This video would be helpful to show and then discuss in a classroom of students involved in writing. I found it at the ELA 101 blog.
If you cannot see the video link, pop on over to my blog site and find it there.
I have never thought of myself as a writer, but now that I have started this blog, I am a writer. I may not be the most concise writer, nor the best, but I am learning my craft.
As a teacher, I need to practice my writing skills so that I can model writing to my students.
There are many reasons to write, as demonstrated on the video.You need to ask yourself, and your students….
WOW! Watch this video from TED and then think about the world and what needs changing and how it can be done.
Spring Break has arrived and…
here I am back at blogging for a bit.
As most TED Talks, this one is inspiring and makes us want to jump up and do whatever the speaker wants us to do.
I am not a gamer. I barely play “the Cow Game” or bowling on my Wii, but… I do have a Wii and I have experienced the games.
I know that this talk is about much more complicated and long term games.
As an educator, I have to think of the power of this mighty strategy.
Students from 5th grade through the end of high school have the opportunity through classes (with perfect attendance) to achieve over 10,000 hours in a setting/learning environment (or so Jane McGonigal states in her Ted Talk).
Gladwell says (or so Jane McGonigal says) that anyone who puts forth 10,000 hours in direct practice/learning about an area/subject will be a virtuoso, an expert, in that area.
Why are we not making our students virtuosos by the time they graduate from High School?
In describing her games, Jane McGonigal says gamers do have the ability to solve world problems. She is trying to develop games that will work to allow these gamers to become these future world citizens who can solve the world problems and allow our civilization to survive another century.
I like the idea of the game Jane made regarding the oil crisis.
I’m thinking about what would it take to get me involved in this gaming frenzy.
I love education. I believe in education. If there were a WORLD of EDUCATION game like there is a World of Warcraft game, would I play it? Would I come up with creative and viable solutions to the problems of education?
I’d like to think that every day I play the World of Education Game. That every day I am trying to make the world a better place through education. One minute, one student, one solution at a time.
The problem is that we need all the educators in the world involved in this game together, feeding off each other’s ideas and thoughts. There is a start to this GAME. It is the Internet, blogs, PLN, twitter, etc. We just need a little more organization.
Are you up to organizing this? Are you willing to collaborate? Are you willing to spend up to a “half-time job” working on this problem after you work at your full time job at school?
Many schools in this 21st Century are adding blogging to the writing experiences of their students. It can be an experience that makes students more aware of the global connectedness of the world in this day and age and provide an outlet for their writing spirit. It makes a purpose to their writing, a reason to write so others can understand what you are saying, a reason to use correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar, etc., not just another assignment.
Student Blogging Guidelines by Kim Cofino at Always Learning reminds us of several items to think about before opening up our children to this opportunity on the web. Her school developed these for 3, 4, 5th graders last year and has now posted them for K-12 students as well. They are well worth perusing.
Student Blogging Guidelines
As a student blogger at ISB, you are expected to follow these blogging guidelines below. Use the questions in italics to help you decide what is appropriate to post on your blog. 1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know. Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?
2. Do not share personal information. Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
3. Think before you post. Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?
4. Know who you’re communicating with. Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?
5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing ISB. Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?
6. Know how to give constructive feedback. Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?
7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?
8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling. Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?
9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping). Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
10. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work. Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?
Commenting Guidelines
As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly. Good comments:
are constructive, but not hurtful;
consider the author and the purpose of the post;
are always related to the content of the post;
include personal connections to what the author wrote;
answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.
Even adult bloggers can learn some hints for themselves about how to act when blogging online.
If you do have a class of bloggers just starting or continuing to develop their blogging skills, please check out this Blogging Challenge by Sue Wyatt. It may be too late to join, but it can still be an excellent opportunity to learn how to comment on someone else’s blog – an important skill.
A teacher might not send her students to this following site because it is more written for adult media consultant bloggers, but the tips included here at 7 Habits of Highly Effective Blogs can be adapted to use for students as well.
I just posted comments to a class of 1st grade bloggers and 5th grade bloggers. The 1st grade bloggers posts were edited by the teacher, as many would not yet be readable, but I can hardly wait for the year to progress to see how the students are learning to write. There will be amazing differences, especially in the 1st grade blogs!
Do you have your own personal blog?
Do you have a professional blog for education?
Do you encourage your students to blog, even if they are in 1st grade?
Do you need someone to read those blogs?
Ask your twitter community. That is how I found out.
Digg/fivbert
Flickr/fivbert
Myspace/fivbert
Facebook/fivbert
Twitter/fivbert
YouTube/fivbert
Del.icio.us/fivbert
Wikipedia/fivbert
GMail/fivbert
Technorati/fivbert
Blog/fivbert
