Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Moving Forward
Today when I got home from school I opened up Twitter in hopes to do some unwinding. The first post I came across was from Tom Whitby a well known blogger and founder of #Edchat. I had the privilege of siting next to him at MACUL this spring in a pre-conference session, he is a very inspiring man to listen to. His post was titled "Blogging: Who Should, and Why". This caught my attention right away. As a newbie to the blogging world I have been working for the past few weeks at getting other teachers and administrators on board to start up their own blogs. I am happy to report that I have had nothing but positive responses. This week I met with a few kindergarten and first grade teachers along with the principal and technology coach to get them started on grade level blogs. I was also brave enough to start a blog for all the administrators in the district to begin blogging good news reports. I will meet with each admin individually to show them how to make their first post.
Like all things in education you wonder how this will really go. How many will buy in? Who will stick with it? How will this impact our students? Our parents? Our community? Tom makes a great point about blogging "it takes an act of courage to publish that first blog". Getting teachers to understand the value in blogging is easy. It's getting them to actually do it and feel comfortable putting themselves and their students out there. More importantly if this is something our administrators want to see from our teachers they need to blog right along side them.
I love that blogging not only teaches our students about reading and writing but it allows them to be reflective, thoughtful, and critical thinkers. We have a responsibility as educators to teach our students digital citizenship. Tom writes that we need to model for out students how to responsibly question, respond, and comment to blogs. We need to model learning and how to share ideas.
Our parents and community become our audience. Parents, grandparents, and community members want to read and hear what their kids have to say. They want to know what our kids are learning in school. They want to know that their schools are safe and loving learning environments. In return we want parents and the community to comment on our blogs to encourage, question, and give direction.
Tom sums it up best, "Since becoming a blogger, I view things differently. I question things more. I try to understand things well enough, so that I can explain them simply. Most importantly I have been recognized as a person to be taken seriously, because I have a voice. These are things I wish for everyone to experience. What good is education, if we do not have a voice to share what we have learned in order to benefit all?"
Like all things in education you wonder how this will really go. How many will buy in? Who will stick with it? How will this impact our students? Our parents? Our community? Tom makes a great point about blogging "it takes an act of courage to publish that first blog". Getting teachers to understand the value in blogging is easy. It's getting them to actually do it and feel comfortable putting themselves and their students out there. More importantly if this is something our administrators want to see from our teachers they need to blog right along side them.
I love that blogging not only teaches our students about reading and writing but it allows them to be reflective, thoughtful, and critical thinkers. We have a responsibility as educators to teach our students digital citizenship. Tom writes that we need to model for out students how to responsibly question, respond, and comment to blogs. We need to model learning and how to share ideas.
Our parents and community become our audience. Parents, grandparents, and community members want to read and hear what their kids have to say. They want to know what our kids are learning in school. They want to know that their schools are safe and loving learning environments. In return we want parents and the community to comment on our blogs to encourage, question, and give direction.
Tom sums it up best, "Since becoming a blogger, I view things differently. I question things more. I try to understand things well enough, so that I can explain them simply. Most importantly I have been recognized as a person to be taken seriously, because I have a voice. These are things I wish for everyone to experience. What good is education, if we do not have a voice to share what we have learned in order to benefit all?"
Thursday, March 20, 2014
My New World
It was ten years ago when I was sitting in Anacortes, WA at the NESD 189 learning how to write Classroom Based Assessments when I came across this text titled The New World of Blogs by Tyler Cowen. When I first read the article (which I was to write assessment questions for) I thought to myself, what they heck are they talking about? Not only was I confused about what this Cowen was talking about, but how the heck are my 9th grade students suppose to read this and understand what he was talking about? We struggled through it every year.
Over the years I have heard more and more about blogging. I always thought of it as a bit narcissistic, why would you want to write about yourself? Who cares? Until recently. The past two years I have attended the MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference and blogging has been a hot topic. This past year I made it a point to attend some of the sessions on blogging. I was hooked.
What I learned is blogging is not narcissistic, but more of a place to reflect and showcase who you are. It can be for the whole world to see or an intimate place to get your thoughts down. It's a place to watch yourself grow as a person or professional. Its a place to document important times and accomplishments in you life.
My intent for this blog is a place for me to reflect on my professional career and showcase my professional accomplishments.
Over the years I have heard more and more about blogging. I always thought of it as a bit narcissistic, why would you want to write about yourself? Who cares? Until recently. The past two years I have attended the MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference and blogging has been a hot topic. This past year I made it a point to attend some of the sessions on blogging. I was hooked.
What I learned is blogging is not narcissistic, but more of a place to reflect and showcase who you are. It can be for the whole world to see or an intimate place to get your thoughts down. It's a place to watch yourself grow as a person or professional. Its a place to document important times and accomplishments in you life.
My intent for this blog is a place for me to reflect on my professional career and showcase my professional accomplishments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)