate the instant feedback as well. I think it's great that you're able to provide teachers with such a useful tool. Do you think many teachers use the transcript or just take it and never look at it again? I know I would use it, but I can think of several teachers in my building that would throw it aside as soon as they got back to their classroom. Do you just hand them out as teachers request them?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work - You seem like you're already a pro at all this technology stuff!