Students today need to prepare for the ever changing world that they will lead into the future. Technology is playing an important role in how business is developing in the world, and as teachers we must prepare our students for success in that environment. Learning from technology and being able to synthesize and express one’s thoughts about their interests, is a key reason we need to focus on ways to motivate our students using technology. I will attempt to demonstrate the how blogs are becoming a valuable medium to promote learning, but one in which students can demonstrate that learning through writing. To begin, I will consider how I might implement Blogs into my Writing Class this upcoming year.
While I’ve been teaching for the last 13 years, the last three have been in Fifth grade. Since joining this grade level, we have shared students and traded classrooms in order to work to master the new Common Core Standards in the subject areas we enjoyed. My first year, I worked with one other teacher, however, over the past two years, all three classes have rotated. The subject that I am comfortable teaching and enjoy, is writing. I find that it will be the key to what is being expected of our students today and into the future. Last year, I began to move towards allowing students more time to work on the research and synthesizing of information they were tasked to write about. I set high standards for them and expected them to work hard writing to express what they were learning. The end result turned out to be an extensive growth in their reading and writing levels. I was pleased with the preliminary results that we saw in their SBAC scores. It was a validation of the move from direct instruction, that gave me a sense of security and control, to student centered work. While I am developing and finalizing these plans for the upcoming year, the pedagogy behind the decision indicates the need to move in this direction.
I entered this program to learn how to further master and use technology to better prepare my students for their future lives. In these last few days, a whole new thought has begun to shape how I will prepare my students this coming year. Utilizing Blogs to record and document student learning is the direction that I will begin to implement with my new group of students. In his Blog at kidslikeblogs.org, Jon Schwartz notes his own experience and states, ” The blog format has enabled my students to create organized online portfolios of work that foster pride, enthusiasm and a sense of ownership and empowerment. They’ve revolutionized my classroom and the work habits of my students, and have increased meaningful communication between the parents, students, and myself.” (Schwartz, J. n.d.)
One leader in the move towards technologies use is author and former teacher, Will Richardson who points out, “But by their very structure, blogs facilitate what I think is a new genre that could be called ‘connective writing,’ a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demands clarity and cogency in its construction, that is done for a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed. In essence, we write not just to communicate but to connect with others who can potentially teach us more.” (Richardson, W. 2010) Since blogging is in its infancy, students will be applying the first standard of creativity and innovation when they create their blogs with their own personal expression. This style of writing may be considered new, but it certainly addresses all of the ISTE Standards for students.
ISTE has determined there to be six standards that through mastery, students will be able to succeed in the 21st Century society that is ever changing. Through their very nature, blogs promote communication and collaboration of ideas with others interested in the topics a student writes about, meeting the Second ISTE standard. In order to present student opinions and knowledge on a topic would mean they would have to master the third standard of research and information fluency. As noted, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making skills are all used in the creation of a blog and the fourth ISTE standard. (ISTE n.d.-a.) Throughout the entire process, students use the final two standards as they build a digital citizenship through practice and learn to master the operations and concepts that are found in technology.
Mastering standards is not just for students, but teachers as well. ISTE has also designated six standards that teachers should master to be an effective teacher. As for personal growth, to be able to model the validity and necessity of my students to learn how to correctly blog, I will need to also learn how to master its use on my own. It has always been a personal goal to inspire my students learning and creativity. By fully embracing new technologies, it only enhances this goal, but also meets the first ISTE Standard for teachers. (ISTE n.d.-b.) By using my own knowledge of writing, I can use blogs to advance students’ understanding of how to use technology as a learning tool. Supported by modeling my own work, I will be able to master the third standard by transferring my knowledge to my students on how to use technology in a global and digital society. Telling students that learning is a life long process means that as teachers, we must reflect and strive to continue to learn new methods to help our students succeed.
Some reading my thoughts might question my idea of giving students such freedom to just work individually and collaboratively on producing written projects, rather than, focusing on teaching the mechanics of writing. It was not something that didn’t trouble myself as well, however, I found that my own students written form began to improve over the year with only short quick mini lessons. I might introduce a resource for them to learn the thirteen rules for using commas, and then simply comment on their use of them in their writing to help them move towards their correct use. Garreth Wigg points out, “Young people are very conscious of what they say and how they say it. They always have been. Their excusable, slightly egocentric nature is geared towards saying the right thing at the right time with the fear of being rejected by their peers being ever present. The same can be said of their writing.” (Wigg, G. 2013) When faced with the knowledge that their work is going to be placed on the Internet for all to read, they will make more of an effort to produce quality work. I am excited to see how the implementation of blog writing will help move my students’ mastery of writing standards to a new level this next year.
As I have indicated, using student blogs will help students to meet the new goals that are set forth in both ISTE Standards, and the Common Core Standards for those using them. Those states not using the new Common Core Standards, have their own standards that address the use of technology in learning. My plan will be to use a Class Blog that links to each individual Student Blog. By setting up my class in this way, I can notify students of their assignments, but also keep in touch with the parents. They will be able to learn what is going on in the classroom, but also see what their child is learning by having access to their personal work. I am excited to begin a new journey this next year, as it will keep me busy meeting the challenges that will arise.
References
Schwartz, J. (n.d.). Kids like Blogs: Student blogs teach technology in elementary education. Retrieved July 06, 2016, from http://kidslikeblogs.org/student_kids_like_blogs.html
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Ch2. pp. 17- 42.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Wigg, G. (2013). Twitter Or: How I’m learning that social media is my friend. Practically Primary, 18(3), 34–35.
Retrieved from July 5, 2016:
ISTE. (n.d.-a). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved November 5, 2015, fromhttp://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-students
ISTE. (n.d.-b). Standards for teachers. Retrieved November 5, 2015, fromhttp://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers