November 6, 2013 by plemmonsa

4th Grade Blogging

All of our 4th grade classes are starting blogs. After meeting with the teachers and discussing their goals for blogging, we chose to use Kid Blog as our tool of choice. We chose this tool because it gives teachers the options to set several privacy settings, monitor posts & comments, and also simultaneously creates a class blog as well as individual blogs for all students. I showed the teachers how to quickly import their students into KidBlog and setup accounts. They each setup their own class.

Our 4th grade classrooms are all trying out a special time in their day called Heart Time. During this time, each student has a specified amount of time to work on something that truly matters to them. Some construct masks. Others explore drum making. Some spend time writing. The possibilities for this time are endless. There are many pieces to this time. One piece is for students to begin to learn about what matters to one another and spend time sharing and connecting with one another. The teachers’ hope is that these classroom discussions can be documented through blogging so that they document the process but also impact a larger audience than just the classroom. Other classrooms could learn from what these students are exploring. Also, members of the community might make a connection with a student and be able to share their own expertise with a student if they know what that student is exploring.

We held a kickoff to the blogging project. During the kickoff, all of the 4th grade classes rotated through 3 centers. With me, students learned a bit of history about blogging. We learned that in 1999 there was less than 100 blogs and today there’s well over 100 million blogs. We looked at this blog, and I explained how blogging has a purpose. Students were wowed when they saw the map of where people are reading the media center blog.

With Vicki Michaelis, a parent, students learned about how blogging is used in careers. Vicki does sports blogging through her career at UGA, so she was able to show students how she uses blogs to reach her audience.

With Heather Carlson, 4th grade gifted teacher, students explored blogging ethics and the importance of proofreading and deciding what to post or not post online.

Next, students will begin exploring their blogs in class and using this new tool to document their learning throughout the year. I can’t wait to read what they write!

February 26, 2013 by plemmonsa

2nd Grade Bloggers

Two 2nd grade classes have embarked on a blogging project with Shannon Miller’s students in Van Meter, Iowa. We’ve connected with one another via skype and read the book Same Same but Different. Our students have been working on writing their first blog posts on KidBlog to introduce themselves. My students did this on paper, but Shannon’s students did their work in Google Docs.

For the past 2 days, my students have been busy typing their first “About Me” blog post. While they typed, the teachers and I conferenced with students on their posts to check for details, spelling, and punctuation. Then, we gave them the thumbs up to publish their post. After publishing, students could personalize their blog with one of the KidBlog themes. Both days, the teachers and I were amazed by the students’ focus. They worked diligently for 45 minutes each day and were very willing to go back and check spelling and edit their punctuation. Again, I think that the idea of having an authentic audience is very motivating to the students.

Our next step will be to mail our rough drafts to Iowa where Shannon will have her students practice commenting on post-it notes before commenting online. Her students will mail paper copies of their posts as well so that we can practice too. From there, we will continue to post a variety of posts and comment on one another’s writing.

The students and teachers are fully of energy for this project, and we are excited to see the work that they are eager to produce.

Their blogs are located at Barrow Media Center 2nd Grade KidBlog. We invite you to read and comment on their posts.

Our very first blogger posted his “About Me” post

February 21, 2013 by plemmonsa

“Same, Same but Different”: Making Connections through Blogging with 2nd Grade

983 miles to Van Meter

I’m so excited about the project that two 2nd grade classes are working on right now. Mrs. Ramseyer and Mrs. Wright’s classes are connecting with Shannon Miller’s 2nd grade students in Van Meter, Iowa. Right now, our 2nd graders are working on opinion writing. The idea for this project started there, but it has grown into so much more through email and face-to-face conversations with the teachers and tweets, emails, and Google Docs with Shannon Miller.

Yesterday, the 2 second grade classes came to the library to kickoff the project. We looked at Google Earth and mapped the distance from our school to Van Meter Elementary in Van Meter, Iowa. It is 983 miles and would take over 15 hours to drive there. Students were also curious about how long it would take to walk there, so Google Earth showed us it would take about 304 hours! With the approaching snow storm, I’m not sure I want to try that one!

Next we talked about what it means to blog. I showed them the library blog and how it is read by people all around the world. We even looked at the Clustr map showing where our blog readers come from. I was trying to build their understanding of how large your audience is when you publish your writing online.

The students will use Kid Blog to create their blogs. This tool allows you to quickly create multiple accounts through an Excel spreadsheet upload. No email addresses are required. Then, all students have to do is go to the blog, select their name, and type in their password to type their posts. We took a look at this, and you should have heard the excitement when they saw that their names were already on the screen.

Writing our paper blogs

Finally, we had the kids brainstorm with a partner what they might write about in a first post. We wanted the focus to be “About Me”. Before we sent them to tables to write, I reminded them of the importance of not including personal information such as full names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. At tables, each student wrote a paper blog post about themselves. Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Ramseyer, and I all walked around and conferenced with students on their posts. We were impressed with how much students were willing to write. I was reminded of the importance of kids having an authentic audience for their work and how motivating that audience can be to even the most reluctant of writers.

Same, Same but Different will be a theme for our conversations

Today, we connected via Skype with Shannon and her students. We read the book Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. It was such a perfect book because it pushes the notion that all over the world we do things that are the same but they might look a little different. During our Skype, we paused and let the kids talk about Iowa and Georgia. They stepped up to the camera and asked questions about one another about the weather, activities, and school population. They made several connections to the story. For example, in Iowa it is about to snow a lot. It takes a major snow for them to get out of school. We get snow here in GA, too, but we get out of school if there is just a dusting. Same, same but different! As we blog with one anther, it is our hope to share our favorite books and opinions as well as continue to explore the idea of how connected we are in the world even though things might look and sound a little different. I have a feeling students will continue to say “Same, same but different”.

On Monday and Tuesday, our 2nd graders will type and post their blogs. We will mail our paper versions of our writing to Iowa so that Shannon’s students can practice commenting on them before they actually comment online. She will do the same with her students’ writing so that we can practice commenting, too.

From there, we hope to connect some more through Skype and through the continued writing of our blogs.