A Higher Priority
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
technolanguages.ning.com
What are the benefits of blogging?
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
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Viviana Golding on -
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
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Permalink Reply by Michael Atkinson on -
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!
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Permalink Reply by Tina Wilkinson on -
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?
Wiki Watcher, Blog Buddies, Podcast Pair
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
Alright March, do your worst…
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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