Resources

04/08/2014

The Value of Blogging for Students

The following post is a collaborative post between my teaching partner Chantelle Davies and myself. As our course comes to an end, I would like to that Chantelle for sharing her knowledge and expertise with me.  I look forward to our continued collaboration as we put into practice many of the ideas we have discussed this upcoming year. To Chantelle, all I can say is, "Thank you, Thank you very much!"


Since I, (Chantelle) began taking my first Information and Technology In The Classroom course (last year) and began earning more an more about 21st Century tools, I have become so passionate about exploring the idea of classroom blogging.  My teaching partner, Ray Swinarchin has also become interested in blogging as a way to engage his students.  Although we know we have much to learn about it and have to work on making it more exciting and interactive for our students, we have come to believe in the benefits of class blogging through reading many other classroom blogs and by learning from many other teachers' experiences.  

Before discussing the benefits, we would like to take about some of the challenges that some teachers face and offer some ways in which we have planned to overcome these challenges.  The first challenge is in regards to student safety.  Many people have fears that by posting on blogs, we will expose children to the general public.  This concern can be addressed by having lessons that address how to be safe online.  Before children are given access to blogs, we will have them red appropriate posts and practice writing blogs.  A second concern sometimes raised, is that students do not know how to write quality comments.  Teachers often create blogs and expect students to be able to write and respond appropriately.  We will again have lessons and anchor charts in regards to what makes a good comment.  A final concern about classroom blogging is regarding the access children have to using technology.  We are addressing this concern by making technology available to students during class time.  For after hours, children who do not have the use of technology at home can access a computer and the internet at public libraries.  Though there are some challenges with classroom blogging, there are many more benefits to enhance student learning and success:

Supports Reading Skills
Reading other blogs is an important part of the blogging process.  By reading posts from other bloggers, students learn about creating interesting and informative blogs. This allows them to make connections an practice reading for authentic purposes. 

Helps Students Develop Writing Skills
In our class we will be using blogging to address a variety of writing skills.  Writing posts together allows us to look at how to present information to a desired audience.  As well, students will be expected to write quality comments that follow a letter format (intro, body, closing).  Writing using paragraphs will also become an expectation, which is a part of the grade 4 an 5 language curriculum.

Teaches Students to Build a Positive Digital Footprint and Practice Internet Safety
Most students today are using the internet is some capacity today.  They will only continue to access this tool more an more as they get older.  It is important to teach students how to be safe on the internet and how to ensure that they are creating a positive image of themselves and their actions online.  It is not enough to do this over a few brief lessons; blogging allows consistent regular practice for these important skills.  

Encourage Collaboration
Class blogging can allow opportunities for collaboration in many ways.  Students can work together to build posts for our readers.  Students may work in groups on a collaborative project and this can be shared on our blog for feedback from other students in the class or form global viewers.  As well, blogging gives us the opportunity to connect with other classes around the globe and establish relationships.  Classes can learn from each other and can have a better understanding of geography, time zones and social interactions.  

Includes Parents in their Children's Learning
Blogging provides a window into what is happening into our classroom.  Parents can see what students are learning about and have regular updates on what is for homework.  As well, many parents often wish they could be more involved in their child's learning.  The classroom blog is a great place for parents to leave comments bout what we are learning or ask thought provoking questions about our topics.  This gives students a reason to consolidate what they have learned and put a response together that shows their understanding of new concepts.  As well, parents are able to create guest posts about topics of their choice.  Students would love reading about topics our parents know lots about or to hear about some exciting facts from places our parents have traveled to.  This encourages our students to ask questions and write quality comments.  

Motivates Students
Without a doubt, I know that students love using technology.  Students are motivated by the idea of blogging.  Many teachers who use blogs report that students show improvements in their reading and writing through blogging.  There is also an increase in effort and creativity from students when they know their work is being published for an authentic and immediate audience.  Students who tend to be reluctant writers are more willing to write when their work is being published on the class blog. 

Students Learn 21 Century Learning Skills
Students today will require a variety of skills when they enter the workforce.  Many of them will have jobs that have not even been created yet.  For this, they will be expected to be confident in using a large variety of 21st Century Learning skills.  Blogging teaches students to navigate the internet, how to crate digital presentations, how to type, how to work with others in different locations, media literacy skills, reflection skills and a variety of technological skills.  

Mrs. Yollis is a fellow blogger who inspires us.  She has been blogging with her grad 2's and 3's for several years and has seen many benefits of the process.  See what her students have to say about blogging:




Still not convinced, here is a great infographic that the amazing Langwitches shared on her blog:


For any of the challenges that may be faced in the learning process, the skills learned through blogging are invaluable!

References:

Miss Azzapardi's Class.  "Why We Blog."  Five White's Class blog.  Accessed 08.04.14

Yollis, Linda,  "Rewards of Teaching Young Children to Blog."  SmartBlog on Education.  Posted 08.08.12

Morris, Kathleen.  "Flattening Classroom Walls With Blogging and Global Collaboration."  The Edublogger.  Posted 07.02.12.  Accessed 08.04.14

Miss. Jordan's Class.  "Why We Blog in 4KM and 4KJ."  4KJ@Leopold Primary School.  Accessed 08.04.14

Yollis, Linda.  "Why Have a Class Blog?"  Educational-Blogging.  Accessed 08.04.14

Mrs. Yollis' Class.  "What We've Learned from Blogging."  Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog.  Posted 05.08.09.  Accessed 08.04.14.

Sinha, Rini.  "Blogging in Classroom:  Steps and Benefits."  EdtechReview.  Posted 05.16.13.  Accessed 08.04.14

Tolisano, Silvia.  Implementing Blogging in the Classroom."   Langwitches.  Posted 10.08.12.  Accessed 08.04.14

Davis, Anna.  "Rational for Educational Blogging."  Edublog Insights.  Posted 01.17.07.  Accessed 08.04.14

Holland, Beth.  "Introducing Social Media to Elementary Students."  Edutopia.  Posted 06.18.15.  Accessed 08.04.14

Morris, Kathleen.  "The Benefits of Education Blogging."  Primary Tech. Posted 03.08.13.  Accessed 08.04.14

Utecht, Jeff.  "Blogs Are Not the Enemy."  Tech and Learning.  Posted 04.20.06.  Accessed 08.04.14



Inquiry Based Learning, Project Based Learning, Problem Based Learning: What Is The Difference?


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Here is another great guest post by my teaching partner Chantelle Davies discussing inquiry, problem and project based learning.  Thanks for sharing your insight.  

Inquiry based learning, project based learning, problem based learning:  what is the difference?  Many would tell you there is little difference.  I found several compelling arguments that would suggest they are the same thing;  with a new name.  I decided to learn more.   

Inquiry Based Learning,  although not an entirely new concept, seems to be the latest buss work that begun floating around our board these last two years. In an overly simplified explanation, it is simply a way of teaching that encourages students to ask questions throughout the entire learning (inquiry) process.  Students are encouraged to ask questions that drive research, sharing of information, testing theories and ultimately lead to further and deeper questions.  Questions leads to expanded learning.  According to Ontario's Capacity Building Series there are four phases to the inquiry process:

1.  Focus- This is when students begin to define the topic they interested in, framing it into a beg question or a prediction.  During this stage, teachers act as a support listening to their questions, discussing ways they can go about their learning, modeling how to build good questions, and beginning to group curriculum expectations that can be addressed through the topic.

2.  Share Learning- During this stage students begin to answer their questions and share their findings with their peers and the teacher.  Through sharing, questions are refined in order to dig deeper and encourage rich thinking.  There is opportunity to assess any curriculum that has been addressed and teachers help students think about ways to show their learning.  

3.  Explore- Here students find out more information using a variety of sources.  They clarify their questions and ask more questions related to their focus.  They discuss their findings.  Teachers provide tasks that allow students to add new learning to their existing background knowledge, they enourage sharing of information and peer-feedback and model reflection.

4.  Analyse- This fourth stage is about synthesizing the information that students have gathered.  Students are comparing, sorting, classifying and interpreting information to draw conclusions about the questions they asked.  At this point teachers are providing opportunities for students to share their findings and allowing time for peer and self assessment.  Even in this final stage teachers support students in asking more questions; to begin the inquiry process again.

Moving on, the reading I have done would lead me to believe that Problem Based Learning and Project Based Learning could both operate as a subset of inquiry based learning.  John Larmer, from the Buck Institute of Education said in a post he did for Edutopia, that "[problem based learning], along with project-based learning, falls under the general category of inquiry-based learning -- which also includes research papers, scientific investigation, Socratic Seminars or other text-based discussions, etc."  Given my recent learning, I would agree with John provided the PBL (either one) is driven by student questions and not by questions that only the teacher has posed.

In trying to define the difference between project based learning and problem based learning,  John Larmer and several others would suggest that they are very similar.  Below is a great chart that John provided in his blog post highlighting the subtle differences between the two PBL's.

Problem based learning appears to be helpful to math teachers.  Several blogs I read, sighted that teachers preferred to focus their inquiry on a single subject question.  I was easier to get at the concepts they needed to teach.  This makes sense to me, given our jam packed curriculum.  Teachers can help guide students in creating problems (or provide the problems, if not student inquiry driven) that focus on a strand in math, but perhaps allow them to address several concepts within the strand.  That seems like a lot in itself.  In the primary grades, it may be easier to work from a project based learning approach where homeroom teachers have the flexibility to work with their students over longer periods of the day.  Projects such designing a new addition for the school (something that will be happening at my school this year) would easily lend itself to discussions and discoveries in science (Forces Acting on Structures), Math (Numeracy - How many new students are coming?  How many rooms will be needed?  How does this affect the timetable?), Art (3D design/perspective, colour theory for classroom design), etc.  A primary teacher, who spends many more hours with his or her students has the flexibility to take an idea like this and encourage students to explore it further.  It also allows the flexibility to ensure that the questions and answers are student driven, lending itself to the once again popular, inquiry based learning model.

My challenge is, how do we as teachers ensure all of our curriculum expectations are covered in a timely manner.  If inquiry is a cyclical process, how to we control (and if not control, know it will get done)  that all strands and subjects are covered by June?

References::









Curriculum and Content Delivery


 Link to source.
Link to source. 


As my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I explored the grade 5 Science and Technology, Social Studies and Language Arts curriculum, we looked for explicit and implicit examples that referenced technology and 21st Century learning pedagogies.  As we looked over the three subjects that we are responsible for this upcoming year, we found that their were very few explicit examples.  We found many implicit examples of how we could use 21st Century learning to enhance student success and engagement.  For teachers, the curriculum is what is to be taught but it is up to each teacher their own pedagogies on how to deliver the content.

How we teach and how students learn should prepare them for the world and workforce they are preparing to enter and therefore we should be thinking about incorporating 21st Century technologies into the classroom.  The workforce today is using 21 Century technology in ways that were not possible a few years ago.  To engage students technology must be used in order to create authentic real world tasks.  Students are using and learning about technology at the same time as some teachers are learning.  In some cases, it can be argued that the students are more than capable of teaching peers and the teacher on how to use some 21st Century technology and tools.  For teachers to use technology to it's full potential requires more than just access to 21st Century technology in the classroom.n It takes purposeful planning in order to integrate 21st Century technology to create students ready for the 21st Century workforce.

Today's workforce is using technology to collaborate and create.  In order for students to gain these skills there needs to be a purpose for using the technology in the classroom which takes deliberate planning by the teacher.  When the use of technology has a purpose the students gain knowledge, deepen their understanding of content and create new work.  All real world skills.  For students to gain these skills there needs to be collaboration between peers an teachers.  When this process occurs students gain further knowledge and understanding.  When a teacher integrates technology into the daily routine, collaboration also becomes part of the daily routine.  With collaboration students gain different perspectives from a wider range of thinkers.  As Chantelle and I have stated, we would like to expand our the sharing and collaboration beyond our classes so that we can gain insight from other classes doing similar work.  Collaboration and the benefits of collaboration do not occur if technology is not used with purpose.  For example, students who are only allowed to use technology during centre time usually work independently to enhance a skill.  No creativity, sharing or collaboration occurs at this time.  There is some knowledge gained but it does not create critical thinkers who can create new work.

To create critical thinkers the way content is delivered must change in order to engage students.  Many students struggle to get true meaning from books.  Today with the internet, children are able to access the latest information, find photos and videos to help them gain new knowledge.  An example of this is changing way is the way we plan to explore the science strand of Forces Acting on Structures and Mechanisms.  Specific expectation 1.1 asks student to analyse the effects of forces from natural phenomena on the natural and built environments.  We plan to have students observe video that shows the effects and then let students make their observations based on the video.  When we consider the social studies curriculum, we found that it would be easy to use technology to gather and share information in expectations such as B2.2 gather and organize a variety of information an data that present various perspectives about Canadian social and/or environmental issues.  To see how technology fits in with Social Studies expectations follow the link to 3 Great Assistive Technology Tools.  Although, the example in 3 Great Assistive Technology Tools pertains to the grade 4 social studies curriculum, a similar task using Ideas Sketch app and Read and Write for Google could be designed for this grade 5 expectation about environmental issues.  Finally, when we consider the Language document, there are numerous ways to deliver, create and share content.  One way Chantelle and I plan to do this in the upcoming year is to use our recorders of learning.  In this example, students are creating the content that highlights key learning for their peers.  Their peers in turn will offer feedback, allowing for increased collaboration even when tasks were done independently.


By delivering content in ways like this, learning becomes authentic and engaging, it is real to the students and they gain more understanding by actually seeing and doing.  The internet has allowed teachers to take students out into the world whether it is through videos or virtual tours.  It has allowed for collaboration and the sharing of knowledge to occur.  With purposeful planning, access to the internet can be an engaging way to deliver content.

Follow the link to see examples we thought referenced technology in the Grade 5 Curriculum.








03/08/2014

Introducing Parents to Our Classes 21st Century Learning Plans

As we look ahead to the fast approaching school year, my teaching partner Chantelle Davies and I are eager to try many new tech tools we have been exploring.  We have grand plans for making blogging, D2L and iPads a big part of our classroom practice.  We know that a lot of this will be a new experience to both our students and our parents.  In an effort to help introduce our technology plans to our students' parents we have put together a slide presentation that will be embedded into our blog on the first day of school.  As well, we will share this presentation with parents when they come in for Meet the Teacher Night early in the year.  This will be a work in progress up until it is published so please make any suggestions as to what we can do to improve.


02/08/2014

LiveBinder Collection

My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, and I have been working on a collection of resources to aid us in our lesson planning for science and social science.  Since we often end up wit a variety of resources bookmarked and saved in a variety of places, we have decided to open up a LiveBinder account together.  By having a shared account we can easily double our efforts in finding materials.  This is especially helpful when we are both teaching split grade classes.  This is just the early stages of our collections and we plan to add to it as the year goes on.  Please take a look at what we have so far and let us know if you have any great suggestions that we should add.  



The World Is Our Audience

But We Still Need To Know Our Target Audience


Though blogs are in the public domain, blogs and bloggers write about topics to catch the interest of a target audience. As teachers, we try and reinforce this concept to students. When working on writing tasks, we teach students to think of the audience and consider how the audience will affect the style of writing; how much information should be shared; what type of vocabulary should be used with the audience; length of piece;  the purpose of the piece and the age/background of the audience.   Keeping this in mind, it is easy to see why it is important to have a separate class blog and a professional blog.  Each one of these blogs targets a very different audience and the purpose of each is also different.  

A professional blog for teachers is about pedagogy, practice and reflections.  The blog looks at what is being done in the classroom and comments on experiences.  It is open for others in similar situations to share their learning or practice.  It is a place for teachers to connect and collaborate.  Through the professional blog, as new ideas and thoughts are added the teacher of the professional blog gains new insight to ideas which allows for personal growth. 

The classroom blog is for students to grow.  It is a place for them to share their learning with peers.  It allows peers to comment and add ideas to what is being discussed.  In this case, the purpose of the teacher is to coach students through blogging.  To model and guide students so that they can grow as the year progresses.  If the student's and professional blogs were to be mixed it may become intimidating for some students to know that their work is being viewed by many teachers.  


FiberOne
Trix
When considering how the formatting would change on each reminded me of the lesson about cereal boxes and targeted audiences.  How we set up the format really depends on our audience.  If we want the targeted audience, students or professionals, to have interactions with either group the blog needs to offer topics that are of interest to that group, and it needs to appeal to visually to the target group.  It is important to keep student blogs and professional blogs separate because as they say, "Trix are for kids!"