Wow, I am sooo excited with how much the teachers are seeing the impact of blogging in their classes. They are, themselves, getting excited about the new horizons they have in their class through this means. The kids are talking blogging with each other and their families - its on it’s way!
The newest class blogging at our school are a class of Yr 4’s. Please check out their blog and leave them a comment to welcome them to the blogosphere! Leave them your class blog and I’m sure they will visit you to do the same!
There has been lots of chatter about this in the blogosphere - check out the wiki here to see what everyone is saying and in particular I quite enjoyed Migel Guhlin’s response to what has happened.
So honest are the responses from the MiniLegends (see comments section on Al’s Blog)…
113. mini13 - March 17, 2008
When I hurd that we arent aloud to go on my blog I was angry because I wanted to talk to my mentor, I love to go on my blog, I like my clustermap and my pitcher, IT IS FUN!!!! We can always do something on our blog.
106. mini22 - March 17, 2008
Hi Al.
When I found out that our blogs were closing down, I felt confused, sad and angry. I felt really sad because I felt that all Al had taught us had gone to waste. We had a vote on a name for our new forum. The new name for our forum is Article 13. It means Rights for the Child.I felt better with my blog in many ways.
Taken from Al Upton’s Blog Comments
Doesn’t that say enough for how effective this was to these students?
Go ahead, read Al’s blog - read the 147 (as of 18/3) comments and the feedback from the blogosphere and decide for yourself…
This term I began my lead teacher release days - I work 1 day a week out of the class working in classes, with teachers and students to show and guide how to embed elearning into the curriculum and daily classroom life. I have to say I am absolutely loving all the questions, inquiries, challenges and laughs that this role is giving me. I am having the chance to work with such a variety of people and students - I love it.
The teachers at school have taken a great interest to blogging and it has been awesome to work with a range of classes to get them set up with a blog - in just over 2 weeks the results have been fantastic. Thank you to all you out there in the blogosphere who have commented and supported these up and coming bloggers!
So here is a wee plug for these young bloggers - add them to your reader and you won’t be sorry, they have alot to say and show, so be part of it!
I’ve been tagged by Allanahk for this Passion Quilt Meme through Miguel Guhlin- to post a photo of something that you feel passionate about, about children’s learning.
I’ve thought alot about this and there are several I could easily think of that I am passionate about.. one is hard.
But… I think the biggest passion for me is inspiration, connection and wonderment. I think connecting with students, teachers and others can be through a sense of WOW! I know that when I listen to others talk I often think wow about alot of things they are doing which inspires me to do more or better. Students know there is a world around them - let’s make them see the wow in what they do, the person next door to them does and the people in other countries do.
3 Simple Meme Rules:
Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter.
This week I have had the most amazing week. I have been out of the class working alongside students and teachers to develop and embed different elements of ICT into their programs. This weeks major focus has been on blogs. I worked alongside a fantastic teacher and 3 students for them to write their first blog posts. I actually only really taught 2 of them. Because then that one went on to teach another one how to write and publish a blog post, with me filling in tiny gaps along the way.
The coolest part of this was seeing the reaction from one student when, less than 5 minutes after he posted his work, he had a response. Thanks so much to my twitter network! This is the power of opening your classroom up to the world… and the benefits are huge! Check out their blog here… 25eps
I have just run a session with teachers looking at lookybook.com and also Knowledge-Net. Tomorrow I am working with more classes blogging, using bubbleshare and also iPhoto. I am absolutely loving working alongside different students and teachers in my 1 day a week and seeing the enthusiasm grow. It’s really amazing to be sharing some of the knowledge I have gained from my PLN and sharing it on with others.
So thank you for your inspiration cause you are part of this!
For World Maths Day we were hoping to have our first experience with voicethread… we couldn’t get the recording function to work because of certain reasons that are being fixed at the moment. So the kids have gone home to have a go at home if they can do it. Otherwise we would love you to take part in this - our very first voicethread…
Thanks to Allanahk and nzchrissy for helping me get this to work! You ladies are true legends!
Check out Chrissy’s great guide to embedding voicethread into your edublogs here.
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