Saturday, August 28, 2010

Kid Blogs Follow Up

In my last post I mentioned that it would be hard to integrate blogs the way I had envisioned with Kid Blogs. In his comments, Joshua asked for clarification to see if I could explain more about that statement. My desire to integrate blogs into my classroom stemmed from the concept that came up over and over as I have been reading a variety of resources to help me teach in a writing workshop setting - the importance of having students write for authentic purposes. At one point in time I realized that my new blogging hobby would be relevant for students - a form of writing that "real" writers do.

I envisioned my students blogging for a variety of reasons, such as book reviews and slice of life stories. My own blog that I set up for blog reviews was a pattern for how I would have students use them. Tagging allowed for easily indexing different types of posts, such as including author's names and/or genres. I also love being able to have the image on the side bar that people can click on linking back to a post with a running list of books by author and title that I read by year with a link to the actual review post. These were the features that I was talking about that are not possible via Kid Blogs. I quickly realized that other differences, such as only having two choices for backgrounds, which I originally thought was off-putting, were not really that big of a deal and aspects that would not keep me from utilizing the platform.

For 6th and 7th graders who I had originally not planned on blogging until their 8th grade year, Kid Blogs would be a great introduction to blogging. Once I realized that Google Sites, which is already a part of our Google Apps Education edition would probably meet our needs, I decided to go that route so that students could access all their services from one site (email, documents, and sites).

Even though I decided against Kid Blogs (for now at least), there was a lot that I thought was great about the service:

  • As the site says, it was very easy to set-up and is free.
  • It has privacy control options that are ideal providing flexibility for schools and families to decide on what would be the best fit for their children, such as access to all visitors, class members and logged-in guests (such as parents), class members only, or teacher only. 
  • Students do not need to have email addresses to blog. 
  • When I created my class' blogs it automatically created a blog directory on all of my students blogs on the right hand side bar of my site. 
  • I was going to be able to have a separate blog for each class, and there was a drop down menu option on the top of the screen to easily navigate among the classes.  

When I thought about using Kid Blogs, I imagined it would be a great location for recording books read. Since I would not be able to use tags and the side bar link to a running list like I do on my blog, I thought that I would just have students type the number before the title so that students would have an easy way to know how many books they read in a school year. It would not be as easy for them and other students to navigate among all of their posts, but it would still be functional. Students would be able to view each others' pages and leave comments. In fact, the simplicity that I was a bit disappointed in for older students is probably ideal as an introduction to blogging for younger students.

Joshua mentioned that his blogging goals are to "provide a nice hook to get my students to express their opinions more frequently and interact with each others' ideas. [...] It seems like an effective platform for book logging/reviews. Finally, I'm considering using it as a way to communicate to parents more about what we are doing in class." He wondered if Kid Blogs seemed to be a good fit for this for his 4/5 classroom. I would say that of the different platforms I have considered and am aware of, Kid Blogs probably is an ideal option for the age range of his class. By knowing the site for the teacher's page on Kid Blogs, parents could learn about what was happening in class and have access to the links to their child's blog, as well as their classmates.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Student Blogging Saga Continues

Ever since my initial set backs with starting individual student blogs last winter, I have been thinking about different options. After our initial Blogger glitch, we signed our school up for Google Apps Education edition to at least have access to services such as email and Google Docs. I had been disappointed that Blogger was not included in that package. Yet I thought that it was okay - Blogger could wait until this year when my 8th grade students would all be thirteen. Most recently I talked about Blogger vs. Kid Blogs. I had decided that I wanted to go with Blogger. Yet, I was still going back and forth. I considered that even though Kid Blogs were not as visually appealing, maybe it was a better option to launch blogs. Then I realized that in an effort to simplify blogs for students, there were not any capabilities to put tags, labels, or widgets, which would make it hard to use them the way I wanted to. Thus, it was back to Blogger for my preferred option for 8th graders. I thought about how I could use Kid Blogs for 6th and 7th graders solely to record books read this year with a review/response post.

Today was the big day (again) to set up student blogs via Blogger. I was thrilled. I set up my own blog using my Google App Education edition email to make sure that it was going to work. It was all slick and smooth just like when I set up my personal Blogger accounts using a Gmail address. However, once the students were in the room it was not long before I started having flashbacks to last year's roadblocks. Rather than going from the initial information page to the blog set-up, it prompted students to verify their accounts either via a text message or voice call. I remained calm and told the students that they could do their independent reading while I went around to each student individually with my cell phone in hand to get their verification codes. I thought that was a pretty smart way to not panic and be a problem solver - that is until about the sixth student when an error message came up saying that the number provided had already verified the maximum number of accounts allowed per phone number. As a last ditch effort I had the other students click on a form to explain the difficulties with verifying the accounts.

As I had a little more time to reflect during the day, I was ready to go with Kid Blogs tomorrow. I did not want to go through any more hassles with Blogger. Then I remembered that a teachers in one of my summer school classes talked about a professor using Google Sites in another one of her classes. I went into my education edition account and saw that Google Sites was an option. I was able to quickly set up my own site and played around just a little bit. I realized that they did have an option to add on announcement page(s) that functions essentially like a blog.

Tomorrow I will start the next phase of the process - setting up student Google Sites. In some ways it seems like it might end up being even better than Blogger for an educational context. It will just take me a little bit to get familiar with its different capacities. Hopefully it will be a case of "Third times a charm!" If not my students will probably get pretty skeptical any day that I tell them it is time to set up their very own blogs! I don't see any way that there will be glitches with Google Sites though since it is included with the education edition...

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Catching Readers Before They Fall

This summer an educational topic that has been occupying a lot of my thoughts has to do with me as a parent and educator than with my own students. All the details could be a separate post (or multiple posts on their own), but here's a brief explanation. There are some concerns about my daughter's academic progress; however, I have noticed a lot of growth for her last year. She is a June birthday, so as a kindergartener she was one of the youngest in her class, but luckily my school has a track for two years of first grade (one year, which my daughter did last year, is a smaller setting of around 12 students before the academic first grade year). This was definitely a good decision for her. Her teachers also commented on her progress throughout the year.

Yet, looking into adding special education services was mentioned. Therein came my biggest conflict. I am not opposed to the concept of special education, but the only option available at my school is pull-out scripted programs that are a stark contrast to what I believe is best for students. I have concerns that missing a significant portion of the day would leave my daughter confused when she is in her class because of all of the gaps in her day. In the long run I do not feel a high sense of security that scripted pull-out would help move her closer to grade level expectations. To the contrary, I worry that it could move her further and further away. As long as I am noticing her making progress, I am very hesitant to have her receive scripted pull-out special education services. Instead, I am going to make sure that I leave work earlier this year to spend time with A providing additional support as opposed to always trying to spend time with her when she is already exhausted and ready for bed.

Since this has been on my mind a lot I have been ever-increasingly more interested in primary literacy so that I can provide further support for her at home. Pat Johnson and Katie Keier's new book Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4 was an excellent place to start. Though it is written for K-4 teachers, I found my thoughts alternating between wanting to help my daughter and thinking of my 6th-8th graders who still struggle with reading. The book provided me with many great ideas to think about, as well as resources for further exploration. In particular, I want to read more of Marie Clay's work. Part way through reading the book I went on-line and was ready to spend a lot of money on a lot of Clay's books even though I have been trying to limit my non-necessary spending. However, then I thought about utilizing library resources. My university library had plenty of Clay resources (more posts on those later).

Here are some take away points/favorite ideas from Catching Readers:

  • The authors comments strengthened my personal literacy beliefs, including the power of licensed teachers who value on-going professional development, the need to recognize ways to support students in developing efficient reading processing systems that focus on meaning if they have not already done so, and the importance of teachers really knowing their students and focusing very closely on what they can do and what teachers should do to help move them forward.
  • I was especially excited for Chapter 4 - Beyond "Sounding It Out". Since aside from my daughter, my experience is with adolescents, helping students who still struggle with decoding words has always been a challenge for me. I feel much more confident with comprehension support. (The authors talk about how they do not like the term decoding, but I can't think of another word to accurately express my thoughts.) Over the years I have picked up some considerations about this, but I wanted to know more. Their emphasis on focusing on meaning and the three different sources of information (what I am familiar with being termed cueing systems) complemented my literacy philosophy and helped strengthen my perspective for this important piece to reading. I loved their strategy poster example on page 65, and I plan on making one to talk about with my daughter. 
  • Another chapter that I was thrilled to see was Chapter 11 - Sharing Information with Families, formatted as a Q&A of common questions that parents asked. What I loved about this section is that not only do they include the question and example answer, but then they follow that up with further background information for teachers on why they would answer that way. Many of these related to questions that I have and others helped me see other ways that I can explain to parents what I do in my own classroom, even though I teach older students, because their literacy philosophy so closely aligns to my own. 
Overall, I loved this book from different lenses - as a parent, a 6th-8th grade teacher, and as an aspiring literacy leader, helping me to expand my understandings to a wider age range. Most of my main points were from my parent/teacher perspective; however, when thinking about it as a resource in a literacy leader role, it is an excellent introductory text because it mentioned a lot of foundational ideas, such as literacy philosophy, zone of proximal development, and gradual release of responsibility. Yesterday, I was excited to see that the authors have started a blog. As soon as I click to publish this post, I will be adding their site to my blog roll. I am excited to continue learning with them.

Now, I am planning on continuing to read more books as I am able to, balancing between prep for my students, spending time with my family, finishing up my homework/assigned reading, and my professional development reading for fun. I know that I will not be able to read all the books that I want to as quickly as I would like to, but I will thoroughly enjoy any chance I get. With earlier literacy the books I will be reading in the near future are Marie Clay's books, Jennifer Jacobson's No More I'm Done (another new Stenhouse book that focuses on writing), and some other books that I found at my university library when finding all of the Clay books. 

Monday, August 16, 2010

Public Teaching

Even though I had vowed to not buy any books at Heinemann's Boothbay Literacy retreat because I have been trying to have a little bit more control in purchasing books all the time when I already have so many that I can't wait to read on my bookshelf, I could not resist buying more Penny Kittle books after she read aloud to us on the first night of the retreat. Because of my summer school classes, I have not been able to read through them as fast as I typically would have, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading her Public Teaching: One Kid at a Time every chance I got.

While I was reading her memoirs, I was reflecting on my own teaching experience. The set-up of the book was perfect for only being able to read a bit here and there. I was able to read a chapter/experience each sitting. They always left me wanting to read the rest of the book, yet there was a good sense of closure that facilitated not being able to read it all quickly. Instead I was able to linger with her thoughts, which often tied in well with the discussions we were having in my doctoral coursework.

The book also had me grabbing my own writer's notebook to record memorable teaching experiences. The final assignment for one of my summer school courses was to write an educational memoir, so I was able to start writing about some of my own experiences. However, they were rushed. Though I had been writing/listing in my writer's notebook, I did not actually start drafting until the week it was due. I ended up with 25 pages. As I was writing, I was realizing how much certain students, colleagues and experiences had impacted who I am as an educator. Some I had already thought about in depth before, but others were aha moments. Because of the time crunch, I ended up cutting out a lot of what I was going to write and did not feel like I had a polished product at the end.

Reading her book and having this assignment made me realize how enjoyable it is to go back and revisit different experiences. With my assignment, I chose to write in chronological order with reflections from different phases in my teaching journey. I see it very much so as a work in progress. There were some moments where I felt like my voice was shining through and that I was creating images of what was happening, while in others it was too much of explaining (back to the concept of show vs. tell). I considered Public Teaching as a mentor text for my own writing, and Kylene Beers' letters to George in her When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do also inspired the format of my memoir. I am glad that I have the document that I will be able to revisit later to craft and revise. When I revisit it, rather than trying to have it be a chronological order account, I would probably just organize different snapshots.

In addition, I have realized the joys of writer's notebook entries to capture moments. I know that this year I will not have a lot of time to dedicate to writing memoirs related to my teaching experience, but I want to increase the amount of writer's notebook entries to sharpen my memory for when I have more time in the future.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Checking In

(Our required textbooks, in addition to articles and research handbook chapters)
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For the last five weeks my blogging activity has been close to non-existent as I was busy with an intensive five week summer session to take two of the core courses for my Ed.D. program. Though I was doing a lot of reflecting and thinking, I did not have time to post as I was trying to strike a balance between school and family, realizing that it was possible only if I cut out/reduced a lot of my other favorite activities, such as blogging and some of my reading for pleasure. It has been worth it though, as I love the benefits of being back in face to face classes having philosophical discussions with colleagues. One course focused on research perspectives, and it was a great introduction to the program to work toward establishing a critiquing lens when reviewing research studies/articles, as well as considering how others will view my own future research. The other course focused on critical pedagogy and the purpose of education. It was especially beneficial for reflecting on myself as an educator and refining my beliefs. 

Thursday I went to my last class and emailed off my last assignment. It was such a relief, but there was not any time to sit back and relax. The next morning I got up to go back to my official first day back to school. This year I am feeling more confident than ever before, the great feeling with being at the same position for multiple years. This year I will be focusing solely on reading and writing; however, I plan on collaborating so that some of our assignments can support the social studies content as well. 

A week from Monday I will also start my fall semester classes, Curriculum and Qualitative Research. They will be two back to back classes, so I will leave right when the students do and go right to bed when I get home. Luckily, I will have the whole week to complete assignments before the next class meeting. I already have my textbooks, and there are many that look like they will be really interesting. 

This week I will be trying to post some of the posts rolling around in my head. Some I will program as I have a chance, and others I will hopefully make time for. However, while I am teaching and in my Ed.D. program my posting will largely depend on how much time I have once the girls are in bed and homework/school preparation is complete. 

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Audio Books Reflections - Links to Read Alouds

This summer I was thrilled when I thought of the idea to listen to audio books while commuting to summer school for my five weeks of doctoral classes. Since Simplicity is my One Little Word this year, I knew that I could not add on my doctoral courses and continue with my same level of reading for pleasure if I still wanted to have time for my family. Listening to audio books has been a perfect way to enjoy the commute and feel like I am able to still be "reading" some books for pleasure. I have posted about the audio books I have listened to so far here and here.

While listening to audio books, I naturally began to reflect about how it was similar and different to reading a paper version of the book. The most noticeable difference was the difficulty in flipping back to verify something that happened earlier. Sure, I could have gone back to the previous tracks, but my car CD player does not have the capacity to quickly scan through individual tracks, at least that I know of. This meant that I thought a lot harder about whether or not I really needed to take the time to go back at times when I do it without another thought with a paper version. I didn't want to have to listen to a significant portion of a track again just to double check something. Instead, I often opted to continue on and focus on details that would clarify my question. The same goes for if I realize that my mind has been wandering, such as if I was more concerned with merging. I found myself evaluating whether I still had a pretty good idea of what was going on or if I was completely lost. Again, I would only go back if I really needed to in order to understand, but if it was a paper version I would have skimmed back to the last point that I remembered being fully engaged.

Other difficulties come when at times it was hard to know if it was a character's thoughts or dialogue without the visual cues that the text versions give, making me realize that I had to be listening even more intently to make meaning of what was going on. For example, how the other characters responded helped me to know if they said something out loud or if it was an internal dialogue. However, the advantage was that audio adds more expression, which at times made it easier to understand.

This made me think about read alouds in class and the strategies that readers need in order to get the most out of read alouds. Since they do not have the text in front of them (at least in my classroom most of the time), they need to pay close attention to get what is going on. They need to realize when their minds have drifted off and evaluate how much they are able to fill in their own gaps and when they need to ask a clarifying question.

This year I am planning on talking to my students about what I have discovered about audio books vs. reading a paper version. I will share my experiences of noticing my mind was wandering and not having the ease to quickly flip back, as well as the strategies I used to make meaning and deciding what to do. Hopefully, the students will realize that readers at all proficiency levels utilize strategies to make meaning. It will work toward making them realize that just because they are asking a question does not mean that they are not a "good" reader, which seems to be a reason why some students do not want to ask questions or show their confusion with read alouds.

I was excited when I realized this bi-product of expanding my reading horizons to include audio books. What I thought of as a way to pass the time during my commute and fill my need for reading for pleasure, ended up also having value for implications for teaching. I will continue to think of my experiences with audio books and how that informs me about myself as a reader and possible tie-ins to my classroom.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Latest Books

Lately I have not been posting as much. Right now I am at the start of week four of my five week summer session. It has been an exciting time for me as it is the start of my goal to continue my education. At the same time, it comes with a shifting of priorities. I wanted to make sure that I make time for my girls and husband, and reading professional development books for fun and blogging has been some of the areas where I have had to spend a significantly less amount of time than before.

However, I have had time to make some space for self-selected books that I should be posting about soon. Throughout the fall it will continue to be a balancing act, but I know that I will slowly move through my TBR pile of professional books. Today I was just on the Stenhouse blog and thrilled to see the side bar icon pop up with their latest upcoming releases. I always love seeing the newest books coming out, and it looks like there are a lot of great books in the lineup. The most anticipated book of the season for me is Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz' Day by Day. No amount of doctoral assignments will be able to keep me from that book for long!