Final Reflection

I have to be honest.  At the end of this course I was left with more questions than answers.  While as a teacher a don't see that as a bad thing, as a student I did.  I am use to finishing courses and having a final thought or conclusion.  This course was difficult to do that with.  It wasn't until today, when I posted my final reflection in the CSE PLE course that I realized how my blog played a role in my teaching.  I find it interesting when you discover how unconventional learning really is compared to how organized we try to make it in public education.  Here are conclusions I came to about blogging after finishing my PLE course.

Blogging is a great tool to journal thoughts.  As a professional I can use it to explore my methods and practices and reflect on my experiences in the classroom.  When I want to vent, rant, or question education blogging can be very therapeutic.  I realize it can also be dangerous to expose myself too much on a blog as a public servant because it is public.  So there is a balance there that you have to find as an educator ethically in providing yourself with a way to reflect, but not degrade.  I am still trying to find that balance.  I am a person that is willing to put it all out there and that means when I blog it is frustrating that I can not do that and should do that 100% with my job.

Blogging is useful in a small classroom setting.  I attempted to use student blogs on an assignment with fifty students and then in a classroom with six.  While the activity was creative and meaningful, I failed at giving feedback because I was overwhelmed by the grading work load.  When I used it in a classroom of six students as a daily journal or reflection with no real structured assignment, I found it useful and directive in figuring out where I needed to go with my lesson planning.  Because I only had to read six entries, I was able to response to student questions and generate thoughtful questions in return.

Blogging is an important part of my PLE.  I didn't discover this until I took CSE PLE after this course.  I realized that blogs have an important role to play in my collaboration with other educators.  I'm on the hunt now for educational blogs that empower me to keep questioning what I'm doing and why I do it.  I also realized the role that RSS feed can play in my PLE.  I never got the hang of getting my news feed through my blog and in PLE I realized I don't have to.  My news feed can be delivered all sorts of way, but blogs are a way to specialize the news feed I want my readers to experience.

Overall, blogging in education is a commitment like all other forms of technology.  I use to think aggregators, RSS feed, social media, blogs, etc... were a one size doesn't fit all component of education.  For example, if I liked blogging then I just blogged.  I would focus on blogging and ignore all the other avenues of virtual information.  I am slowly realizing that I don't have to like all the new medias endeavors of the virtual world, but I also can't turn my back on them either.  Turning my back on these media forms will prevent me from being able to move forward and grow with my students.

RSS Feed

Feed 101 is google's explanation of how to use RSS.  I know this was an assignment two weeks ago, but I'm still stuck on RSS and how to use it on my blog.  My head hurts trying to figure out what the difference is between RSS and Twitter and how to use them both effectively.

There is a mommy blog (I know a four-letter word to many) called Momastery that resonates with me like the alpha wolf's howling at the moon.  Her latest post on Carpe Diem was the fist blog post in many months that I felt like reading all the way through.  I realized her RSS feed would be awesome to have on my blog, but not sure how or why.

My point, I swear I have one, is that RSS feed I believe could be really effective tool in a classroom especially on blogs and I finally found an explanation that made sense to me.  Also I am aware that Feed 101 probably has been staring me in the face since my blog started.

World of Warcraft

Debated today in Geography class.  It was the second debate with my students on nuclear development and the threat of Iran.  One period did awesome, the other period it was absolute crickets.

Painful, awkward crickets.  I take the blame.  Next time I'll just let them play World of Warcraft instead.

"Class how does the big scary dragon represent the need for nuclear disarmament?"

By the way I've never played or really watched World of Warcraft. Intense stuff.

Interactive Sequence

Blogs are a great way to have an interactive sequence with students.  Interactive sequence can be defined as how to get students discussing concepts and issues.  I have struggled with this throughout my teaching career.  How do you get 20 plus students in one room to start brainstorming orally about different topics and issues that are not necessarily meaningful to them?

1. All students have a blog set up for class.
2. Start with an anticipatory set, ie "Imagine living in a village or town where the nearest doctor is 2 hours away and you do not have a car, train, or any motorized way to get there.  How would you get to the doctor?"
3.  Have students write their answers or ideas down on the blog post and publish it. Give them a couple of minutes to do this activity.
4.  Then have a student make a comment on another student's blog post.
5. Allow time for students to read comments on their posts.
6. Lastly have students repeat answers of their classmates out loud.

The advantage of this instead of Think-Pair-Share is you will draw in the students who avoid verbal situations at all costs.

I have seen this system work today and I was so excited to find another discussion method instead of verbal Think-Pair-Share.  Let me know what you think?  How would you tweak my method?

What this generation is capable of...

Some say this generation is lazy.  Some say they don't get outside enough.  Some say they do not have the skills for the real world.  I believe this video proves "some" wrong.  Both these students are in my classes and did this video on their own time.  If we could take that amount of dedication and energy and apply it something they really love in the academic world imagine what they could do?  I can.

PS.  They both have A's in my class... because of their mad basketball skills.  Just kidding.

Fear in Evaluation

Tomorrow I will be video taped and observed during my nuclear disarmament lesson with my mock UN class of sophomores.  I know that in order for me to be a better more efficient teacher I need to be evaluated and open my door to observers, but why is it so scary?  I haven't been video-taped teaching since my FIRST lesson in undergrad.  It was horrible, I spent the whole time touching my hand to my stomach and repeating the words "Um, okay" and "Um, good."

I accept that I'm not a great teacher by any means.  Somedays I do really impressive things in my room and somedays I fail completely.  Most of the time I feel like I'm barely treading water, especially after my son was born and I found my energy level zapped in half.  But I want to be better and I know I can be better so this scary step of having others critique me is important.  It will guarantee improvement.  Anyway, after I have it done I will post that video on my blog for you to observe as well.  One of my favorite mottos is OWN IT good, bad, and ugly so I might as well start living by it.

EMUNDO! and Meetingwords- Two great resources

We used this website at our inservice on Friday.  I love it and immediately started thinking of how to use it in the classroom.   Emundo is similar to Facebook with all the control features a teacher would LOVE.  I personally believe that FB and Twitter should not be blocked from students and teachers using in the classroom.

Meetingwords is a chat room you can have your students access while they are watching a film or video clip or even when you are having a debate and want to allow students another venue to share their thoughts and ideas.  I had government students watch the last GOP debate and use Meetingwords during it to discuss what was being said.  In addition they has to keep track of the issues being discussed on a handout.  It was amazing how they could do ALL three and still find time to chat with their friends way in the corner of the screen LOL.

Comprehensive, Reflective, & Questions

After grading my Andrew Jackson student blog posts I found that my explanation of the rubric in class really paid off.  Students did attempt to make their entries comprehensive, reflective, and provide questions to the content.  Those three words were more effective then I could imagine.  I want to share the learning experience.

Man behind star of ’S#*& Girls Say’

Man behind star of ’S#*& Girls Say’

Rock Center is one of my favorite resources for the classroom.  Last week they did a story on the popular YouTube clips "S#*& Girls Say".  I found the clips funny and somewhat related to my Sociology class.  The issue is how do you use clips like this in your curriculum.  Should you use clips like this?  The dialogue is clean in the video, but the title isn't.  On one hand I know this would be a great attention getter.  It is funny and students will like it's edgy appeal, but on the other hand there is that "S#*&" word.

Well, I ended up going for it and using the clips in my class.  My students didn't say much about the word, but LOVED the clips and we were able to start a conversation about gender stereotypes.

How do we censor these forms of social media?  Do we censor them since there really is no censor when students are out there on their own?  Or is that our responsibility?

Marketing Blogs to Your Students- FRUSTRATION!

Right after this course started I decided to try an blog activity in my three sections of senior government. I wanted to challenge the recommendation from my readings that stated using blogs on a large scale can be a difficult process.  Less is more is a great concept except how many public school teachers get to choose less than more.

The assessment was for all my 45 seniors to do three blog entries on Andrew Jackson.  They posts were to be done from Andrew Jackson's view point or first person.   I explained my expectations, but I didn't realize how much modeling I should've done.  My students struggled knowing what first person meant.  Then most of them didn't understand the use of a blog post.  I realized after day 4 that I probably should've modeled a blog post and then did one with them in class using a blog rubric.  I have heard some comments about how cool it is to have their blog "out there", but for the most part they seem to respond to this assignment with the same enthusiasm as the rest of the assignments.

It is frustrating to accept that this generation is not impressed with the bells and whistles of technology like I am.  Correction, they are impressed with what is relevant to their social lives like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  The last one, Pinterest, is consuming our student population right now.  Basically, I have to market my blog to my students.  It will not market itself by just being a blog.  Pinterest on the other hand could market itself right now, but in six months who knows if it will be replaced with another form of social media.

In a way it is reassuring to know that as an educator, the meat and potatoes of any lesson is it's core standards and objectives and not it's exterior facade.  My assessment of Andrew Jackson is not dynamic because I used a blog as my media form, but because I failed model it and align it with my standards.  

This never ending revaluation of my methods and uses of blogs is exhausting and yet refreshing.

Guilty Pleasure: Blog Backgrounds

There is a blog background website called "Cutest Blog on the Block" that allows you to use thematic backgrounds on your blog.  If you have blogged before I'm sure you are aware of it.  I love this website and the fact that it is free.  You will find yourself playing around with the themes for hours and never finding the perfect one.  It truly is a guilty pleasure.  

Designing a blog to fit your personality or theme is really difficult.  I found when I first used this website I chose really obnoxious themes that interfered with my content and purpose, but man were they cool.  The challenge when trying to market and create a blog that you desire to be taken seriously or maybe just more professionally is what type of design gives that impression.  My background now is okay, but screams "I just made this blog and figured out how to type."  Anyone can probably recognize it's a template and pretty unattractive at that.  Design is an aspect of blog making that really is important and deserves some discussion.  What do you think?  

Marketing

Marketing a blog so that is becomes a valid resource for students or even random strangers is the most difficult aspect of blogging.  I am looking forward to attempting to improve in this area.  When I was pregnant with my son I set up a blog for my family and friends to read.  In reality I look back and it was more for my benefit.  Random tangents about what food I wanted to eat and how I was dealing with some weird pregancy sympton.  Really, who wanted to know that stuff?

Crossing over from feeling like your thoughts, theories, and insights are really just ego driven posts to something that is a good resource and use of a particular discipline like education seems tough.  Marketing your blog... okay, let's give it a try.

Don't Feed the Trolls- Learning and Leading with Technology

The next article I reviewed was entitled "Don't Feed the Trolls: Using Blogs to Teach Civil Discourse" found in the Learning and Leading with Technology Journal May 2008 issue pages 12-15. This article was published in 2008 by Karen Work Richardson.

The article provides educators with some important guidelines in teaching and modeling civil discourse on blogs. The title of the article refers to a name given to those who do not model appropriate civil discourse on the web, they are called trolls. The key points of the article are that students need to understand the same guidelines they apply during recess, walking the hallways, sitting in class, talking to teachers and others students are the same guidelines they should use in chat rooms, blogs, comments areas, etc... If you wouldn't say it to a teacher face to face, you do not say it in a comment on their blog. The other key point is that educators must be modeling the same guidelines they expect their students to follow. Use "I" statements, do not name call, and avoid labels are some of guidelines suggested by the article. My favorite guidelines were "discuss ideas, not people" and when you do encounter a troll "ignore them". The article argues that civil discourse is at the heart of our democracy and thus teaching such behavior online or off is vital to our society. The author also provides references at the end of the article that teachers could use to look up MOOse Crossing guidelines that are a source referenced to in the article.

Being in a 1:1 school (every student has a laptop) civil discourse is a big concern. In fact, civil discourse I would argue is one of the reasons most schools and staff avoid social networking websites. We live in fear as educators of the potential troll like behavior our students could exhibit. I disagree with this concept of living in fear. The article summed up the approach I would like to have in using blogs, Facebook, or Twitter in my classroom. No longer can we as educators ignore and avoid this technology, by doing so we are neglecting a responsibility to teach our students about civil discourse online. It is our duty to teach students how to avoid becoming trolls online and how to recognize the negative aspects of social media and not engage in them. By doing so, we will model for them positive uses of these forms of technology. No longer should we live in fear, but embrace what is already relevant to their lives and teach them how to be successful in cyperspace. Just as we take time to teach students about classroom interactions, we should take time to teach them about respect during online interactions.

US-China Education Review

The first article I reviewed was a study done by the US-China Education Review. The study was entitled "Using web blogs as a tool to encourage pre-class reading, post-class reflections and collaboration in higher education", July 2010, Volume 7, No.7 (Serial No. 68). I chose this article because it focused the use of a teacher blog to encourage pre-class readings. The study consisted of five ESL graduate students in a teaching methods program and 90 software engineering students in an undergraduate information technology program.

Students were assigned to read the instructor's blog before class. They had to post questions and comments on the readings. During class they would discuss the readings and any questions or comments mentioned on the blog. Then students had to post reflections after class discussion on blog again. To gather study data, the instructor ask students to complete a survey with a series of statements about their experience on a blog. Thirty-five students responded to the survey and average a 4 to 4.5 on all questions (5 being strongly agree, 1 being strongly disagreement). Students also completed a one-page reflection on the process. The instructor found that students liked the blog process because it allowed for reflection on the readings and discussions before the class. Overall the study had positive results. Yet, the instructor found some tips for future classes. The list below is taken verbatim from the study.

1. The instructor's presence should be more apparent.

2. Timing of activity needs to be suitable.

3. Reading level should be suitable for student's to read on their own.

4. Class size is important. In large classes moderation can make the experience valuable.

The current trend to do flipped lessons in education is growing. A flipped lesson is taking the content you would normally spend class time teaching and putting into a format that students can access before class. Therefore you spend class time working on the assessment and skill development around the content instead of spending the whole time on the content. Blogs is another form of media that can help teacher's create a flipped lesson. Currently in my high school I was required to do a flipped lesson last trimester. The biggest complaint by staff members was that students did not do the reading or lesson before class. This study demonstrated that students did prefer to do the readings on the blog instead instead of traditional methods. Of course the biggest difference between this study and my personal experience is age. In a classroom of secondary level public education where you students all ability levels would flipped lessons involving blogs work as well? I would make the assumption yes. Using blogs for pre-class readings and discussions allows students time to form their opinions and thoughts around your objectives and concepts. Whether all students will use blogs and do the readings is a mute point. If the blog only helps 5% of your students understand the material better it would be an efficient use of prep time. This study inspired me to try flipped lessons using a blog. Before I read this I only thought of PowerPoints for doing flipped lessons.

Blog what?

Today I asked three separate classes of senior government students, "What is a blog?" The majority of students did not know. I was shocked. Then I showed them some examples of blogs and told them to find two political blogs they would like to follow. The result was confusion on what was an official blog vs a website or article.

It is amusing how I assume since the younger generations can run a smartphone and have FB accounts they know how to do everything on the computers or at least understand all forms of media. I spent one class period at the beginning of the year teaching all my students how to send an attachment in an email something I assumed they do all the time. I know I have to do it all the time.

So my question is does this mean that blogging and email are old school technologies that younger generations cancel out with twitter and FB or that we assume students have access to all forms of technology and in reality they don't? Could we know more than they do?

P.S. This is just a random thought post and not my article research post. Just in case...

Greetings from Iowa

Welcome to my blog. I am a thirty-five year old, secondary social science educator in Iowa. I recently moved to Iowa last June from Oregon. I grew up in the Midwest, but have spent the last ten years in Oregon where I taught for nine years at two high schools-- Vernonia and North Marion. My husband was also a teacher (FFA) who decided to try something new and thus we ended up in rural Iowa surrounded by the ag industry and corn fields.

I teach social sciences at the local high school in the areas of government, world history, and sociology. This winter I will finish up my credits for my masters from WOU and be working on my professional project which I hope to be in the area of technology, online learning, and reforming traditional education. I am still trying to figure out what that will look like.

Currently, my sociology class consists of only four students. The school I teach at is a 1:1 school which means every student has a MacBook that they can use in and out of class. It is theirs to take home. Therefore I would like have my students to use blogging in that course as a form of daily journaling. I know this course will help me figure out how to go about doing that and doing it in a way that is rigorous and meaningful for the students. I have already had them create their own blogs. The biggest obstacle I have noticed is their ability to just let go of the concepts "I don't know what to write" and "what do you want me to say".

I have a two year old son who has defined for me what it means to be in the terrible two's and a husband that works with sheep all day. That is a blog of it's own. I also coach volleyball and enjoy reading on my newly acquired Kindle which makes me feel old every time my two year demonstrates his ability to understand how to turn it on and start a movie. I still love the feel of a book, but I have to admit the Kindle is a form of technology that I'm falling in love with. To relieve stress I run and eat chocolate.