jessmc.edublogs.org » blogging

Year 12’s First Impressions of Twitter.

Jess — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:33:46 +0000

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Lesson Planning on a Blog

Jess — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:32:02 +0000

Earlier this week I established my classroom blog which I use for all of my four classes. The students just select the category for their class to see the posts relevant to them. Apart from kids forgetting the URL and needing to ask too many times, it has worked really well. If I run out of time in class, or if kids forget what the homework is I just tell them to find it on the blog. A few comments from students have been:

“Wow, do you really have your own website?”

“This makes it so much easier.”

“If I don’t know what to do at home, I can just go to your blog, yeah? Cool.”

I’ve told my students that they are expected to use the blog to

refer to what is going on in class without having to ask me
to catch up on work missed while away
to use the blog posts for their class as a checklist to make sure they have completed all work
to re-read any explanations they didn’t quite understand when I introduced the lesson

I’m using the blog as my lesson planning tool as well. I don’t use a big heavy teacher’s planner. I usually nut things out with a pen and paper (in very messy and fast handwriting), formulate it into some sort of organised list and then write up a coherent post about it for the students. I have also got on the blog Unit outlines for my Year 12 classes (with my Year 11 and 10 ones to come soon).

I will often get my students to respon to questions by leaving comments on the blog, which I have already done once for this activity which asked students ‘What Is Technology?’

I’m hoping also that my classroom blog will show my development as a teacher in how I plan my lessons and what sort of activities I get my students to complete. The real reflections on all of that will happen here on this blog, but the examples will probably all be there. My students won’t be writing on the blog, but I’m planning that at least one class will have their own individual blogs, and maybe two classes will be involved on a ning network. See what develops there.

Have you got a classroom blog? How are you using it?

7 Things You Don’t Need…

Jess — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:54:29 +0000

…to know about me, but might be interesting anyway!

Having been tagged by Graham Wegner and reading a few of these posts over the past couple of weeks, I decided that whilst sitting here in the shade in a nice breeze I might just join in the game.

1. Nick and I are living at my Mum’s at the moment. We are building a house about 20 minutes north of here in a suburb called Doreen (of all the ridiculous names for a suburb!). We are hoping the house is ready by the end of March, but not too sure.

2. In our wedding vows Nick promised to laugh with me and AT me, and I promised to be patient when he wants to buy expensive toys.

3. I cannot eat hot and spicy food no matter how hard I try or how good it smells. It’s just not in me.

4. I have wanted a Cocker Spaniel puppy since I was 7 and this year will be the year I get one! Hopefully Fred, the Jack Russell I have, will appreciate the company.

5. I used to play classical flute. Really loved it at school, and was going to try out for the Conservatorium at Melb Uni but changed my mind. Haven’t played for two years now.

6. I once worked at a Bingo hall calling back the numbers when someone said ‘Bingo!’ People were allowed to smoke inside. It was feral.

7. I love watching crappy romantic comedies and sometimes reading chick lit books because it requires absolutely no brain power whatsoever and that can be a relief sometimes.

Ah, now the time has come to tag others with this meme….…and so I tag (and apologies if they have been tagged before!):

I’m A Mechanic Apparently

Jess — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:42:53 +0000

He he, found this little website via a link on Twitter – run your blog through Typealyzer and it will tell you what sort of blog writer you are. The note at the top does say “writing style on a blog may have little or nothing to do with a person´s self-percieved personality.”

The text say: The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Race cars and firefighting! Who’d've thunk it?!

The Middle of Everything

Jess — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:09:29 +0000

Over the past couple of years I have blogged and podcasted and wiki-ed, if that is even a word. Mainly I’ve blogged at technoLanguages as a LOTE (Language Other Than English) teacher, but next year I won’t be teaching Chinese, I’ll be teaching Politics and History (my other majors at Uni). So, the reason I’m resurrecting this blog is because it is for me as a teacher – not as a teacher of anything specific like technoLanguages, but just as a teacher. It’s also proving to be a good central point from where I can link to all the other things I’ve done and am part of.

I started this blog at the start of 2008 when I was having my online identity crisis based around the same thing I just mentioned – wanting to blog as an educator in general, not related to a specific subject. Then, that got a bit much so I just focused on technoLanguages. Now I’m back here, which must be confusing for some! I’m going to try to keep all the balls in the air – and see how I go with that!

Also, I was trying to think of a fancy name for this blog, but you can see I’ve just gone with my name. My interests may change and the reason for me to blog may change, but my name won’t so I’m just going to stick with that. I’ve got links at the side to all the different things I’ve done and am doing, and my most important and used profiles on the web.

Welcome to my thoughts. Thanks for stopping by

A Higher Priority

Jess — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:20:54 +0000

Pppphhhhew, here I am – all in one piece thankfully! It has been AGES
since I’ve posted and to those of you who noticed, thank you for
noticing!

Needless to say, I haven’t been blogging because life has been crazy. I
have been madly planning generally, attending conferences, helping to
organise a trip to China (leaving in 10 days with 20 kids from 5
different schools for 6 weeks), travelling back and forth to Melbourne
for a meeting, and official launch of the international program and to
visit my husband. I’ve had late nights at school with meetings, and
visitors on the weekend. Oh, and I wrote a job application in there
somewhere too. As crazy as it all has been lots of great things have
been happening in my classroom and I’m going to get down to business,
get my online-ness organised and going again, and write all about them.

I really do miss blogging when I don’t have time for it. I still walk
around thinking about all the things that happened that day that
deserve a blog post. The funny things the kids have done, or a magic
moment, a great idea they came up with, a great idea I came up with,
how a project is going (or not going!), reflections on conversations
I’ve been having about various technology related things, and stuff
like that. If I actually wrote a blog post everytime I wanted to there
would be several a day sometimes! If only there were the hours in the
day for that.

I miss blogging because it helps me to collect my thoughts. Many a time
I have written a blog post about something only to realise I was
formulating ideas that had been swimming around my head with no clear
direction. I have written a blog post and realised that there was
something else I needed to know or consider about that particular
topic, and so I’ve gone off in search of those answers. I have written
blog posts on ordinary teaching days only to realise that I have
actually done something and it’s made me feel a lot better!

So, I do miss my blog, I miss the comments and conversations it
creates. It’s such a powerful tool for me and I enjoy it so much that I
have decided to make it a higher priority in my list of things to do.

Benefits of Blogging – a conversation from the technoLanguages Network

Jess — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:31:51 +0000

technolanguages.ning.com

What are the benefits of blogging?

Posted by Jess McCulloch on 6 August 2008 at 8:35pm

View Discussions

Viviana and Isabelle are exchanging a few messages about the benefits of blogging and so I thought I would start a discussion here to see what others would like to add.

how many of you have your own blog ? How many of you blog with your students? It would be great to hear what your responses are as to why and what you see then benefits to be.

For me the benefits of blogging are:
1. it gives me a space to reflect on my practice
2. it’s a place where I can share ideas and involve other people in conversation
3. it’s a way for me to make connections with other people who are interested in the same things
4. it’s fun – I just really enjoy writing my blog
5. it provides a resource to help out other teachers

The benefits I see blogging having for students:
1. It gives them an authentic audience and purpose for their work
2. They make connections with other students from all over the world – and you should see the excitement on their faces when they see thy have a comment from overseas!
3. It encourages students to take more pride in their work as they know they now have an international audience
4. It encourages students to write about and share things about themselves that they may otherwise not have a reason or inclination to share. I have learnt so much about the students in my school through their blogs.

What do you think?

Tags: benefits, blogging, blogs, connections, international, students

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Viviana Golding on 7 August 2008 at 10:43am: Dear Jess this is excellent! Thank you! Don’t worry about that PD on blogging I am sure that we can do something in the future also with Isabelle….
Have agreat day ciao Viv; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Atkinson on 7 August 2008 at 12:04pm: I have just started blogging and I think that it is a great intro to Web 2.0 tools. It is relatively easy to set one up, sso technophobes need not fear! And I agree with Jess!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tina Wilkinson on 9 August 2008 at 1:20am: Hi Jess – I think you hogged all the answers!!!! lol
I am trying them out with my Year 11s, but we are having terrible trouble with edublogs inside the school on the student server.
What other free blog sites do people use successfully in schools?

Tina

What are your thoughts?

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Wiki Watcher, Blog Buddies, Podcast Pair

Jess — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:15:33 +0000

This term I have started several wikis in my classes, which I will blog more about later. I have the Year 7s each morning for a 15 minute session called ‘Skills For Living.’ The aim of SFL is to discuss things like getting along and being organised. This term we are also focusing on reflecting on our learning.

I wanted to make these sessions a little more engaging for the kids, and so this term I set up the techno7 wiki and podcast and have given different kids a different role each week. We have the

Wiki Watcher – who is to make sure that whatever contributions that are to be made to the wiki are actually completed, that the wiki stays organised, and that the colour if it changes if desired.

Blog Buddies – who are to get together and write a paragraph each of a blog post about something that happened that week and how they felt about it – images to be included.

and we have the…

Podcast Pair – who have to have a podcast episode planned by Tuesday, recorded on Wednesday, edited on Thursday and ready for our listening pleasure while we write in our reflective journals on Friday.

All of these roles have worked out really well for these first three weeks of term. For me, it’s a way of getting the kids to have experience with several different tools while being able to cover other things that we need to discuss such as how to get along better and how we can be better learners for next week!

Oz NZ Educators Live Blogging Meeting

Jess — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:39:32 +0000

Alright March, do your worst…

Jess — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:32:04 +0000

It’s amazing how out of touch I actually feel after two very busy weeks which have kept me away from Twitter and my blogs. Two weekends of visitors, then one away in Melbourne, Year 7 camp and some really hectic days at school have meant that this is my first post in ages! I also have to admit that I’ve had to hit ‘Mark All As Read’ in my reader. I looked at all the feeds and wondered if there was any I could get rid of so that my unread feed numbers stays down a bit, but I ended adding some instead! Aagh!
Right now, watching the Sunday night movie, I’m reconnecting myself to the world that has become such a normal and integrated part of my life that I really notice it when I can’t get to it or interact with it properly for a few days. Of course, I am still in the minority as far as educators in general go. This was part of a conversation that Sue Tapp (@sujokat) and I had when we met face to face at the Port Fairy Folk Festival a couple of weeks back. Here’s the photographic proof! It was lovely to meet Sue and to also be invited by her to a Bloggers Feast in May. (I may not be able to make it though as it’s a Tuesday night dinner and I live three and a half hours from Melbourne, which is a bit far during the week!) I just love that this network is becoming real too, as well as being something that exists only on my laptop.

March hasn’t finished yet either, despite the fact that I am now technically on holidays. I’m off to Melbourne tomorrow night to rush around catching up on a couple of things on Tuesday, and then I’m off to Adelaide for three days for some training on the Professional Standards for LOTE Teachers (I will then come back and in turn train LOTE teachers here in Vic). Then, staying with friends for the weekend and competing in Run For the Kids. Well, the only competition I am really entering is to actually finish the race running as much of the 5.76 km course as I can. I’ll have a friend with me so see how I go!

I am really looking forward to next week as that is when I’ll have some time at home. I want to get some really decent planning done for Term 2 so that I can actually reclaim my weeknights and weekends. That of course, remains to be seen though.

Hello again to those of you reading. Thank you for staying with me. My wit and wisdom, in all its glory, will return shortly…

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