Who says elementary students can't blog?

It was a great day! I started the day by reading my previous post to the students about connecting with Chicago. The students were elated that they had been noticed by a teacher from Chicago. Now I have to say that my students think really big cause' when I asked them to guess who had written about them the guesses ranged from President Bush to Jimmy Carter to their principal and many others. I love their enthusiasm! They were pleased as punch when they heard the nice words Steve Dembo had written. Nice way to start the day! We discussed the feelings they had when they saw comments on their site. The students were ready to blog!

The first order of the day was to practice the proof-reading skills we had worked on the previous weeks. They had taken a paper copy of their blog home and marked it with proofreading symbols. I taught them how to go in and edit their posts and how to move around their sites. In TypePad they first go to that site, then log in to their individual blog. They have lots to remember like user names, URLs of TypePad and their own sites, and email addresses. After they made corrections, they proofed their blog one last time. Then the fun began!

They read their comments, responded to them, and made comments on the principal's blog, the counselor's blog and each others' blogs. They loved it! They would find a mistake on a friend's blog and would very kindly point it out so that the owner could go back in and correct it. Teamwork was the word of the day!

Next, they got to preview the current events links on their sites. They really liked the sites that had been selected. Their task was to browse, read and think about what was of high interest to them. We shared leads, created some of our own, talked about including the 5 W's and other writing pointers. Once they had made a choice, they learned how to check to see if the site had a print page so we could conserve our printers ink. These kids are quick learners! They were busy as bees and the room was humming with activity. They put their printed copies in their folders and will take them home and write an article to bring back to class to blog about next week. This is getting to the real act of blogging and it is going to be so cool. This process of browsing, reading, learning, thinking and selecting topics will be the first order of the day for each session. I think this is going to work out well.

They really shaped up their weblogs today and are beginning to take ownership and feel pride. The comments to the counselor were interesting. She had written about the responsibility of blogging. She said blogging was a little scary for her because she wanted to write well, pick topics of interest, and do a good job for the school. You should see the comments our kids wrote to her!

Jhonathan.....

This made me think about when I did my first blog.I was scared that anyone can see my blog.I was thinking that if I made a mistake peaple will laugh at me, but this group helped me and taught me it was okay to make mistakes.

Alejandra.....

Mrs.Halloran, great work on your blog. I get neurves too when I have to wright on my weblog. I just started to wright on my blog this year. I never knew fith graders could do this and teachers. Ilike how you expres your feelings on the weblog and at the same time your helping us.
Great work!!!!

Alejandro.....

Mrs. Halloran! I wonder why you said that web logs scare you. Last year, you told me to always have effort of facing my fears. I am writing web logs and I am not scared. Actually I love to write web logs. I bet you will love them as much as I do.

Now that's just three of twelve comments. This is great and I feel charged. They were really starting to get it today!

We also touched on categories today. This is hard for elementary students. We don't give them enough real time practice with it but after a slow start they started coming up with some good ones. We'll work on this some more but this week I'll add the categories we listed.

Who says elementary kids can't blog? Go get some kids and start teaching them how writing matters on weblogs!!!! These kids would love to communicate with you!

Comments

[Shelby]

This writing made me think that YOU were Ms.Halloran and Ms.Halloran was a child! You are exactly right when you said that she told us to overcome our fears.

I really loved this piece of writing!

Bye,
Shelby

[Maria]

I wonder why people have the nerve to say things about Elementary Students, because if they don't know us they shouldn't judge us. I'm very glad that you made a blog and put our blogs in it . That means you really care what people say about your students.I belive that we can be responsible writers and very good ones also.

[Tim Jenkinson]

Hi,
I'm a grade 6 teacher in Tasmania, http://www.soc.tas.edu.au (Australia). I think these blogs are great! You can check out my class' blogs - http://our.soc.tas.edu.au/blog/TimJ
(they are listed on the right hand side)

I am doing some PhD research on using technologies to bridge the home/school gap.

Keep up the great work guys - if you're interested in doing some combined research then maybe we should chat about it?

Bye for now and well done again on your awesome work!!!!!

Mr Tim Jenkinson

[Kathryn]

I go to the university of alberta, and I am in the fourth and final year of my Education degree. I am writing a paper about blogs and their uses in the classroom, especially related to writing. I looked at over 30 different classroom blogs and then I found yours... it is awsome! I like how all the students are involved and having fun with blogging =) I just wanted you all to know that I will be referencing your blog as an example of how effective and interesting blogs can be as a part of the writing classroom! Keep up the good work =)

[Tina]

researching weblogs

[anissa]

Just checking out the site.

[Karli Pierce]

I am a 5th grade teacher and soon to be writing specialist here at an American School in the Dominican Republic. I am looking for new ways to get kids excited about writing. I am very happy to have found your blogs and I look forward to taking some of these ideas with me into the classroom. Great job boys and girls!

[Bartholomew]

I enjoy your site very much! THANK YOU

[Lydia]

Cool website! ;) Best regards and nice day!

[Mrs. Pace]

I loved your Blog site. I am currently in college for Elementary Education. Our computer/media teacher wanted us to investigate blogs as a form of teaching/learning. You have a most excellent example!

[casey]

Nice job

[Hope]

Hi! I am a 11 year old girl named Hope (I homeschool). I am saddened that there are very few if any, websites that let children my age write, and show people that happen across it what you love to do.
I myself love to write stories and
when i couldn't find any websites that were right. And for kids. I did find, however many websites that talked about kids who can't write.
and that was very sad.
if anyone feels the same way i do.
Please contact me, at
hopegobron@yahoo.com

Oh, and i love your blog.

[ss1234]

That was a great post. It saddens me too that kids who want to share their writing with other people can't because of these websites. I haven't tried finding a website to blog on yet, but I will now. Thank you Hope.

[Diane]

Your blog is great! I am considering starting a blog with my third graders who have not had keyboarding yet. What do you think? Do you have any students without access to internet at home?
A curious teacher from Nebraska

[Gary Cattell]

Hi Anne

I found your superb weblog in Will Richardson's book 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Webtools for Classrooms' while researching an assignment I am working on for the final year of my teaching qualification.
I am in England and I teach ESOL ( English for Speakers of Other Languages) to adults.
My students are at a very basic level of English - simple sentences are still quite challenging for them.
I am researching the extent to which writing weblogs could encourage my students to become more self-motivated to write in English.
The next thing I have planned is for them to prepare some writing and post it on a blog so that they can experience the excitement of getting a response and hopefully be inspired to write more and more.
My idea is for my whole class (8 students) to collaboratively write and post a comment on your blog which introduces each of them and says something about their interests and see what happens from there.
I will be seeing my class early next week, so it would be really helpful to hear from you before then.
FYI I teach at Halesowen College in central England (near to Birmingham) - have a look at us www.halesowen.ac.uk
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincere regards
Gary

[Gary Cattell]

Hello I'm Gary and I'm an ESOL teacher, here are my students; Hello i'm Eshrak.Hello I m Dora .hallo i Abdul.Hello I'M mohamed.hello I'm Riyad.Hello,I'm Ying.Heilo I'm fatemeh. I'm Ewa.

My students come from all over the world and they want to improve their writing. We would love to hear from you.

[cheap laptops canada]

Blogging is educating in itself.

[Cheap Computers]

Everyone can write, the more you will write the more you will get knowledge.

[cheap computer]

I really like your blog and i think this perfect way to encourage elementary students to do what interests them whether its blogging or any other thing. I would say don't under estimate these elementary students as they are the future. Thanks for sharing this.

[Kim Nelson, principal]

Very cool! You have inspired me to get blogging going in our building. Thanks for sharing your learning!

[Leslie Ketchum]

Hello,
I am attending the University of South Alabama and am taking Edm310. I was assigned to come up with my own assignment and I found your blog.
I loved this post. Students are so much smarter than I realized and I'm learning that more and more as I further my own education to be a teacher. When I become a teacher, I will try my hardest to contribute some type of technological communication with other classes so my students can feel more important and know that their own words can make a difference. Feel free to contact me at http://leslieketchum.blogspot.com
Great Post

[Jacqueline Grant Kent]

What a cool idea to get kids blogging. My daughter is a super prolific writer and this might the perfect way to give her confidence that her thoughts count. You guys are great examples.

[jenna]

kids should have blogs at there schools it's education and fun

[Sildenafil pulmonary hypertension]

dhpwkjud, http://newschooljournal.com/ Sildenafil citrate, dgBkrWY.

[Sildenafil pulmonary hypertension]

dhpwkjud, http://newschooljournal.com/ Sildenafil citrate, dgBkrWY.