My 3rd Graders' First Blogs

This week will begin my 3rd Graders' first experience with Blackboard and blogging.  I'm not crazy about the layout of Blackboard when using it with such a young age group, but it's good practice for them.  We always talk about how we need to prepare these kids for the real world.  Well, Blackboard is a good start because when a buddy of mine saw my computer logged onto Blackboard during a visit, he said, "hey, you guys use Blackboard, so do we.  I looks a little different but pretty much the same."  He's an accountant for a big company, so that's proof that some teachers are training kids for the business world.

My students are going to create a very basic blog.  I did one as an example.  I talked about who I am and all of my favorite things.  I'll have them use mine as a model for their own.  They'll just introduce themselves then talk about the things they love.  I figure this will allow for a pretty good level of replies from their classmates and dialogue.  I'm not sure what kind of topics I'll do in the future; I guess I'll play that by ear unless anyone has suggestions.  Teaching them how to log into Blackboard and going over the basic layout of the blog section will take up a good bit of time since it's their first time, so I think on this first day, I'll just have them reply to my blog.  I figure by the time they're all on the right section, there will only be about 15 or 20 minutes left in the class.  This will allow for some replies.  It will also show them the importance of substance to their blog if they're going to generate any comments from their classmates.  Wish me luck, this will be a first for most of the 3rd graders in Baltimore I think.

Follow-up to Previous Post

So I did the discussion board activity with my 4th and 5th grade students last week and as promised, I'll give your the run down of how it turned out and what I learned from it.  Perhaps this will help you if you choose to do this with your students.

As I had said in my previous post, I had my concerns about a student and her confidence and ability to perform this activity.  They were justified.  She began typing out her idea, but was really struggling.  I encourage them to get help from the student next to them before asking for me.  This is to save them waiting time.  I've had an eye on the student she asked to help her for the past year because I started seeing some behaviors I didn't like, but I thought she had been making good decisions lately and trusted that she'd help her classmate out.  Instead, she urged her to post her unfinished thread on the board, then proceeded to tell others to read it.  Fortunately, the other students didn't want to play her game, and I was quickly able to delete the post.  Unfortunately, this did upset her and left her crying (something rare with her).  I sat with her for a little while and guided her through starting a strong discussion thread.  Students responded to her thread positively as she had some good ideas.  The consequence to the girl's bullying was this: she received no school money at the end of class, and gave herself a bad image because no one wanted her "help" after she did that.  When I saw the other girl's mother after school, I told her about the great job her daughter did in my class.  The other girl saw this.

Now as far as the fourth grade is concerned, I didn't take into account the amount of time it would take to model this activity, log into Blackboard (the district messed up a lot of the students' passwords, and I messed up a few of the numbers for their usernames), and how long it would take them to type it up.  Only one or two students completed their post during that class session.  I have the other fourth and fifth grade classes on Monday and Wednesday of next week.  Instead of typing their posts directly onto the discussion board, I will have them type it up in Word first, then have them copy and paste it onto the discussion board, that way if they don't finish in time, they'll be able to continue the following class or when they get a chance any other time.  This will be a learning experience for me as well as for the students, but we'll get it all worked out I'm sure. 

Teaching this activity is not an option but a must in the state of Maryland.  They are saying that by 2014, all state testing will be done on the computer.  I'm not sure how this will be logistically possible since we only have one computer lab.  I started putting a second computer lab together in my school, but that's just my school, what will the other schools do who don't have any computer labs.  Who knows?  I guess I'll leave that topic for another blog entry.  For now, I will be comforted in knowing that I will do my best to get my students ready for that day.

New Stuff

I am very excited about tomorrows lesson.  I'm going to use the discussion board on our new version of Blackboard (a web platform like we use for Walden).  This will be new to my students.  Today, the class I was supposed to have was in trouble with their classroom teacher, but I don't like losing days considering that I only get to have them for my own computer lessons 36 times a year, so I agreed, but said that they'd have to at least get their writing done for the discussion.  While there were many 4th grade tears at first, as I read the topic, the wheels started turning and the pencils started moving.  As they overheard what a classmate was telling me or their teacher they wrote, others started adding it to their paper.  I stopped it there and made the connection that this is the purpose of what I'll have them do next week; they are going to read what each other wrote and comment on it.  They may even say that they like the idea and want to add that to their response.  I also got the teacher excite about this piece of technology.  She's now interested in using discussions for her language arts workshops.  I told her that we can work together on that if she likes; collaboration has been a goal of mine.

My fifth graders wanted to get started last week when I told them what they were going to write about, but there wasn't enough time.  I can't wait to see what they write about.  I'm a little concerned, however, about one girl.  She is very low in her reading and writing skills, and was supposed to be held over, but her mother overrode the decision.  I want to accommodate her without putting her on the spot or make it look like I'm babying her; something she hates.  I still haven't figured out how I'm going to go about this.  I will assist her as much as possible so she has a reasonable amount of information.  I will post a follow-up in the next couple of days.

A New Direction

Last year was one of my most challenging years as a computer in my school district.  Due to these difficulties, my mission for last year had to be put off, and will become my mission for this year.  That mission was to get my students more fluent with using Web 2.0 tools.  That was impossible to do last year, but I'm excited to say that it will happen this year.

Two years ago, I can't see that my school received blazing fast internet speeds, but I was able to work with it.  It was fast enough for me to go ahead with my plans for the following year.  Then, last year, the district started upgrading all of the lines to fiber optic lines with a T1 connection.  During the upgrade, the old equipment that some of the school were still receiving internet from died, so they had to have consolidate all of the schools who hadn't been upgraded yet to the last remaining outdated system.  It was at this point that our internet speeds dropped off almost completely.  Without exaggerating, I'd have to say that it was most likely comparable to around mid to late 1990s internet speed; pretty much unusable with the graphics and script currently used on webpages.  Around June of last year, we were moved onto the new T1 lines.  Wow, the difference was instant.  I would now consider the speeds to be blazing fast.

With this, I very much look forward to my 3-5th graders participating in weekly discussions on the Blackboard web platform we use.  I will also teach the teachers along with the librarian how to use Wikis.  This can be used to have groups of students work on a research project, then build a Wiki to show their research.  Another possibility is to have the language arts teacher use them to have the class as a whole log in to correct a paper and explain their corrections.  I also need to get my students more proficient with sharing resources between each other electronically.  With Web 2.0 tools, I don't see any reason for any research to be printed out until the final product is complete.

I've already started meeting with my classes this year, and I've started getting them excited about using these tools.  They forced me to tell them the first discussion topic, but they won't be able to post anything until next week.  I told them to look at this torment as a chance for them to really think about what they want to write before they post it.  This will be a very exciting and refreshing year for us all.  On a side note, while typing this blog, I thought about a 2nd grader's question about why I want them to be able type without looking at the keys.  I currently don't have power due to a storm and have my laptop tethered through my phone for internet.  It's dark, and I can't see the keys.  I will have to give them that reason when I see them tomorrow.

Breaking the culture of privacy

So I've been given the assignment to create a blog.  This goes against everything I've been brought up to do.  As the grandchild of German and Slovak grandparents, I was heavily influence by their old ways.  Privacy and making your emotions public are about as taboo as it gets from my upbringings.  You keep your emotions in check, and screen people heavily before you bring them into your inner circle of friends.  I'd like to thing that I've moved a little bit beyond these old school thoughts, though it's hard to move beyond your own upbringing; I do have a Facebook account and make the occasional status update. I'm not sharing my feelings about very much, but rather, I'm using it to get opinions on matters or giving opinions on matters or joking about something.  I'll often check on old friends and see how they're doing.  My account is private and I'm only sharing these posts with friends, so creating public blogs will go against everything I've been taught.

I've always poked fun that those who post a little too much out there in the public.  For example, Twitter is a wonderful resource to dethroning kings, and presidents who've outstayed their welcome to power, but I don't see the point in having an account so you can tweet that you just woke up from a bad hangover, or that your neighbor is doing something that really makes you mad.  Putting this kind of info out there just ends up getting you in trouble.  Perhaps these types of people might be a little lonely and feel less lonely when they have a lot of followers, I don't really know.  I believe in sharing info with the world when it could serve some type of purpose of improving a situation or productivity, but like everything else, there is such a thing as going overboard.

So, I'll go against the cultural values I've been taught to some degree once again.  I can justify it!  If I end up communicating with other teachers, I might actually learn form them.  I will share some thoughts, and receive some thoughts in return.  Will I cry, share my innermost thoughts, talk about my emotional well being? Lol, not likely.  But, perhaps this will give me an opportunity to post ideas and thoughts I've had relating to my job, and hopefully receive ideas from others that will guide me in becoming a better teacher.  This will be my reason for blogging.