I'm sitting here in Chicago with my step-daughter...trying to get her hooked on social networking.  This year she has a fabulous job teaching 2nd graders at a school where children love to learn. What a treat. She's looking to hook up with other elementary school teachers who are using the Writing Workshop methodology. Anyone have a network suggestion?

 

Image: "" by Lauren Murphy
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenmurphy/2139611841/)
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

 

I'm working on improving my planning methods, but mostly I have to jump right in, hit the ground running, tell the kids we're doing it, and try to stay on top of it. More confessions...

but, otherwise I'd never try anything new :-) 

http://wjpsartfall2007.blogspot.com/ 

I have a couple of ideas knocking around in my head about utilizing Wikis to promote sound tech learning. One is to have the students spend some time roaming around Wikipedia, until they find stub entries or empty pages in subjects they have interests in. Then they would do the research to expand those stubs into full-fledged Wikpedia entries, in the proper format (including references).

Another would be to create our own Wiki, and populate it with information that the kids would find useful in school. I got the idea from a 10th grade personal project that a student of mine did last year, a "survival guide" for our school. The kids would populate this wiki with information that other students, especially the younger ones, would find useful. This would become the basis of a "User Guide to BSGE", which will provide advice, coping strategies, and resources the students can use, updated with new information as the students gain experience.

BTW, feel free to "steal" either of these ideas, if in fact they are original, and not accidentally stolen by me because i didn't remember where they came from. 

We are all working on the edge of possibility in one way or another and often do not have a large body of colleagues for collaboration at school. I hope to share my challenges and learn from others who are exploring the newest possibilities.

This fall I am teaching two sections of 9th grade Computer Arts, two sections of 10th grade Drawing, one section of 11/12th grade Computer Arts and my 12th grade Advisory. The school Radio Club seems to finally be taking off this year with an active New York Club and Library Club.

The 11/12th grade class is starting out with digital audio, creating introductions and now initial 5 minute radio shows to share with other teens. We are planning to join the youthbridges community and then expand into some digital image editing. They are exploring the ways that storytelling and day to day communication changes because of the uses of new technologies.

This is also a running thread in 9th grade Computer Arts. So far they have made Voice Threads about connecting place and story and have told about what it has been like to become a high schooler in our neighborhood, connecting either new places or familiar places with the stories of the last month's adventures in their lives. They are now setting up profiles in Youth Voices and sharing stories with students in Alaska. They will soon move on to do online research with a partner this year, not solo at first.

10th Grade Drawing will hopefully be blogging about the art experience with art students in Maine and possibly Binghamton, New York for the purpose of exploring whether people in different places have different or similar ideas about something as abstract as "art." They might also expand the wiki gallery.

 I would like to spend some time on Thursdays searching for interesting examples of similar work being done around the world. So often we take note of an interesting project but we never really take the time to look at it and explore it. I would also be interested in looking at specific ways that technology can support the writing process in Writing Centers since our Writing Center has grown to be very active this year.