Here we are at the end of the course and ready as I’ll ever be to share this project! This has been a big learning experience for me for many reasons. Here, I’d like to share a bit about the process leading up to the finished (but still very much in-progress!) class blog.
Triumphs
Firstly, I’d never have dreamed of doing a class blog before being presented with this project! In fact, I’d never have blogged myself if it weren’t for Aaron forcing me to in this class and in LIBE 467. And I’m not going to lie, I really hated it at first! The thought of putting myself out there for others to judge really scared me. But, as the story goes, the more we do something the easier it becomes. This class in particular with it’s weekly postings really pushed me over that line from discomfort to developing confidence and voice. Because of this, I’m hoping to give that same experience to my students. Thank you Aaron!
I’ve been contemplating for years how to have an online presence with my class that really connects students, parents, home and school. Davison (2019) states “Parents want to be informed and be able to contribute and have conversations with their children about their day in school. Blogging is a vehicle to help make this happen. The blog is a way for parents to engage and have face to face conversations with their children about their day in school.” Some colleagues have created Facebook groups for their classes and this never really sat well with me as the forum I wanted. As I’ve mentioned previously, I have created class sites before, but they were stagnant one-pagers simply for kids to link out to other sites. I’ve also used FreshGrade successfully as a tool to share student work, but it is lacking the student voice. I truly believe that blogging might be the happy medium I’ve been striving for.
When I presented this idea to my class they were over-the-moon excited! I explained to them why we were doing it - to give purpose to their writing - and they immediately started shooting ideas at me about what they wanted to write about. I’ve never experienced that reaction when telling them to get out their journals! We discussed the things we need to pay attention to when writing for an audience and they seemed to take it seriously. Once the basic design elements of the blog had been decided and implemented and they saw what we could create they were amazed. These kids look at websites all the time, but I don’t think it ever occurred to them that they would be able to make a “real” website themselves.
Process
I began by showing the class quite a few different class blogs that were already up and running, as suggested by Kathleen Morris in her article Blogging With Very Young Students. The first step she suggests is commenting on other class blogs. We did not write any comments but we did look at where comments can go. We focused on looking at the design elements of the blogs and the content they were posting. One surprising but happy result of looking at other blogs was that my class decided they didn’t really like the ones with busy designs and backgrounds. In the end I chose the theme as there are just way too many choices to leave it up to the whole class, but I did consider their thoughts in choosing.
I created the “Teacher’s Corner” and “Learning Games and Resources” pages on my own. I still wanted all of their educational links in an easy-to-access place, from home and school. I also created the “Teacher’s Corner” to distance my voice from the students. I knew that it might be hard for me to not post on the blog as it’s such a great way to communicate with parents, but I really wanted the main feed to be student-centred and created.
Once the site was designed the class and I wrote the first post together. I typed while they gave me ideas. I took the pictures and added them to the post. I expect the first few posts might happen like this until they are comfortable with the process, have learned how to login and have an idea of what a blog post looks like.
We haven’t yet shared the site with parents. I am leaving the password protection off until this class is wrapped up and then I will send the following letter home complete with password.
Challenges
The biggest challenge by far was writing a blog post with the input of 22 kids ranging in age from seven to nine years old! As I mentioned above, they all had really great ideas about topics they want to write about and it was challenging getting them to stay focused on just writing an introductory post. The other challenge was to hear all the students and make sure that everyone had a say in how the first post should look. I think the posting will get easier as they begin to write individual entries but will present a new challenge in teaching them how to login with their own accounts and edit their work well. Time can only tell us how this will go!
My own challenge was learning a new blogging site in a relatively short amount of time while also working on it with my students. I’ve had a year to learn the dashboard of my personal blog and it’s quirks. It might have been easier to use the same blogging site with my students as I’m already very familiar with it, but I wasn’t keen on some of the features and I wanted something tailored to use in an educational setting. Jackson (2012) supports this sentiment: “Although easy to use, [some] tools are not specific to the education community and might not have all the safety and supervisory features a teacher, particularly an elementary grade teacher, needs.” On Edublogs I can create an account for each student so that they can login with their own credentials and post with me as moderator.
And so now, without further delay, I present to you my class blog! I am really excited to see where this project takes us this year and so see my students’ writing flourish!
Works Cited
Davison, Sharon (2019, February 21). Blogging with Elementary Students. Powerful Learning Practice. Retrieved from https://plpnetwork.com/2019/02/21/why-i-blog/
Jackson, Lorrie (2012, February 28). Blogging? It's Elementary,My Dear Watson!. Education World. Retrieved from https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml
Morris, Kathleen (2011, July 19). Blogging with Very Young Students. Primary Tech. Retrieved from http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2011/07/19/blogging-with-very-young-students/
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteI also felt that is was difficult sharing my work for so many to read, but I quickly saw the value and came to enjoy it. It's perfect that you can share that experience with your class.
I think it's great that your class is so excited to blog! It will really add to the quality for sure. Including their voice and ideas in so many ways is also an excellent idea. It shows that you've really considered your learners in this project.
This is definitely something I'd love to try with my students one day. Thanks for sharing :)