Literacy & Technology Instructor's Edublog

Reflections from an Instructor

As time has passed, I have reflected on my students' use of weblogs during fall semester 2003.  The students have moved on to their student teaching experiences and will graduate in May 2004-just weeks away.  As I think of these pre-service teachers who will be in-service teachers very soon, I am excited that the students had the opportunity to learn about and use weblogs with Anne Davis.  To quote Anne,  "It's all about possibilities."  The students learned that thinking of teaching and learning in new ways will open up possibilities in ways we cannot anticipate.  Opening my students' minds to new possibilities has been the number one benefit of the Newbery weblogs project.  Although there were glitches along the way, students realized that problem-solving is a necessary skill in teaching and were able to think through other ways to use weblogs in their classrooms.  The suggestions given at the end of the semester have helped me learn and grow as a teacher.  I will definately use weblogs again in teaching, but will take new knowledge with me about what works best. 

 

Four of my students from fall semester are now completing their student teaching requirements in The Netherlands, England, and Sweden.  When I read their journals, I see how open they are to the possibilities of teaching and learning.  I know their experiences with weblogs enhanced their ability to see those possibilities.

The highlight of the entire project was the field trip to J. H. House Elementary on November 3, 2003.  My students were able to see many, many examples of the use of technology as a tool for teaching and learning.  We observed current events, music, art, language arts, and many more areas of instruction.  My students were interviewed by a group of students taught by Anne Davis.  These fifth graders using weblogs were able to talk with my students about their work.  Isn't that what it's all about?

Weblog Requirements Negotiated!

Today in class we discussed the requirements for our Weblogs.  Reading roles and the tweaking done Friday by Anne Davis and Lynne Jordan were discussed and copies of revised reading roles were provided to cohort members.  The guidelines for comments seemed to be clearer.  Students agreed that two postings per week for a total of fourteen postings is reasonable.  Students will post in each of the eleven departments over the next seven weeks with target ending date of November 18.  Comments may be made on any post or comment with a total of fourteen comments required.  A final post will be expected between Newbery Presentations on December 8 and the final day of the semester on December 12.  We continue to look toward the goal of making weblogs a part of our teaching and learning.

A Shift to Blogging the Journey

I am really excited about this particular project.  Yesterday Lynne and I met to put our heads together about our Literature Circles EduBlog.  Now this weblog will shift to become a blog of our meetings, our reflections, and whatever else comes up that seems to be appropriate.  This is my first opportunity to work with a GSU instructor who is willing to make the time to learn how this will work for students.  By that I mean, meeting times where we put it all out on the table, look at it, discuss the process, tweak it here and there, and make decisions based on what we feel will be educationally sound ones for the pre-service teachers. 

By the way, the students are a great group. If you haven't been following along on some of their postings on their Newbery winners, you're missing out!  We are asking them to do at least two posts and two comments each week. I love reading their posts and comments.  Please think about joining and commenting to them.  The University group love hearing from others outside of their group.  They're no different than we are but I think it motivates them and helps them see how you can extend your audience.  So comment away!  I know many of you love good books and these are books you need to read to your children!

Last week was really the first week, even though we had test driven it a little the week before.  Lynne and I worked at making the Reading Roles a little more definitive for the students. See here. Lynne will be going over those roles again when class meets this coming Monday. I like this kind of work where you keep working on making sure it works.  These students are great about giving feed-back to us.

We're juggling making this work for their group as "up-and-coming" educators but always with a mind toward thinking "How will this work for elementary or middle-school students?"  Now I just have to spotlight a few of their posts in my next post!

Choosing a book to read

I think we made a good decision in choosing to read Bud, Not Buddy.  The book has many possibilities for literature discussions.

Departments created!

Today I learned how departments are used to organize the set-up of a weblog.

Literature Beginnings

This is the first post for Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Davis.