Student Blogging with Kidblog
By Jamie Guillaume

When I initially began studying blogging for students, the intention was to find a tool that could be used for what our district refers to as a Reader’s Response Journal. Research shows that talking and writing about what is read improves comprehension and for that matter, the same can be said for all subject matters. Then I learned about Kidblog (www.kidblog.org), which is a fantastic and free web tool that gives students an authentic audience in a safe blogging environment. 

 

Kidblog is a safe blogging platform because the teacher has control over the audience as well as what is posted and not posted. Under the control panel, the teacher can access the privacy settings, allowing teacher control over the broadness of the audience. For example student writing can be viewed just within the classroom, shared with other classrooms, viewed by parents with an access code, or even opened up publicly. The teacher has complete control of this through the settings. The teacher also sets student usernames and passwords; however the students are able to change these.

Another benefit of Kidblog is that students get to comment on one another’s posts, allowing students to reflect on the writing and thoughts of their peers. However along with modeling how the blog should be set up, commenting also takes modeling for students to master. Otherwise you will end up with, “That was great!” or “I liked it!” versus constructed comments that complement, give feedback and ask questions.

As mentioned, I first thought that Kidblog should be used in Language Arts classes for students to reflect on their reading and although this is a great use, it can also be used in a cross-curricular format.  Students could record findings in science, give an explanation of a standard in math or even post their history papers!

The bottom line is students will have a stronger, vested interest in their writing if they have an authentic audience that consists of more readers than just their teacher. Kidblog gives a safe platform for students to reflect on their learning to an authentic audience.

How do you think you could use student blogging in your classroom?

Connect to the World with Skype

By Kris Walsh

A favorite tech tool of mine is Skype. (www.skype.com)  I have been learning about it quite a bit during the course of this year. This is a very versatile tool that can be used to connect your classroom with the rest of the world.

As time and budgets get tight, and it gets harder and harder to get away for more traditional field trips, Skype becomes a great alternative to let students see and experience something in a more active, hands on way than just viewing a video or reading a book. Students can use this as a way to see and experience new cultures, new ideas, or to hold classroom discussions with students in other classrooms.

This year I have been excited to be part of 3 unique Skype experiences and have some additional ideas that I would like to try with students in the future. I am going to share these experiences and my future ideas, but these are only the tip of the iceberg, there are many other experiences that can be had via Skype.

I am the coach of our elementary FIRST Lego League. In addition to building a robot using Lego Mindstorms, we have to research and create a project based around a theme. This year’s theme was Nature’s Fury, and we decided to focus on tornado safety. A visit to a television channel or weather service location would have meant an hour long drive, one-way. I talked to Mrs. Wright and found out that many of the area TV stations are willing to schedule and participate in Skype chats with student groups. She had a good experience with our area NBC station, WFIE 14, so I got in contact with their lead meteorologist, Jeff Lyons, and scheduled a time to do our chat. It was a great experience, he and I Skyped a couple of days ahead to check our connection and for me to explain what the objectives for the group were. During the session, he did a presentation, students were excited to talk to him about weather and ask questions. At the end of our time, he took his iPad and gave us a quick virtual tour of the news studio. The kids loved interacting with someone that they knew from TV and it was a great experience all the way around.

Mrs. Hubert’s 5th grade class does a video chat using FaceTime on iPads (also possible via Skype) She coordinates with Mr. Jarboe, a 5th grade teacher in Tell City.They worked together to plan and schedule their sessions. Both classes read the same book. Students were assigned to groups in their home school, and then paired up with a group in Tell City. Students read and meet with their partners from the other school.

More recently, Frau had an accident at home. She fell in the ice and broke her leg in 3 places! She is not allowed to put any weight on that leg and is confined to her bed at home. This didn’t stop her. Mr. Rohl has stepped into her spot, but does not have the knowledge in Spanish needed to assist the students in their studies. She worked with Seth and Jackie to set up a way to Skype into her classes and teach lessons. This is working out very well! She is able to see and interact with the students in her class and give them some instruction and answer any questions that the sub is not able to answer. The students are enjoying this and are getting a lot more out of this than just reading their textbooks.

In the future, I plan on working with Phil to link up his class with a class from a country or culture that they are studying. This will give both sets of students a chance to interact with students from another culture and to learn about each other and their similarities and differences.

I am also planning on recruiting an upper elementary class to try and do a Mystery Skype. This is a game where teachers link up 2 classrooms, but do not tell the students where the other school is located. Students have to then have a discussion and ask each other questions to try and figure out where the other class is located. There are variations of this games where students play 20 questions, or students can only answer yes/no questions.

As with anything you see on Techy Tuesday, if you would like any of us to assist you in doing this in your classroom, please let us know!

Happy Tuesday!

Resources

Skype in education- https://education.skype.com/ From this page you can go to pages dedicated to Mystery Skype and Field Trips.

Also, as I mentioned before, often local TV stations, museums, and other educational institutions are willing to Skype. All you need to do is visit a website and ask.

If you have an active Twitter presence, you can Tweet out to your followers to find willing collaborators.

Teaching Content Literacy Through MBC Bundles

By: Phil Zellers

I know I've been riding the My Big Campus train for awhile now but it's because there are so many useful tools within it.  An added benefit to MBC is that what you create in it will always be saved there for future use.  Today I'm going to focus on MBC bundles.  When I think of “bundling,” the first person that comes to mind is Frank from American Pickers. Admittedly, I am a history nerd and don’t miss many shows on the History Channel. Frank likes to “bundle” things together to get a better deal on the “rusty gold” he wants to buy. Bundles on My Big Campus (MBC) are also a “good deal.” There are many benefits to creating bundles on MBC.

Frank, aka, the "bundler."

By creating a bundle you can insert text, which can serve as your directions or a place to post websites. You can also upload files such as articles (Word, pdf, etc.), pictures, or videos. A couple of other great features to include in a bundle are assignments created in MBC (such as quizzes, tests, homework assignments) and bundle locks. A bundle lock allows you to lock any content below where you insert the lock. The lock can be set to unlock at a certain time. It can also be set to unlock when a student gets a score you determine as proficient on a quiz or assignment in the bundle. You can also just have it simply unlock when the user clicks the unlock button. Bundle locks are a great way to separate and divide your content.

This is what the top of the bundle looks like when students open it.

Now, onto how content literacy and bundles go together. I try to organize my content literacy lessons into the three phases of MAX (Motivation, Acquisition, eXtension) teaching strategies we've been studying this year.  You can also easily organize a bundle around a text to do a close read.  For the Motivation phase, I set the purpose for reading by giving the standard covered and an essential question. I then insert video clips, pictures, or something of that sort to grab their attention and build some background knowledge.



Both of these screenshots are examples of what I use for the Motivation phase to set the purpose for the reading.  In the top screenshot, you can see that there is a pre-quiz embedded in the bundle.  I created it in the "Schoolwork" tab and then was able to insert it into my bundle.  In the bottom one, there are a couple of pictures we used to generate a class discussion before reading. 

Next, for the Acquisition phase, I introduce the text(s) that will be read. A lot of times I will upload multiple texts about the same topic to the bundle and allow the students to choose which text they want to read so they have that student voice piece of it. For example, with Ancient Egypt, there was a text about the Great Pyramid, the mummification process, King Tut’s death, and famous pharaoh’s. I allowed them to choose the text that interested them the most. Then, I upload a blank graphic organizer such as a two columns notes chart or the 5 Ws of History note taking chart for example.

This is an example of the Acquisition phase of the lesson (the articles and the note taking graphic organizer).  Students just click on the documents to open them and then can save them to their computer.

Finally, is the eXtension phase. This sometimes consists of fishbowl discussions of the text, discussions on MBC or TodaysMeet, answering a constructed response question, or showing their learning through a web tool of their choosing. There is also a comments tab at the top of the bundle which could be a good place to host a discussion within the bundle itself.  In the bundle, I usually post specific directions for what I want them to do in this phase. Most of the time, at the end of the bundle, I insert a quiz I have created on MBC for them to complete as well.

This is an example of the eXtension phase in a lesson.  You will also see a bundle lock at the bottom of this screenshot. It is a simple user bundle lock in which students just have to click a button to unlock the content below it. 

You may want to begin by searching the MBC Library to view bundles that have been created by other teachers.  You can search by topic, subject matter, and grade level.  If you find a bundle you like you can branch it to yourself and then it is fully editable for you to make any changes you want to it.  So, you don't have to start from scratch.  No matter the content you teach or how your class is structured, bundles are a great way to organize and deliver your content and assessments in one centralized place.  It is also great for when you’re not there and have a substitute. All your directions are laid out in the bundle so the substitute just has to direct them to it and they can get started.  Just like Frank enjoys the benefits of "bundling," I think you will too, although for different reasons!