Sixth week

What a difference a week makes.

5th Grade

One class is starting to use their blog! The teacher asked a question "What is your favorite book? Tell us a little bit about the book and why it is your favorite." A basic question. The students answered her question in the comments section, rather than writing new blog posts. This works because she can 'moderate' their posts, which means not allowing them to show until she approves them. Then she put a comment that had all the pieces she wanted up on the Interactive Whiteboard and the class talked about what is needed when they comment on a post. She is liking it! I am so happy I can't stand it.

 

I set up another blog for the special needs teacher in 5th grade. She had been using Weebly, but I think Kidblog will more suit her purposes (she thought so too). This illustrates something that I know will happen again and again. What I am trying to do is to match up the right tool with the right class or the right teacher or the right subject. This may take a few tries. The first blog I set up for her was very clunky to use on iPads, although I think it would have worked on a desktop. This new blog works better on iPads. She is enthusiastic about this so I am hopeful the new blog will work for her students.

 

2nd grade

They are still not using their blogs. But they DO use me, so I am less concerned about this. They are very welcoming in their meetings and ask me lots of questions about websites to use for their content. And they use what I give them. This makes me feel like THEY are in charge of how they use technology, and that is fine with me. They want to use technology, but they are deciding how. I will keep giving them ideas :)

 

One thing I may not have mentioned before is that two other specialists, the art teacher and the music teacher, have started blogs as a communication device for parents and teachers. The specialists have divided the blogs into grade levels and put activities and websites on the blog for each grade level. Very useful. Now I need to do that for Media...

 

Yay blogs!

Fifth Week

Not much is happening.

This makes me very nervous.  I can't seem to allow any downtime for this project.  If I am not moving forward I feel I am moving backward, not pausing.

5th Grade
They are not using their blogs yet.  They are not using the software Read Write Gold yet.  They are not doing what I want them to do!
There are lots of reasons for this.  There are only three teachers, two regular ed and one special needs.  Actually, the special needs teacher has started teaching her students to blog.  But in her class each student has an iPad.  The regular ed teachers have 5 laptops per classroom, so that is more of a challenge to schedule.  One regular ed teacher was out for more than a week, so they are still catching up.  They are swamped with other initiatives.

Still...

If I accept that they just haven't used their laptops yet, which I can, what can I do next?  I cannot figure out more useful ways to help them integrate writing in blogs into their classroom routines.  My plan right now is to be at all their planning meetings and just talk about it every day.  Cheerfully, positively, and helpfully.  And keep thinking of ways to make technology useful enough so they are attracted to it :)

2nd Grade
They are not using their blogs yet.  But I have a different attitude toward this group because they are definitely asking me to do things!
They are starting to teach more content with their reading and writing.  So they ask me for books, for websites, for videos, for anything I can find that will help them teach content.  This is very fun for me, my favorite part of being a librarian, so I help them all I can.  They also ask about how to embed videos into the software for our Smartboards, and other technology questions, so they are getting more tech-savvy themselves.
As I am finding stuff for them, I am starting to understand a little of how their classrooms are working. So I think blogs will fit into their classrooms very well.  They are on their second unit of science, which will be about weather.  I am again giving them lots of support material.  But I will also do the same thing as the 5th grade.  I will go to their planning meetings and talk about how blogs could help them.  I will talk cheerfully, positively, and helpfully.  I have more hope with this group that they will actually use them :)

On reflection, I am not moving forward or backward, I am paused...

(In first sentence you say you are not pausing, but moving backward.  In last sentence you say you are paused, not moving backward.  Do you want this contradiction?)

Fourth Week

Maybe I am getting used to this combination of ups and downs throughout the week.  Maybe.

Up
I started teaching research to one 5th grade class using software called Read Write Gold.  The teacher is on board as a result of this lesson, likes the software, thinks it will be great for doing research with her students, wants it on her laptops in the classroom.

Down
The software didn't work on all the computers in the lab.  It will take a week or so to get all the computers loaded with the software.  So I was only able to SHOW the students what to do, not have them all do it.  Not a great way to teach.  I had checked the computers by starting the software, but only did it on one computer at a time!

Up
I was given a tip (thanks Ron!) to use KidBlog to make classroom blogs so each student can have their own blog.  Very easy to set up and use, easy for the kids to use, can be moderated so the teacher can approve  comments and blog posts.  Great for writing in the classroom.  Set it up for both 5th grade classrooms.

Down
One teacher was gone for a week (something totally out of everyone's control, I know). Now he is swamped and will not be getting to these blogs for a while.

Up
One second grade class is using her blog and classroom website to enhance and differentiate learning in her classroom.  Example: they are learning about the Sun.  She has gathered books, websites and videos wthat are embedded in her website.  The students gather information from all sorts of different places.  Today she will have them write comments on her blog answering a challenge question.  Yesterday I was chatting with two students from her class and they (without my asking!) told me all the wonderful things they had learned about the Sun.  They were excited that THEY had learned it!  Another teacher reported one of students saying "We are like high school students!  Doing research!"

Down
There are three second grade classes.

Up
All the 2nd and 5th grade classes (those are the two grades I am focussing on this trimester) are practicing keyboarding in the computer lab once a week.

Down
Can't think of a downside to that! 

So - I may not be getting used to the ups and downs while they are going on, but in retrospect they are a natural growth cycle.  I know that I am learning more and more helpful tools that can be useful to teachers.  When I remember that my teachers are doing MANY more things in a day than trying to incorporate technology into their curriculum, I think they are doing a great job trying the things we talk about.

Yay Teachers!

Third Week - blogs

This pilot project was proposed by my principal as a way to help teachers incorporate more technology into their teaching day.  The project entails me having less scheduled class time and more time to directly interact with teachers.

My reasons for doing this are changing.  Initially it was kind of a panicky response to the thought of our jobs in the district changing from mostly library to mostly technology (I can do technology!  Don't fire me!).  Then I took a class on PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) during the summer and got all excited about ALL the possibilities that exist using Web 2.0 tools in classrooms.  This was energizing but not very focused.

In talking to the teachers and observing what is and isn't yet possible in our K-5 school, I am LOVING blogs and classroom websites.  They enhance and utilize so many aspects of a teacher's day.

They can facilitate parent-teacher AND parent-child communication.  "What did you do in school today" becomes "I see you are learning to count by 2s. Let's practice!".  The parents who cannot volunteer still feel a part of the classroom.  It is yet another mode of making sure dates are remembered.

Writing!  Writing!  Writing!  Blogs are great for writing.  Many (most) of the ways teachers ask the students to write can be done with a blog.  Journals, discussions, challenge questions.  All can be done by a student on the computer posting to a website or blog.  For many of our students, who don't have a computer at home, these are critical skills for the rest of their school and work careers.  Any writing that is done on a blog gets two skills done instead of one.  Writing AND technology!  Win-win.

Teachers have a great place to reflect in blogs.  Personal blogs are amazing.  No one reads this one except other bloggers in my school, and I still think it is the most important thing I will do for this pilot project.  Any teacher on an evaluation year will have all their work and reflections recorded on a blog.  They can show week by week how it went, without sorting through papers and lesson plan books.

Sometimes I feel like a troglodyte in the blogosphere when I read about teachers that have been using blogs since 2000 and before.  But starting is important, and I am doing that!

There are other technologies that I love also, video being the number one technology that I could use every day all day.  

But I will concentrate on writing and blogs for a while here.  Knowing my focusing issues I may be talking about something totally different next week:)

Yay blogs!