On Blogging and Reporting

 I was reviewing student work as I wrote report cards and I found it very easy to flip from the report card to student blogs to refresh my memory. When I looked at a page of names and grades I saw numbers.  I saw data but I don't see what each child did well and how they progressed over the term.  I know them, their abilities,  and their strength and weaknesses but the numbers don't tell me the whole story. They don't help me tell the story.

When I look at the blogs I see students. I remember what the assignment was; what criteria we were focusing on; and I see how they progressed.

There is a disconnect between what the letter grades mean to educators and what they mean to families.  Parents view a C or C+ is a low mark. Everyone knows an A is great and everyone wants an A. But what does it really mean? How does it describe the child as a learner?  I know  when I hand out report cards next week many of my students will be disappointed. Even though I tell them what the letters mean they will expect A"s and all be waiting with their fingers crossed.

When my students read each others work or see examples they know exceptional work when they see it. They understand what they can work towards. I know they can see all of this and can still be proud of their own work. They are peer and self-evaluating as they share their work with each other. The sharing is as important as the writing as it helps us understand. We take the time to read each other's blogs and comment. Right now our comments are moving from "nice work" to questions and constructive comments.  This is a very important part of the process and worth using class time to do.  Some of the best reasons for using technology are that we can share easily and that it provides purpose to our learning. We become doers and work from home and school. It ties "school learning" to real life. Learning isn't something we leave in the classroom.

We  just published our first term of blogs on our First Nation's workshops, and on our Global Novel Study. We  talked about what makes a good blog and the importance of editing. We are working on writing daily and beginning to understand that their is value and purpose in writing. We are sharing our work as we read classmate's blogs. Now students are asking if they can go back and add more to their past work, or if they can blog other things they have written. They see their websites as a work in progress and they are important to them.

If we want children to be "21 Century Learners" we need to use "21st century assessment tools".  I have asked each student to get their parents to read their blogs and comment on one. I am hoping that involving parents will create better understanding of student progress than the report card that will go home in a few days.

When I send home student work or hold student lead conferences parents see a snapshot of their child's work at that point in time. When they go online they see a running timeline of their child's progress and have the opportunity to be involved through comments and conversations with their child. Our blogs provide a window into our classroom that is available for viewing anytime.  We are proud to be writers.

Building Learning

Today we finished our fourth workshop in 2 weeks. We  spent the last two weeks involved in a series of First Nations workshops courtesy of our Aboriginal Program. We  learned about the importance of salmon; what potlatches and button blankets are; and their importance to the First Nations people. We  made button blankets, learned to draw oviods to make crests, and to weave on a loom.

What a great way to learn. What an opportunity to experience the culture and to share our learning. There is much more to come as we will be drumming and dancing; studying, writing and filming  creation legends; and hosting a celebration for Aboriginal Days this year.

One of the best parts of teaching grade 4 is the opportunity we have, here in Surrey, to experience such rich learning opportunities without ever opening a textbook. We listen to our First Nations, learn from their words, and experience their culture as we participate in all of these activities. We will be honoring their teaching as we chronicle the journey through blogs, photos, videos, and our creations. We are building a treasure to share in June when we celebrate Aboriginal Days.

Its an ambitious plan.
 We will be very busy.
    We will participate, create, collaborate, and share.

       ---And we will learn.

In Flanders Field

Today we made our first video of the year. It was actually a slideshow made with iPhoto and soundtrack made with Garageband. I wanted to use an App but I could not find one that let us do everything we wanted.

Month 2,October Reflections

Blogging, again.

We are up and running again and have restored most of our lost work. We have just finished our Global read Aloud novel and are now busy looking into the endangered status of elephants and gorillas through the World Wildlife website. We have been skyping weekly with our new buddies from a neighbouring school. It has been exciting to meet with them weekly and share our pictures, blogs, and predictions.

This was my first Global Read Aloud. It has been a lot of hard work, but we enjoyed the book,  made new friends, and learned how to blog. We are going to work with the other school to create a joint final project. If all goes as planned we will make our first 1 minute video on the book.  This is our first inter school collaboration. It has encouraged us to take the time to share and provided  new pupose and deadlines for our hard work.

We have also started to use Book Creator to publish our first ebook on Ivan, and made a slide show with Animoto as a pre-read prediction activity.

I attended the first dinner meeting with @shaeski  on Digital Storytelling and I tried to use ideas from the session during October as part of my commitment to Designs For Learning. Usually I have students write about their reading and then create illustrations to add to their writing. For October, I flipped that. I started each reflection on the book by having the students make a picture to show me what Ivan or Stella felt, who their favourite character was and what their favourite part of the reading was. After we drew we wrote about our drawings. During this time we also did a impromptu write on Halloween. One thing I observed was that my weaker writers did better with the picture to jump start their thoughts. It gave them a tronger, more visual starting point than a word web or a brainstorm, or a class discussion. I think I will use this more often and next time I will extend it by getting students to focus on describing the setting and characters from their illustrations to add detail and enrich their writng.

As November starts we will be having a seies of First Nation workshops on drumming, weaving, salmon, drawing, potlatches and button blankets. We will be writing about our learning and recording our expereinces with video and photographs. I will take most of the footage and pictures as they work. Usually the students journal or blog about the workshops. This year I will have the students make a video or a digital collage to describe their experiences and then use them to present what they learned as well as blogging like we usually do.

Our next project is Remembrance Day. We have made torn paper poppies and we will spend time finding pictures of the war and using them to make a slide show to remember. We will share with the school at our assembly as our contribution to the service.

I am excited to begin November.

 

Homework

In the last two weeks we have been working on the 2012 Global Read Aloud. We started with a 6 Word Story Animoto as a pre-read prediction project. Now we are reading an ePub version of The One And Only Ivan using our class Smartboard. This is a first for us. I wasn't sure if we could all share one book - but we can. We take turns reading, predicting and discussing as we read about 20 pages a day. We take time to check out what other classes are doing and we have started to blog about the book.

We have blogged as Ivan, the gorilla,  and as Stella, the elephant. We have laughed with Ivan as he described humanity and felt his sadness as he lost his best friend.

The class was excited to set up their own websites and blogs and we worked every day this week to blog and illustrate our projects.

I wanted to see how many of my students would try to log in from home and work on their blog as homework. I taught them how to log in but they have never done it from home. We had only made 1 blog together so far, so this is a big leap. In order to complete their next blog they would need to sign in to Dropbox, download their artwork, and then upload it to their blog. Then they would need to type in their blogs and publish them.

As we start new projects I always think that we may have bitten off a little too much...and the children always amaze me.

Of course they stepped up and showed me just how resourceful and creative they could be. About two thirds of my class succeeded in completing a new blog from home.  The rest did last night after some extra coaching from others.