Tenth Week

Skipped last week.  We went out of town for a long weekend and I never got around to it :)

Subject this week is differences between K-2 blogs and 3-5 blogs.

I can only speak from the experience of Kindergarten, Second, and Fifth grade.

Kindergarten and Second Grade

These blogs are mostly used for Parent/Family communications.  The Kindergarten teachers post every evening what the class worked on.  They post dates to remember like PTO meetings and conferences, and things to work on at home like number sense and reading tips.  They have gotten great feedback from parents on this.  It is a great tool for teachers, but students are not involved in the posts or replies.

Second grade also uses their blogs as communication tools.  They post pictures of activities and websites that families can use at home to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom.  Again, good communication tool, but the students are not involved in the posts or replies.  This may change toward the end of second grade but it hasn't yet.

Fifth grade, on the other hand, is using the blog strictly within the classroom.  The teacher who uses it most effectively posts a question each week as part of their reading workshops.  The students comment on her post, and their answer must be approved by her before it is published.  The teacher then comments back to them if their comment is posted, and a conversation is begun.  The students in the last 5 weeks have posted increasingly thoughtful and sophisticated comments.

The fifth grade blog cannot be accessed without a login, so students can log in from home, but they cannot post anything without the teacher's approval.  So this can be read by parents and families, but it is really a teaching tool in the classroom.

I appreciate both of these uses, and would like to see the younger grades give students some say in what to put in a class blog, and older grades use the blog as a parent/family communication tool.  But the whole point of this pilot project is to take technology and get teachers to use it in a way that makes sense to them.  As an example of expanding the use of blogs, one Kindergarten teacher has just been accepted into a Kindergarten Around the World project, where two Kindergarten classes correspond by Twitter and blogs for a school year, get to know one another, and expand their world as a result of these interactions.  I think this is a very exciting project.

After the teachers are comfortable using these blogs, I will ask them to try using them in new ways.  But I am not in a hurry.  Ideally, as the teachers use these blogs, they will do more things with them than I could ever think of.  I would love that!

Eighth week

I want to talk more about relationships with teachers, and how that affects my work.

I have always felt that my job is to support BOTH students and teachers at school. This can be with books, helping find the right book for the right person, with research or teaching about research, or with technology or teaching about technology. But as I look back, I have concentrated on helping students, and only assisting teachers when they asked for help.

This pilot project has forced me to try to help teachers when I wasn't even sure that they wanted any help. My job is to "help teachers implement new technology in the classroom." That is a big statement, and I have spent a lot of my time this first trimester clarifying what that will look like. Clarifying has been very helpful and I will continue to do that.

But what has been the best surprise of the project is getting to know some teachers that I did not know before (very well, anyway), and building professional relationships that I value greatly. I have three teachers now that I regularly talk to, ask advice of, and share things with. They have enhanced my understanding of teaching -- and they are great to know!

For example, my principal just asked me for some advice on spending some technology money. Whereas before I would have asked other Media Specialists for help, today I went to a couple of teachers and talked to them. This makes a lot more sense, because the money is for MY school, and I want to use technology to specifically aid OUR students. So it was very fun to go to these teachers, get their input, kick around some ideas, and know that we will continue to talk about what is best for the students.

Yay teachers!

Seventh Week

My Role in this Pilot Project

Yesterday our Lead Teacher came into the Media Center.  She wanted to rehearse the Professional Development that she would lead today.  She asked two questions, one about PowerPoint and the other about YouTube.  I knew the answer to neither question.  BUT, here is what happened. 

The PowerPoint question I googled.  There was a PDF online with the steps to do what she wanted to do.  I printed it out and handed it to her.  Turns out she needs administrator rights to her computer in order to download something in connection with these PDF directions.  I knew how to get her that.  Sent her an email with that information.  First question, done and done.

The YouTube question I needed someone else in the district to answer.  I emailed him.  He answered the email quickly and with the needed information.  I forwarded this to the Lead Teacher.  Second question, done and done.

When I was in Library School we took a class called Readers Advisory.  In this class we learned about finding out exactly what a patron is asking for and then figuring out how to provide it.  This can sometimes be a fairly long process, because people are not always able to articulate what it is they want. Of the two, it is easier to FIND what they want than to FIGURE OUT what they want.

So I am excited to feel like I am doing some Technology Advisory work.  The example from yesterday was easy, because she knew what she wanted, so I just needed to FIND what she wanted.  That makes me feel useful.

But my biggest challenge, and what I feel my role in this project is, is to FIGURE OUT what people want, especially when they think they don't want it :)  When I started thinking about technology, I was overwhelmed by all the web tools out there that are helpful to people.  As I learn more about the web tools, they seem like the easier part of the equation.  It is figuring out what is helpful that is the hard part.  

This figuring out part has to do with listening and developing a relationship with a teacher so that I can ask intelligent questions about their work.  That is what we learned in Library School.  I feel that this is happening slowing but surely with the teachers I am working with this year, and it is very educational and rewarding for me.  I hope that it becomes so for the teachers also.