Beginners Blogging

In our Beginners (preK) classroom the students are blogging! Here is an excerpt from a recent post:

(click to enlarge)

And here is some information about how and why 4 year olds blog:

Check out this PDF to read more about it...

Upper School Rebel Writers

Susie’s Rebel Writers class (English 11) has been busy working on their Rebel Projects, a six-week long project in which students become rebels themselves by identifying and tackling an issue in which they want to effect change. Throughout their project, students document their thoughts online using a wiki or a blog so that peers can follow their work and offer comments. You can see the end result of a Rebel Project upstairs near the library. Two students created a “Humans of BB&N” bulletin board. Their goal in becoming a “rebel” was to find a way for BB&N people to have an opportunity to better know one another.

-Katrina Fuller

Upper School Launch Grant: Blogging site

The time and training I received to work on Haiku was very important for me. It was a new platform for me and I needed to have the time over the summer (and the year)  to learn how to use it and also explore whether I needed to use other platforms or not because of possible restrictions with using Arabic. I was (and still am) interested in making Haiku the second textbook for my classes. This grant helped me begin this project and explore options and figure out what will and won’t work for my classes.

My main interest was to offer the students a place to engage the language through blogging but that did not work out as I had imagined so I decided to use Haiku for projects instead and from there try to develop the pages where students find a place to engage the language outside of class time.

I use Haiku now to share links of songs and movies that we watch and talk about in the class…each class has access to material of the previous year and I also post my assignments and syllabus. I also found out the more I use Haiku, the more interest the students have in using it. It is also my goal for next year to connect grading with homework assignment to make it easier for students to keep track of their missing assignments and stay up to date with their grades.

-Amani Abu Shakra

Using Technology in the Classroom - the Mobile Experience

Making class a little more fun can be easy with technology. To further expand, "making class easier" can seem a lot like making class harder for the teacher. Now with access to everything from "Angry Birds" to Educational Apps on iPad, to blogs and webcomics on the internet, classes have become inundated with technology to try. In some ways it may seem more difficult to pick through the tangle. If we look at something more specific, say the iPad, then we see it has been geared toward education, but has it been geared toward teaching? Perhaps it is, but not necessarily the way of teaching as experienced previously.
In a recent conversation, the need to adapt teaching styles to new technology arose. One of the participants in the discussion noted that it was good to instigate integration of technology into the classroom, but without understanding how to utilize the technology in new ways it would be useless. Nobody likes to be told they are "behind the times", as seen in the post in the "Bright Ideas" blog titled 17 Signs your classroom is behind the times, but as life gets more and more mobile, noted in the article over at eSchool News, there is an increasing need to familiarize with the mobile technology available not only in life, but also in the classroom (which is purported as the preparation for life).
As a demonstration of the more common way to teach, in a recent article posted at iLearn Technology blog, the author mentions using webcomics to enliven a class*. The webcomic they refer to is "Brown Sharpie" (a mathmatics webcomic**). By using iPad applications and webcomics, the teacher integrated technology into the classroom in a manner similar to the old way where maybe a clipping would be brought in and discussed. Furthermore, the judging of resources for research are eased with Apps from the app list mentioned by Apps in Education in an article on iPad Apps used to research projects.

In a more modern approach, the student is given the power wherein they must utilize the search and collate functions important to life outside the classroom. In an article by Michele O'Dell, two approaches to the iPad in conjunction with curriculum are approached. The Apps in Education blog also has a comprehensive list of strategies posted recently as Mobile Learning and Tablets in Education RoundUp!. If each student has access to an iPad, then learning how to individualize the learning experience through projects like creating an eBook on the iPad might be considered.

Whatever the method of integrating technology into the classroom, hopefully this post assisted in pointing out some resources to assist the process.

*Although these are educational comics, it is always recommended that one checks that the specific comic of the day is up to standard for the age group the viewing thereof is geared toward.

**[In this mathematical and science vein, some other fun math comics are "Spiked Math" (although it is for a slightly more college-aged readership at times), "Peebles Lab" (Apologies to English grammarians for there is no apostrophe - it is a science based comic), "xkcd" (the golden standard of stick-figure geek comics), and "(x, why?)" (a math comic - tends toward puns). Some of the fun of using webcomics is not only in the connection, but also in updating how one interacts with technology. Some of the webcomics (Brown Sharpie) also include apps.]

To Kill a Mockingbird Blog

For the past several years, and thanks to the inspiration of Eric Hudson’s idea, my class creates a blog as we read To Kill a Mockingbird. The book is great fun study with eighth graders both because of their eagerness to practice their new skills in literary analysis as well as their passionate responses to the events in the book. The blog provides a perfect venue for them to share insights into the novel and to create a communal, public record of the evolution of their ideas. They post about symbols they identify in the novel. They post about their moral outrage as they read about the verdict. They comment on each other’s posts in order to agree, disagree, or refine their classmates’ ideas.

Students are required to write polished paragraphs and to support their ideas with evidence from the text. Because they know how public and lasting their writing is, and that its purpose is to build a communal resource, they are invested in contributing their best work. Each student writes frequently and receives immediate feedback from their classmates as well as me. This blog has become an exciting and invaluable component of teaching this novel. By the last chapter, the students have worked together to create something for themselves and each other of genuine intellectual achievement.

Besty Canaday, MS English Department Head

Web Browsers: Further Exploration

While downloading Google Chrome (a web browser like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox), I came across a good beginners guide to web browsers and the internet. If anyone is interested in the basics of web browsers and internet usage, then this link: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/ has a handy starting guide.

From the charming format that imitates a book to helpful information regarding cloud computing and a thorough explanation of cookies this handy guide of "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web" is a good primer to understanding more about the internet and browsers.

One of the chapters of the book that might be especially helpful for projects is the "Using Web Addresses to Stay Safe" section. (Found here: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/url). Although not directly related to school projects the chapter addresses discerning how to tell what sites are legitimate and which are not.

Hopefully, starting with the site "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web" will lead to learning more than 20 things about the internet and web browsers.

What is Blended Learning?

Q: What is Bended Learning?

A: Blended Learning refers to a mixing of different learning environments. The phrase has many specific meanings based upon the context in which it is used. Blended learning gives learners and teachers a potential environment to learn and teach more effectively.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blended Learning Global Education Conference 2010

Posted by Mike Gwaltney on November 9, 2010

Watch these 2 videos from Carpe Diem and Millis High to start to imagine the possibilities of what blended-learning schools do in helping their students achieve stellar results with models that increase productivity and personalize learning

Tech in the Classroom with Eric Hudson

The idea to use a blog in my English courses came out of a feeling of frustration: my students’ definition of “doing the reading” each night was far too passive. I had heard too many stories of students who skimmed the reading and then shoved the text into their backpacks, forgotten, or, exhausted from doing their other homework, collapsed in bed at the end of the night and struggled, half-asleep, through an English assignment. I wanted students to spend a few minutes reflecting on the reading and preparing useful insights for the next day’s discussion.

I have been using blogs off and on since I taught at the Middle School (and Blogger is still, for me, the easiest, most intuitive platform), but it was at the beginning of this year, my second at the Upper School, that I decided to make a bigger leap: the blog would be a yearlong course activity and resource run completely by the students. I gave them a rubric for posting and commenting, but the topics of their posts were up to them. Resistance from the students was immediate: You mean we have to write on top of the reading? We have to read the book and our classmates’ thoughts? And then comment? After a few weeks, however, as the blog became part of the rhythm of the course, I noticed a dialogue forming between the blog and my classroom; students were taking ideas raised by others in class and talking about them on the blog and vice versa. I was getting two classes worth of discussion for each “live class” I taught.

Especially with my sophomore courses, where students in two different sections could interact via the blog, I found the students taking initiative beyond what I required: one student, for example, noticed that the actress who played Lady Macbeth in the recent PBS version of the play also had a role in the “Harry Potter” films. That student posted a few stills from both movies on the blog, which set the class abuzz.

This is the ultimate goal of a blog: connections students make in their own minds on their own time can be shared immediately and in real time. It can be an outlet for those students who might be shy, or might not be able to get in that key idea during class discussion, or need to write their thoughts out in advance to feel confident enough to say something in front of a group.

The side effect I never anticipated? The writing on the blog is excellent, sometimes even better than what I get in essays. It seems that when you’re writing something you know fifteen of your peers will be reading, you’re more motivated to put your best writing forward.

- Eric Hudson
US English Teacher

Eighth Grade Current Event History Blog

Read the latest posts and comments to the 8th Grade Current Event History Blog. All the leading questions are selected by students:

Billings History Blog Post: WikiLeaks Contorversy (Time Magazine - Ellie's Post)

1. Is WikiLeaks a good thing or bad thing for a democracy? Why?
2. What is the "best" leak? the "worst"? (you define)
3. Should news outlets be prevented from publishing them?
4. Is the phenomenon - that this happened - surprising.
5. Should Assange be prosecuted for WikiLeaks?

Rogers History Blog Post: No Guns, No Pity

1. Do you think that there is need for more restrictions on guns? Why?
2. Why do you think lawmakers aren't creating any new restrictions for gun control? Why
3. If you were given a chance to make a restriction on gun control what would it be? Why
4. Do you think that shooting in Arizona is a reason for creating more regulations on people's guns? Why?
5. Do you think that by making it harder to have access to guns, it would reduce the gun violence? Why?

Francis History Blog Post: Current Events in Egypt

1. Should Mubarak be immediately removed, making it possible for the riots and protests to simmer down? Or should he serve out the rest of his term and allow to ElBaradei’s movement to identify a candidate to replace Mubarak?

Eighth Grade Current Event History Blog

Read the latest eight graders posts and comments to the Current Event History Blog. All the leading questions are selected by students .

Hs8-4 Blog Post: Airport Security: Too Much or Too Little

• Do we need this security, or more?
• Can we do with less security?
• Where would YOU draw the line between what is necessary/appropriate?
• Are you worried about flying?
• Who should make these security decisions?

Hs8-2 Blog Post: Hazing in Needham

• Based on your understanding of the Mass Hazing Law, is the suspension of the 5 players on the Needham High School soccer team just punishment for the alleged hazing incident that the younger classwomen were subjected to; why or why not?
• Do you think the parents were right in their efforts to override the decision the judge made to not allow the girls to play in the tournament game?
• If all students are clearly made aware of hazing laws by their school, then why do kids continue to commit such mean and degrading acts on other students?
• How would you react if you were with a group of your school friends and you witnessed another group of students who were “hazing” another student or group of other students? Keep in mind the students committing the hazing act could be several years older than you.

Hs 8-6 Blog Post: Chasing Pirates: Inside Microsoft's War Room

• Is piracy a significant issue?
• Should people have the right to copy software?
• Is Microsoft being too extreme in its prevention methods?

Eighth Grade Current Event History Blog

Facebook is failing to prevent child predators from posting suggestive and potentially illegal photographs of children on its website, a weeks-long investigation by FoxNews.com reveals, despite its claim that it's doing all it can to keep pedophile materials from being displayed.

This topic, which is the first paragraph from a Fox News story, was chosen by Bill Rogers eighth graders for their first blog discussion this year. Blogging was piloted early last year by Miles Billings and quickly accepted for use in our eighth grade history curriculum. To view this blog post and read the student comments (100-200 words), and the leading questions, click on Facebook Abuse: Peter's Post. Posts and comments will be assigned about twice a month, selected from student submissions. Bill Rogers/MS History

Eighth Grade Current Event History Blog

Welcome to Billings History 82 classroom blog! We will be using this blog during the course of the year to discuss current events in the world of U.S. politics and government, and to post news, homework and notes for everyone to use. Also, there are many other creative uses we can think of including posting video and pictures for all to comment on.