Just another Edublogs.org site

I am waiting to establish a rubric to see what students and teachers I will be working with this school year. I want the students to definitely see and use a rubric to reinforce the high expectations that are established. But, I want to wait for feedback from my principal and other teachers before making the rubric. Like I have stated, this is an ever-changing idea and project. I am looking forward to collaborating with my staff to make this project really come to life.

The first week of class will be testing the students to know their reading levels. The students will then be placed into literature circles with students at their same reading level. Once the students are in their set circles, I will introduce the content and tools to each group separately in a one-on-one setting. I will first show them the classes Google site to walk them through the initial rules. They will get a print out of the rules in order to get a parent signature before being able to post to the edublog. The students will get a look at the edublog. All this will be shown to them on the Promethean board so they can really see the fine details of the tool.

Students will have to take home an information packet on the Google site and Edublog and get it signed in order to be able to participate. The information packet will ask for an email that the students can use as their log in. The parents will be able to set up an email for their child or allow their child to use their email address.

To protect the privacy of the blog, I will ensure that the settings are changed so that only users can edit and post in the blog. The students will not post any last names and keep their identities private. I will also change the settings to prevent spam and outsiders from posting on the blog.

Once the teachers report back to school on August 31st, I will have a better understanding of what I will be doing this school year. I will then explain this idea to my principal and show her how it would work. Last school year, my partner and I set up a Wiki for our classes, so I am not worried that she would not like or accept the idea. She is very supportive when it comes to technology integration in school.

I am satisfied with the way that I set up the Google site and blog. I think that it will be easy to implement into my push-in and pull-out support that I will be providing this year for third through fifth grades. I like the fact that the students can go onto the Google site to read the rules and understand a little on how the Edublogs and Google site will work.

In creating the Google site and setting up the Edublog, I have learned that change will be onstant in working with both. I have it all planned in my head how I will implement it at school, but I know things change. It also depends on the students and how well they can adapt with new technology. I am excited to continue to update both and continuously make them better.

The two tools I used to create these literature circles were Google sites and Edublogs. These are the only tools needed for the completion of the project. Possible customizations would be maybe a help page on the homepage of the site to help students in the future remember how to do things and navigate through the blogs.

The design of the project will be the combination of a Google site and a blog embedded in the Google site. The Google site will introduce them to the overview of what they will be doing with their literature circles and the assignments they will be expecting. The Google site will have all the students placed into groups according to their reading level. The groups will get to pick their team name that will be displayed on the sitemap on the left of the page. There they will find their page with their specific group’s blog. The students will be able to go to their page and see their groups blogs that they will all be a part of creating.

The students will all be apart of setting up their groups blog. I believe this is important for them to learn how to use and understand the blogging process. The teacher will already have their blog initially set up. But, the students will be taught how to make it their own. They will collaborate the first week on the appearance of their blog.They will be shown how to post individually in response to a post, and collaboratively in response to a post.

Over the time they are reading the book, the students will post a multitude of personal literature responses and group assignments.

As of now, my users this school year will be high risk students in grades 3-5 at Fletcher Elementary. I would be pulling groups for literacy support. This is where the literature circle blogs would come into play. The students would be able to be with students with similar reading levels. The students would complete responses individually and together to their book that they are reading in class and at home.

Students would be expected to respond to the prompt that is given by the teacher on a daily, bi- weeky, or weekly basis. They will work in their literature circles to complete responses/ mini projects on a weekly or bi-monthly basis. This way the students will have an opportunity to work alone and with their literature circle to complete assignments.

The only possible performance drivers might be skills and knowledge of Google sites and blogging. Some students have used Wikis before, and some have used Facebook before. Before assigning any work, the students would definitely need instruction on how to post responses and navigate the google site and blog.

Objectives:

1. TLWBAT post responses about their literature books features, characters, opinions, and summaries onto their literature circle’s blog.

2. TLWBAT post responses and comments on their peer’s responses to the books.

3. TLWBAT complete assignments with their literature circle groups on their blogs.

Three ideas for Elementary Blogging:

• Number 1: I would like to set up a blog for students to nightly, biweekly, or once they finish a book to respond to books that they read. I would want to set up book clubs according to their reading levels, so that they can collaborate on the same book. I feel like blogging literature responses would get them more involved in reading and reading clubs. So that maybe their specific book club had members and those members could collaborate on their own books. They could also have access to the other book clubs, to get interested in other books and respond to more students.

• Number 2: How math is everywhere. I think that setting up a class math blog would be a cool way to get students to think of the bigger picture of math being apart of our everyday lives. They could be required to post once a week and respond to other students. This could help get the kids that do not appreciate math or like it to be more involved.

• Number 3: Blogging as a social studies character. I got this idea from someone else, but I think it could get the students to role play and jump into social studies. We could have this be a month long unit, or year long. They can change characters as we progress through time and the social studies book. A week or month in the life of a famous person of whatever era we were studying. They could even pick a character and make them up. This blog would get them writing and more involved in social studies.

Those are my ideas thus far. Even as I was typing those, I though of more ways blogging could be incorporated in my future class. Although, I am not sure what school/ grade level I will be in this year, that might be a challenge implementing. I also could be push in/ pull out support and might be working with upper grades. If that is the case, then the book club/ literature club might work the best.

Hi Karl and Comet 4,

I am Melissa Mowat. I am an elementary school teacher still trying to secure and land a contract. I graduated from Cal State San Marcos in 2007. Last year, I worked as a fourth grade teacher at Fletcher Elementary in SDUSD. I loved having my first full year position. Fourth grade rocks! I am returning to the same school, without contract, unless I am lucky enough to get a call from another school. I live in the North Park area as of this week. I am loving summer, just got back from Hawaii!! Aloha!!

1. I am an only child.

2. I am scuba certified.

3. I swam with sharks while in Hawaii.