Blogger - Our Class Blog

http://www.chelseabachelors.blogspot.co.nz/

I still see a need for a class blog and Blogger still seems to be the best platform to share with the parent community what the class or Syndicate is doing. 2013 saw The Bachelors' Blog become a Syndicate blog where I was in control of what was posted. Usually weekly I would post a least one photo with a caption to show what the learning for the week was. I would always update the Star of The Week photo too. A weekly commitment but that's what a blog is all about - regular communication with the parent community.

Kidblog - sharing an individual child's work online

http://kidblog.org/Space10sBlog/

Half way through the year I was having doubts about our class Wikispace pages. I was always fixing errors with the children's posts. They found it hard to remember to write posts chronologically and I would find their writing in all sorts of mixed up places on their page. Uploading photos and leaving comments was messy too. I feel wikispaces is probably suited to children older than my 6-7 year olds. Kidblog seems to be a cross between Blogger and Wikispaces, allowing a teacher to set up individual pages for each child in a class while still having control over each page. (Using Blogger meant having individual email accounts which seemed too big a step for Year 2s.) Writing posts was more organised and leaving comments was a lot easier.

2014 - Using Skitch with Evernote

Problem: The only concern I have had with online writing has been how to show first drafts and further editing by the writer or feedback from me as part of the writing process! 

Solution: Use Evernote and Skitch together. By taking an image of their first draft and adding notes in Skitch seems an ideal way to overcome this problem - it sounds as if it will work - 2014 we'll see?

Evernote - Our Online Writing Books

https://www.evernote.com

Problem: How to use our 5 iPads and 6 PCs/laptops during our writing sessions? 

Solution: Evernote has become our writing book. After trialling Notes on the iPad or writing directly onto their wiki page I discovered that Evernote is much more manageable. Children can be rostered onto Evernote on the PCs and iPads and can access their pages anywhere, even from home if they wished. All children have their own page. They plan and brainstorm ideas and words, then draft their stories, edit themselves or easily peer edit and then conference with me. I can also check up from home - no messy piles of draft books around and then plan who I need to conference with the next day. Then it's easy for them to publish - copy and save with a photo or other image to their Kidblog page or wiki page to share. So half the class is writing online while the other half are using their traditional writing books. 

Click image to enlarge - Impressive writing by Raina - One of the more talented writers in the class 

2014 - Twitter

I will set up a roster so that each day the children will become responsible for remembering to tweet and share our learning. Another easy example of creating a purpose for writing that will be read by an authentic audience and for promoting "student voice" in the classroom. As well as following the Year 1 and 2 classes from Pinehill School we have found 2 other classes of 6-7 year olds in the US who are tweeting their learning on a daily basis who we will follow.

Mrs D's 1st graders      @RamblerStars

Mrs Mastin's 1st graders    @Mastin1stgrade
Pinehill Room 11    @Pinehill11
Pinehill Room 22    @Room22Superstars
Pinehill Room 8      @Pinehill_Room8 

Twitter in the Classroom @Chelseakids10

I was amazed at how enthusiastic the children became with this social media tool. There were 6 or 7 children in the class who became regular users and would constantly want to tweet the photo of their work. They created their own Twitter accounts at home and were regular followers. the Stars of the Week photos were always tweeted to the world! Thank you Thomas and Ayden for remembering each Friday. They also enjoyed seeing what the other classes we followed were doing and would often try out the apps they had used.

The End of 2013 - Reflections

A VERY busy year! Heaps of new learning courtesy of the Learning and Assessment Team working in our school.

• so lots of trialing new ideas and modifying old ones - observations, student conferencing, videoing lessons, giving feedback to staff, children self and peer assessing, target and focus learners, writing and reading progressions, LLP and NZ Curric and National Standards resources, inquiry planning cycle, clarity of learning intentions, co-constructing success criteria, next steps.....  
• being given 4 new iPads to use making 5 in total plus 6 PCs and laptops meant Space 10 was a trial digital learning class - no pressure to maximize the use of all this hardware! Watch the Educreation slideshow the class made to request more iPads - very persuasive and it worked!

• trying to keep my own e-learning PD going as well as encouraging staff by keeping the gentle reminders going regarding the e-learning that should be happening in classes
• working on an e-learning strategic plan for the school with David Kinane and Clare

Keeping this blog updated has suffered from my time being taken up with these other commitments. So to make up for lost time the following posts are reflections on what I trialed in 2013 and my next steps for including and modifying for the new class of eager learners in 2014!