I’ve been looking at the collarborative learning community I have tried to establish this year, and am trying to think of reasons why this is a good way of extending the peer coaching model of professional development.

I am finding that it has also been difficult to get the other schools blogging and coaching.  I don’t know if this is because the other schools in our cluster are not the same stage in the coaching journey as our school, if it is a time commitment thing or if the idea of sharing the professional development within the community isn’t as comfortable as I feel.  Whatever the reason, I would like to see what some research has come up with in terms of pros and cons, positives an negatives.

I’ve never really done any proper research, but I have been doing a course on Action Research, so I would like to take the opportunity to research Learning Communities and possible make a better go of this, even if it is our own school.

I know what benefits I have taken from this whole blogging thing.  I’m far more reflective of my own professional development and I have been able to open up my professional world just a little bit further than the boundaries of our school gate….something I think is important as this is the only school I have taught at.

Anyway, so I will update my research and findings here…as part of my term three goal!!!

Tags: PLN, learning_communities, collaboration

I’m not sure if it is the topic for the term (space and aliens) or if it is coming from somewhere else, but I’m feeling that there is a sense of voice and purpose of the writing.  Room 6’s blog has become something of a hit around here, and when you read it you can understand why.  The kids love to read the wacky adventures, the silly poems and realise that their friends wrote it. 

I’ve begun giving kids the time to read and comment on the blogs during their ICT time.  It’s so good to see the kids actually appreciate other kids writing.  I ask them to make a positive comment and then ask a question about the writing or give the author a piece of advice.  I thought this might be a difficult task but even the year three’s have been able to write sensible comments and enjoy the sense of giving back to the author.

So in a nutshell….

Finally blogging is starting to take off here in our classrooms.  It’s been a useful tool to get our kids writing for an authentic audience.  Where to from here???  Keep the thumb of the classes to use their blogs - whether it is the juniors copying and pasting the publishing through to the seniors who argue points in the comments…I am starting to feel I have achieved something.

Tags: writing, kidsengagement, blogging

Yesterday I received the most insightful answer as to why a 7 year old child doesn’t like writing.  Here is the answer “because it’s a waist[sic] of time if you do it at school because know one [sic] will read it.  I only like writing at home because I show people”.

If a 7 year old can verbalise this and feels this way about writing, what are we doing as teachers to recitfy the situation so that kids know that they aren’t writing just for the teacher.  I am hoping that there are kids out there that write because they are passionate, write because of a desire, write because they want to know not just because Mrs So and So said I had to write.

When I think back to when I was in the classroom, I have to admit that a lot of the writing I got my kids to do was because I said so.  There was very little “authentic” writing, and as a teacher I felt I had to teach towards portfolios and assessments.  I want to change this about my practise. 

Earlier this year, as part of a class’ Inquiry Based Learning, the kids needed to write to the council, write newsletters, write a script in order to convey a message or ask for assistance.  The quality of the writing that was produced was very high.  The class teacher was even “blown away” by the level of writing that the kids were producing.  When I asked the kids if and why they were enjoying the writing, the majority said it was because it was a real problem they were trying to solve so it was a real letter (etc) that was going to be read by someone.  

As teachers we need to provide a context that is authentic and has an audience in order for our kids to engage and attain in writing.  What do you think???

Tags: engagement, writing

I - inspiring
S - specific

M - measurable
A - achievable

R - realistic
T - timebound

Last term’s goal to get classrooms blogging got off to a fairly good start.  It would be really interesting now to get the kids to re-do the writing survey about the audience to evaluate how effective blogging has become in getting the kids to right for an audience.  I have noticed that some of the kids in room 3 have written some really well structured and argued pieces of writing that I (heaven forbid) didn’t think they could do.

My goal this term is to continue to work with room 3 with their blogging and sharing the audience with them.  With their teacher, I have added some arguments in their blog for the children and their families to argue and write persuasively (their main writing focus this term).  As of yet, possibly because of camp last week, there hasn’t been any comments left just yet.  To make it more aware to the parents I will send out a small notice to let them know that it is there for contribution by both parents and students.

To assess how the children are feeling about writing and who they write for, I will re-survey the children this week to gain some idea of how they are going.

Will update later in the week with any major discoveries.

Tags: ehsas, engagement, blogging

Like I mentioned in my last post, Room 6 are away and flying and I think having a teacher that understands, enjoys and uses Web 2.0 technologies helps to get it up and running. The writing that is in that blog is really cool and they are now starting to get comments from family and friends around the world.

The two year 2 classes (room 7 and Room are starting to make advances as well. On Tuesday afternoon, I took 2 kids from each class and showed them how to get on to their blogs dashboard and how to write and publish a post. I then got them to do it over and over (slightly boring but they seemed to enjoy it). Since then Room 8 has added to their post by using blogging as part of the writing rotation. While the novelty is still there, I hope they run with it so that it becomes a regular part of the learning. Next step…how to add pictures. Just exported kidpix pictures to start with and then on to photos etc.

Room 3 also are able to blog pretty much by themselves - once their teacher gets them going. Have to say, because I don’t know the kids and their writing abilities, it’s hard to tell whether what they are writing is more meaningful than usual. We are also about to try using voicethread as a way of recording their IBL. I saw what Marnie (a teacher up at Meadowbank) had done with her year 2’s and could see the potential for this right away.

One piece of writing I read from Room 6’s class blog blew me away.   I thought it was a piece of shared writing, but when I spoke to the teacher it was just the kids work.  The voice and thought in it is amazing - read it here.

I have also got the yr 2 digital classrooms blogging.  The kids seem really excited by it and the reaction from the other class whilst reading it is great.  Room 8 even has a buddy class at Meadowbank School - maybe we can begin to seek classes further afield.

Anyways, I seem to be cracking with this blogging and classes lark - sometime I do wish I had a little more control over what was going on in the classroom.  (Does this mean I want to go back into the classroom when I start questioning that??).  THis may end up being a long term goal that lasts longer than this term……

Of the 60 (ish) children surveyed - all of them write for their teacher at school, with the next most common answer was friends with 14 children saying they also sometimes wrote for them.  Parents were the third most common answer.

At home most children answered that they wrote for their parents and extended family.

Sadly, across both catergories (at school/at home) only 15 children answered that they wrote for themselves.  THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE.

Some of the more perceptive children answered that they wrote for portfolios, display and the principal.  Not exactly a real and authentic audience.

If we want our kids to become better writers (who enjoy writing) we need to provide them with an authentic audience where people will read, comment and converse with the kids rather Mr/Mrs So and So at the front of the class…..

Does any of this surprise you????

Download Video: Posted by mrstacey at TeacherTube.com.

In order to do this, I will survey a class of children (yr 5 and 6) about their attitudes towards writing (similar to the one they have already done) but include a few questions about audience and the perceived audience.  I will then ensure, with the help of the classroom teacher, that they continue to blog regularly (if not daily) throughout the term.  At the end of the term I will survey the children again and see if their attitudes have changed either negatively or positively.