I am slowly coming down from an incredible high this past week.  I was part of a team (Andrea Hernandez, Jon Mitzmacher and myself), that envisioned, organized and ran an education LEARNING conference. This was a first  for me, since I have only been a participant an/or  a presenter at such conferences.

We were inspired by the educon conference, run by Chris Lehman, his faculty, students and parents at the Science Leadership Academy . We envisioned, not a technology conference, but a conference about teaching and learning.

A prerequisite for being able to connect, communicate, collaborate and create during the conference, our attendees would have to be equipped with tools that would act in a way that made technology as “invisible, ubiquitous and necessary as oxygen”(Chris Lehman). Each one of our attending school teams, received a toolkit, containing an iPad, an iTouch, a Flip camera and a paper and pencil.

The focus of the conference was NOT going to be the tools though, but how the tools could encourage and support:

• the CREATION of media and documentation of learning
• the PARTICIPATION of attendees during conversations NOT lectures
• the LONG TERM creation of a learning community

John Dewey said that “we do not learn from experience, but we learn from reflecting on experience”. REFLECTING on the learning experience during the conference and the SHARING of that reflection has been an INTEGRAL part of  our vision.

Andrea Hernandez, already shared her first reflection post-edJEWcon describing our first steps of making edJEWcon  a reality. She pointed out that while there was an extraordinary amount of work from all the people involved, it was the attendees, presenters and students who brought the theory behind our vision of learning and teaching to life.

Jon Mitzmacher in his reflection  explains and elaborates on his feelings of being ” equal parts “proud parent”, “exhausted midwife”, “exhilarated student”, and “inspired principal” after the physical edJEWcon conference had concluded.

Mike Fisher, another key player in making edJEWcon all and more than it could have been, takes on the aspect of student involvement during edJEWcon as the topic of his post on ASCD Edge titled “Strategic and Capable“. He addresses the school’s Middle Schoolers directly by pointing out although they did not know it…” this was an assessment, one that happened in the moment but allowed you to prove your skills. You gave a performance, a recital of your capabilities…and you SHINED!”

More and more reflective posts from our school teams and partners are pouring in on their own professional blogs as well as on their edJEWcon school blogs, we created specifically for that purpose. Take a look at Shira Leibowitz’s posts A Day With Angela Maiers, Comfort With Discomfort, and The Purpose of Ed Tech, as well as Akevy Greenblatt’s post, or the Gray’s Academy of Jewish Education’s blog to share just a few.

Now it is my turn

• to be reflective
• to be transparent
• to add my reflection to theirs
• to weave a web of reflections and multiple perspectives
• to connect my learning to others
• to continue a conversation that started face to face
• to allow others, who were not able to be at edJEWcon physically, to learn with and from our experiences and thoughts.

I am a very visual learner, so I used my cell phone to sporadically take images during edJEWcon in an attempt to facilitate my post conference reflection on the experience. I will let the images guide my train of thought and hopefully they will also make the experience for the reader come alive. It can serve also as just another example of transmedia learning and storytelling.

21 school teams and 14 partners were registered to attend edJEWcon 5772.0. We knew that each team was bringing members who were at various comfort levels with the tools they were about to receive and the platforms we were about to ask them to explore, play and use over the span of three days. We needed to bring in speakers like Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Angela Maiers and Mike Fisher, who would be able to:

• share a vision
• tell a story
• inspire participants to WANT to grow and learn
• make connections between the shift in the real world to the realities in the educational world
• address how professional development for educators MUST change in order to allow change in the classroom to happen
• talk about the moral imperative of sharing among educators
• practice what they preached
• show that they are approachable and willing to connect with their audience
• lead a conversation, not just lecture

After receiving their toolkit, we ushered our teams to a location where they could unpack, set up and connect their devices with the help and support of a tech team if necessary. We had prepared a suggested app list to guide them as they were setting up an iTunes account and make choices about their first few apps.

Among the apps listed, was an edJEWcon conference app (created with Yapp.us) , which allowed attendees to receive updates, browse the schedule with room assignments and conversation descriptions, click on links we were pushing out, images, and Twitter feeds (@edjewcon & #edjewcon).

Tool set up went smooth and participants  were getting to know each other or reconnecting over lunch before heading to the first keynote. The conference had begun…

edJEWcon Keynote

View more presentations from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

Mike Fisher, explained it well in his post Strategic and Capable, how MJGDS Middle School students worked behind the scene at the keynotes. They became the teachers, as Heidi Hayes Jacobs asked them to disperse, find an adult among the audience, sit with them and coach them in using their tool (iPad, laptop, iTouch)  to participate in a backchannel.

Backchanneling was nothing new to these students. Over the years, they have experienced using a backchannel  for academic purposes on a regular basis. (ex. movie watching, learning styles & collaboration, assessment of learning, Skype conferencing)

Image used with permission from Talie Zaifert

The concept of a shift in roles and defining who is a learner and who is a teacher was beautifully illustrated throughout the conference. As attendees AND presenters called upon our students to show, coach and participate as valued members of a conversation. In my mind it became clearer that any conference about education MUST include our students.

One of the main take aways, we wanted attendees to leave edJEWcon with, was an acute awareness of learning as being social, collaborative, connected and participatory.

We are not alone in our learning journey but can, should and must rely on a learning network to filter, contribute and add perspective.

Attendees were reminded throughout the conference to document their learning. Many took notes in  (paper) journals we provided in their toolkits. Several were spotted using word processors on their laptops to take notes. Some used  Google Docs to amplify by collaboratively taking notes and sharing them with colleagues.

Many brought their own iPads or used the iPad that was given to each team as part of the tool kit.

It was thrilling to see a Twitter newbie to discover the connected note taking capabilities of Twitter, by using not only summarizing their own thoughts but using #hashtags and RT (re-tweets).

It was equally thrilling to see attendees using their tools  to go beyond text based note taking and documenting. Thousands of images were taken during edJEWcon, they were shared via Twitter, blogs and Flickr.

Image by Talie Zaifert

There was undoubtedly a buzz in the air…

A buzz…

• how “edJEWcon was nothing without the people. People who came. People who helped. People who shared and learned and tweeted and connected. People are the magic that breathe life into an idea”.- Andrea Hernandez
• and “a Burst of educational excitement”- Gray Academy
• of “magic happening”- Mike Fisher
• where “we together explored topics that matter, not technology, but rather relationship and community”- Shira Leibowitz
• of “an environment where everyone was willing to learn and  grow and move out of his or her comfort zone”.- Akevy Greenblatt
• of  being “uncomfortable, in brain pain, and petrified of what I don’t know.  And I couldn’t be more excited or invigorated about it”.- Julie Lambert
• of learning “this week that blogging and tweeting are the “new” forms of communication that expand our world – that make it global”- Valeri Mitrani
• where “All leadership is collaborative, co-creation. No one can create anything extraordinary without tapping into the brilliance, hard work and passion of others. There is no creation without people”.- Andrea Hernandez
• “Through Twitter, I have connected with incredible people with invaluable resources.  These people have many more followers and much better insight than I and they can now lend their collective voices to mine”. – Jessica Nathan
• to “get everyone excited about these new concepts and ideas we are beginning to embrace”.- Metro West Jewish Day School
• that “It is not necessarily about using technology in the classroom it is about transforming learning with the assistance of technology.”- Jessica Jundef

As Heidi Hayes Jabobs points out, we need to strategically upgrade the areas of school structures, assessment and curriculum content review. edJEWcon was just the BEGINNING. edJEWcon was a about making educators AWARE and planting a SEED with concrete ideas how one one school is pushing for change.

The buzz was high… now the real work begins of ACTING on the awareness and growing that seed. We set ourselves the goal of edJEWcon being a conference, where

• the CREATION of media and documentation of learning
• the PARTICIPATION of attendees during conversations NOT lectures

would be a PRIORITY! Mission accomplished!

Now we move onto the challenge of LONG TERM sustainability of the learning community platform that was started DURING edJEWcon.

I am asking myself questions such as:

• How do we sustain our own level of excitement?
• How do we continue (or start)  to share what we learned with others?
• How do you enact change in your own school?
• What are your next steps?
• How will you CONTINUE to participate?
• How do we COLLABORATIVELY create a platform that becomes a source of reflection, resources and documentation of CHANGE in Jewish Education?
• How do we translate the COMMITMENT of PARTICIPATION (not just attending) during the conference into becoming more than a LURKER in a virtual community platform.  (Wikipedia defines a lurker as: “In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing, social networking site, listening to people in VOIP calls such as Skype and Ventrilo or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively.”)

My challenge to you is to reflect on these questions above…come up with your own questions…take the time to respond openly

• on your edJEWcon’s school blog
• in response to another blog post
• as comments on my Langwitches blog
• on your own professional learning blog
• in 140 characters or less on Twitter (including the #edjewcon hashtag)
• in a video
• as an audio post
• or any other way how you can express and share your thoughts

The important part is to get it out…in a digital form… to be able to connect it to others…to be part of a learning conversation that is CHANGING eduction.

If you are interested in following the blogs of the International Action Research teams on “Quality Writing through Blogging”, take a look at the following trailer and visit the classroom and student blogs to see for yourself the progress they are making, draw your own conclusions about blogging with students.
If so inclined, you can support our students by modeling quality commenting and reminding them that they do indeed have a global audience. Their writing matters!

Team USA- mjgds.org/classrooms/4thgrade/
Team Thailand- inside.isb.ac.th/rm204
Team Czech Republic- blogs.isp.cz/grade3v/
Team Switzerland- stuweb.iszl.ch/Stuweb2011/Grade4/4S/4S.htm

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective.

My own perspective  was predetermined by world history as well as my family’s personal history. It has been molded since then by living on three continents, owning three languages and by traveling abroad.

Already a very visual person, as a child, my world view consisted in placing my family and friends on an imaginary map or globe as stick figures. My grandmother stood in Europe, in Germany, my uncle and aunt were sticking out from Singapore and later China, my godfather’s head was placed over Spain. My father usually popped his head out of an airplane flying from one continent to another.

I look at people and am reminded of the metaphor of an iceberg in relationship to culture. Only 10% of their cultural being is visible to me above the water surface. The way they dress, the way they speak, their food they eat, games they play, their literature, traditions and celebrations. 90% of who they are is below the surface: the concept of time, their relationship to death, their rules of conduct, personal space, tolerance of physical pain, roles in relationship to age, class, sex and kinship.

I sleep with my and my family’s passports right next to me. They are in a bag, ready to jump up and make a run for it, in case it were ever necessary. A silly custom? Weird? Why would anyone on earth be compelled to having to sleep with passports on the side?

In my family’s history (both sides of the family) having had to leave their lives on a moment’s notice. Both families, always thinking, that that could NEVER happen to them. They lived in a “civilized” country. They were safe… that it would never have to come to something that extreme…

So, packing up my bags, moving, starting fresh has been placed in my cradle and was practiced from an early age on. Traveling has also been part of my life and has further shaped my perspective. People and cultures that are so different than my own have taught me, if anything, to know that nothing is set in stone. Any “truth” you hold dear, opinion, conviction which is shared with everyone around you in your geographic location can make you an instant outsider when in another place.

Most people know about the term or have experienced the feeling of “homesickness”. Many are unaware, that there is an opposite to that term, called “Fernweh”. Translated from the German, it means “An ache for distant places”. The “condition” describes “A strong desire or craving to travel abroad”.

Coming back to perspective, a mental view or outlook…

A quote from Saint Augustine, a bishop from the 4th century, ” The world is a book, those who not travel, read only one page”. The  perspectives I have gained through traveling, leads me to believe that he was on to something. If you never go beyond the first page, how could you be aware of other points of view?

When I first arrived in the United States, I must say, that I was in culture shock. Nothing was like I had expected it. Not any of the movies, like Rocky, Flash Dance, Poltergeist, Porky’s or Terminator, was really helpful in preparing me for what living in the US was going to be like

The grocery store alone was intimidating with the endless variety of pizzas in the frozen food aisle. The choices overwhelmed me. I was used to picking up a oven fresh pizza and empanadas at the corner Italian Restaurant and now, I was supposed to choose from 20+ different frozen varieties?

Who do we consider poor? Who lives in a third world country? Who needs or deserves the help of other so called “developed countries”? What if the so called help is not wanted?

What if you were an ant? You lived with your ant family on an ant hill. You were born and raised on that hill? You grow up to work on the hill, alongside all the other ants.

The furthest you ever ventured from that hill was to go on an organized expedition with a selected few ant friends. What if suddenly a stranger ant arrives on your ant hill and tells you about places that you were unaware that they even existed?

Perspective is something funny…

HSBC, an international bank uses advertisement to bring awareness to their clients about the importance of “local knowledge” when doing business abroad. Local knowledge meaning the 90% of the iceberg below the water surface.

The same object… the same concept… the same experience… all being perceived differently by different people and cultures…

Ask yourself what do you consider a camping trip…a holiday or hell…. what about a cruise?

How do you define accomplishment in your life?

Let’s talk about friends.

Growing up I was told, that I will be able to count my true friends, friends of a life time, on one hand. When I use the word “friend”, this prediction still resonates deep inside me.  When I talk with my own daughters nowadays and we use the word friend, I need to be aware and have to remind myself of their perspective on that word “friend”. They have 800+ “Friends” on Facebook. We use the same word, but attach a different “mental view” to the word.

What does it mean to be educated? An important questions we need to pose ourselves as educators. Just last week, I had a meeting with the president’s office at our local (public) university. They had instituted the new policy of requiring ALL freshman to live on campus. I was seeking a waiver for my daughter, since we live 20 minutes away from campus.
The university’s reasoning behind the mandate, I was told, was research that showed a higher success rate of retaining freshman in college. I was arguing that we were well equipped to handle my daughter’s progress towards graduation from our home. I was then told point blank, that living on campus, she would receive a BETTER education.

At that point, I was well aware that we were talking at cross purposes. While I was equating education with academics, the was thinking of a typical “American College Experience”, which again conjured up different images in our respective minds.

Let’s look at the influence our perspectives has when we ask the question “Where and How do we Learn”?

Some might have mental images of classrooms with desks and chairs in a row with a chalkboard, whiteboard or smartboard,  a university lecture hall or a quiet library flimmer across you mind. Learning comes from books or experts who are willing to pass on their knowledge.  Others think of learning as a global network of physical and virtual connection. Learning that happens whenever and wherever. Learning doesn’t take place when you “go to a specific location” or “pass a certain test”.

Where do we go for information? Ask yourself that question, ask  a teenager… Will both of you have the same mental view? When we were growing up, there were not many choices. Ask you mother, ask your father, ask your teacher, ask your librarian, look it up in the encyclopedia. Those were your choices. Nowadays the options have multiplied. Do we keep the changes in perspective (or the lack of change in some) in mind when we speak to others?

How does a classroom look like? Again, think of the first image that comes to mind…maybe you even think of your own classroom at school. Then ask yourself,  is there a possibility that your image might look completely different that the person you are talking to? The danger to be talking at cross purposes is great. The awareness of perspectives is more important than ever, if we want to be working together to move education and learning forward.

Let’s look at the way we read. Think of READING…

• Does curling up with your favorite book in your lap or the sound of your morning newspaper come to mind?
• Are you experiencing the joy of having all the books you are currently reading simultaneously in one place, always with you?
• Is  the smell and feel of paper as you turning the pages part of your reading experience?
• Have you experienced the a new dimension as you are reading, annotating, connecting and sharing your thoughts and reaction with others who are reading the same book?

How do we write? When you think about the way you write…

• Do you think of paper and pen first?
• Do you think of handwritten letters, Thank you cards, scribbled notes, yellow notepad papers, composition books?
• Are you thinking of blogging, tweeting, texting, facebooking and emailing?

What does collaborating mean for you? Weekly grade level or subject area meetings? Allowing your students to work in pairs or small groups in the classroom or assigning a group project to be completed outside of classroom time? Does collaboration bring world wide  work to mind, that allows students to experience underlying points of view, have their work added to or remixed with material created by peers or experts? Does asynchronous collaboration come to mind when collaborators live in different geographic locations and are separated by timezones?

How do we communicate? As a family, who is dispersed over many countries and continents, communication between family members has always been an issue. My mental image is of one, when I had to take 2 buses, one train and walk for twenty minutes to a telephone center to ask an operator to place a phone call for me to my grandmother. I then had to wait for an hour to be connected to be able to speak to her for about 3 minutes, since every minute from Argentina to Germany was very expensive. Communication today is a local number stored on my cell phone to be able to call my mother in Argentina or to use a video call via Skype to show my little niece, who lives in Canada, how our garden in Florida looks like in the winter.

Are you aware of perspectives? Are you prepared to recognize moments of talking at cross purposes?

Share an anecdote of when you became aware of talking at cross purposes about education.

I have been blogging for 6 years now…

I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches)

I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students

• “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”
  • Part I: Reading
  • Part II A: Writing
  • Part II B: Student Writing
  • Part III: Commenting
  • Part IV: Connecting
  • Part V: Reciprocating
  • Part VI: Consistency
  • Part VII: Quality
• Blogging Unit Plan
• 1. Blogging with Elementary School Students
• 2. Outline Blogging Lessons
• 3. Introduction to Blogging
• 4. Online Safety
• 5. Commenting
• 6. Writing
• 7. Setting up the Blog
• 8. Logistics of Formatting Post
• 9. Connecting Your Class to the World
• 10. Web Design for Student Bloggers

It is time to walk the walk…

Let me walk the path of Action Research…. to find out if blogging:

• teachers, who are “actively” learning about and participating in the blogging process (beyond attending a workshop or reading “about” blogging), are setting the stage and building a solid platform for their own ongoing professional development and life long learning?
• educators, who are blogging with their students,  can (are) learn(ing) to teach through a 21st century lens (skills & literacies)?
• improves students’ writing skills?
• motivates and engages students?
• touches on multiple 21st century skills and literacies, as well as contribute and support learning fluency.
• amplifies curriculum content, objectives and skills?

As you can see from my questions above, I am looking for answers on three levels. One is about the benefit and learning process for the educator, another is on a student level and a the third level is from the curriculum point of view.

Action Research is defined on Wikipedia:

Action research – is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a “community of practice” to improve the way they address issues and solve problems.

Over the last few years, I have figured out that I learn better COLLABORATIVELY. My immediate reaction to “Where do I start?, was to connect and to surround myself with other educators to walk together down the path. I have also learned that collaborating or working as a group (especially with group members scattered across the globe) could be hard, frustrating and often fizzled out.

In order to move forward and to set my Action Research proposal up for success, I needed to connect with passionate, committed and dedicated educators. I wanted the framework of the research to take on the shape of  Quad Blogging.

Quad blogging, defined on quadblogging.net is a way:

To deliver electrical energy of a global audience to the heart of a blog to allow a rhythm of excitement to kick via the blog’s widening global audience.

Quad blogging meant to find and connect 4 educators to collaborate and conduct action research with their students.

I was able to put together four amazing Action Research teams, ready to start the process towards the end of February. We have:

Team USA (Martin J. Gottlieb Day School) with Andrea Hernandez (21st Century Learning Specialist),  Stephanie Teitelbaum (4th grade teacher) and myself.

Team Czech Republic (International School of Prague) with Nancy von Wahlde (3rd grade teacher)

Team Thailand (International School of Bangkok) spear headed by  Chrissy Hellyer (Technology Coordinator) and Stacie Melhorn (5th Grade Teacher)

Team Switzerland (International School of Zug and Luzern) with Maggie Hos-McGrane (Technology Coordinator) and Dave Secomb (4th Grade Teacher)

We will be planning via a Google Doc and Skype, disseminating and connect our research findings via our respective professional blogs.

Here are some of my preliminary thoughts:

Pre-Planning to include:

• Pre-planning Skype meeting
• Collaborative Google Doc
• Identify Goals & Objectives
• Identify Obstacles/Problems
• Identify Strategies
• Discuss Solutions
• Share resources and Materials
• Data Collection:
• Pre-assessment (writing & commenting rubric)
• Action Research Assessment and Evaluation:
• How will we measure success?
• How will we know if we have succeeded?
• What will we accept as evidence of success?

During

• Monitoring of students writing and commenting
• Coaching, mentoring and guiding students writing
• Anecdotal records
• Record student observations and behavior

Post-Planning to include:

• Debriefing Skype call
• Post-assessment
• Student interviews?
• Self-assessment (students record audio of video reflection?)
• Analyze, interpret and share results
• Was Action Research successful?
• What has been learned, gained and what needs improvement?
• Reflective post on professional blogs

Maggie Hos-McGrane  wrote about Teachers as Leaders. She referred to the Teacher Leader Model Standards that have been developed by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium. One of them being Accessing and using research to improve practice and student learning.

How about joining us in doing Action Research on your own, as you are blogging with your students! Find out what works and what does not and (maybe) most importantly SHARE your findings.  It’s about being active, reflective and transparent learners as we are teaching.

This is Part VII in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing
• Part III: Commenting
• Part IV: Connecting
• Part V: Reciprocating
• Part VI: Consistency

Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students’ progress on their blog requires pedagogical commitment. It is a commitment to student learning and quality work, not a commitment to using a specific technology platform.

My guiding questions for QUALITY blogging are:

• How do teachers recognize different levels of quality?
• How can assessment for student blogging look like?

The blogging rubric, developed by Kim Cofino, mentioned in Part IIB-Student Writing becomes an invaluable tool to recognize quality, assess your students and plan to support each one at their own level. I have tweaked the original rubric somewhat. Another rubric I consulted and remixed from was University of Wisconsin, as well as Steve Peha’s list of six traits of quality writing from Teaching That Makes Sense. Here is the  link to Kim’s original rubric, so you can make edits to fit your own needs.

Part of blogging is commenting, which deserves its own rubric to address individual components that contribute to the overall quality of a comment.

Andrew Churches divides his Commenting Rubric (pdf) into two parts:

• Construction – this is how the comments is constructed, its flow, logic and language
• Understanding/Evaluations – this is a progression from simple to complex commenting; from simple statements to reflection and critique

See a commenting rubric below that you can use to help you recognize and support quality commenting. The rubric is based on Andrew Churches Bloom’ Taxonomy Commenting Rubric (pdf) from above as well as  Kim Cofino’s rubric and University of Wisconsin’s Blogging Rubric

Take a look at the two videos below, produced by two third grade classes. Mrs. Rogo’s 3d grade class from Florida and Mrs. Yollis’ class from California discussed and shared their ideas and thoughts about quality commenting.

Quality Commenting poster created for 3rd grade

It is hard to teach/coach students in quality blogging, if the teacher does not know what quality in blogging looks like.  As mentioned in Part I- of this series, blogging is about writing, but it starts with reading. Reading other blogs (many different ones) gives us an opportunity to see, become aware, evaluate and recognize all different levels of quality in blogs. Reading other blogs and comments helps us sharpen our own skills.

Andrew Chuches uses Bloom’s Taxonomy very successfully to assess the quality of student blogs. I especially liked his Blog Journalling Rubric (pdf)  where he adds fantastic examples, demonstrating different levels of quality.

I believe that seeing and learning to recognize quality samples of student work in various areas of the rubrics (writing, voice, presentation, citation, community, commenting) is beneficial to educators, new to blogging with their students.

Let’s take a look at several examples that demonstrate different levels of quality blogging.

In the example below, you will see 4th grade students consistently (and almost exclusively) use the words “fun”, “exciting” and “amazing” as they are commenting on a blogs post that documented an author’s visit via Skype into the classroom. Some comments are incomplete, leaving the reader hanging and wondering. Students needed to elaborate further in their comments to show understanding as well as connections.

Click for a larger image

After giving students feedback on their first comments, they went back to re-submit their comments. Take a look and compare these two before-and-after examples.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Here are a few more comments left by teachers, pre-service teachers  and other adults. These comments are well intended. They surely were left to make conversation, let the blog author know that their posts are being read, acknowledged and appreciated. How would they hold up against the commenting rubric?

• Do these comments contribute to the topic of the original blog post (Even without having seen the original blog post…) ?
• Is there evidence of understanding of topic of original blog post?
• Are links to relevant resources added?
• Is there a meaningful addition (information, point of view)?
• Is an idea or point of view well stated?
• Is there solid evidence of content knowledge or thinking present?

What about these comments below? Where would they fall in your opinion?

Linda Yollis, winner of the 2011 Edublog Awards in the categories of Best Classroom Blog & Most Influential Blog Post left the following comment on Langwitches:

Silvia, you’ve hit the nail on the head…quality reciprocation is the key to building an audience! All the blogging relationships I’ve built with teachers, classrooms, and students have come from reciprocal commenting.

Teachers often ask me how I have connected with so many classes around the world. The answer is through consistent quality commenting. When I started, I would visit lots of blogs and leave comments. I’d try to make a connection or add relevant information to a post, and I’d always end with a question. My hope was to engage the class in a conversation. If I would get a reply from the teacher/class, I would go back. If I got no response, I’d move on to other blogs and keep trying.

Many teachers/classes not only responded in their comment section, but they would visit my class blog and connect. A comment that shows you’ve read the post and are interested in what’s happening in the classroom is much more valuable than “Our class loves your blog, please visit ours!” Of course, composing thoughtful comments takes time, but the payoff is tremendous!

One of the first teachers I connected with was Kathleen Morris (@kathleen_morris). Through reciprocal quality commenting, we’ve built a relationship that spans four classes. Students regularly comment to each other, and two families from Kathleen’s Australian class visited our class when they vacationed in Los Angeles!

I teach third grade and when my students earn their own blogs, they are excited to get that first red ClustrMap dot and a comment or two. I teach dedicated lessons about how to comment
using our class blog, so by the time students have their own blogs, they have a good understanding of composing a quality comment.

Before too long, I will hear a student complain, “No one is commenting on my blog.” My response to them is, “Hmm…well…whose blog have you been commenting on? Where did you leave your last comment?” They look a little sheepish as the light bulb goes on. In life, you have to give to get. If you want people visiting and connecting with you, you have to get out there and model what you want!

Focusing on a few blogs is a good idea. It can be overwhelming to try and keep up with too many classes. Deputy Mitchell’s (@DeputyMitchell) Quadblogging idea is a great place to begin. http://quadblogging.net/

There are so many wonderful global projects springing up. It’s tempting to join too many. I have found that if I over-schedule my class, we are not able to participate fully and that doesn’t help anyone. Budgeting your time and choosing projects that fit your schedule makes blogging and global projects more meaningful and enjoyable.

Finally, I love your idea about mentoring student bloggers. Edublog’s Student Blogging Challenge is a wonderful place to volunteer your time. Following the Twitter hashtag #comments4kids is another way to support students.

As you can see, I am passionate about educational blogging! I thank you, Silvia, for guiding and encouraging teachers to blog. It’s the best project I’ve seen in my twenty-five years in the classroom!

Please don’t just notice the length of the comment compared to the others, but take a look at writing, voice, content and presentation. Ask yourself, if:

• this comment contributed further information on the blog’s topic (The role of reciprocation in blogging)?
• the comment’s author added further resources?
• the content was organized and easy to follow?
• the author’s voice came through?

We need to be reading AND consciously reflecting on the quality of a blog post or comment to become good at recognizing and guiding our students to quality work in blogging.

Below you will find samples of blog posts. While keeping the blogging rubric in mind, how would you evaluate them? Where does the blog author need to improve?

Spelling, grammar and punctuation would be something to work on for this student (proof reading and editing). The visual formatting of the body of text could also use improvement. I am not sure if the link included in the post was supposed to cite the author’s source of information or be the image credit. Once I followed the link, I discovered that the site (and therefore I have to assume the image as well)  is under copyright. Simply adding the link to the site where the image was found is not enough.

I liked the inviting title to the blog post. It made me curious to continue reading. The post author starts out describing a personal experience. I am left with wishing for more information. A link to Wikipedia, for example, explaining the condition, would have been inviting to learn more. A visual in the public domain (free to use), grabbed from Wikipedia would have also been a nice addition. I am left with many questions for this blog author. His writing left me unsatisfied. I don’t feel that he told a “whole” story.

The blog post above is from my favorite fourth grade blogger Miriam. She was a finalist in this year’s Edublog Awards. What I love about her writing, is that I can HEAR her voice so clearly (although I have never met her personally). In the above post, she takes her readers along a car ride as she observes the autumn trees changing colors. She takes images of the trees she sees and inserts them into her blog post in order support her writing. The post is not only a narrative, but Miriam weaves information into the post as well. Miriam closes her blog post with question directed at the reader, inviting them to continue a conversation or information exchange.

Take a look at the Edublog Awards nominees as well as the Student Blogging Challenge. There are literally hundreds of links to student and classroom blogs. With the blogging and commenting rubric in hand, evaluate a few (or many) of them:

• what do you like?
• what components do you consider “QUALITY”
• what could be improved?
• how would you coach that student?
• how would you transfer the learning opportunity to your own classroom?

Once you have unofficially “audited” several classroom and student blogs, it will give you a better idea and more confidence in recognizing and gauging quality in your own students’ blogging.

Please share:

• your own auditing methods and successes for quality blogging with students
• an audit of a student blog post you conducted (this could be a great next blog post to tackle!)

This is Part VI in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing
• Part III: Commenting
• Part IV: Connecting
• Part V: Reciprocating

I have seen many teachers start blogs (professional and classroom ones), only to abandon them after a short while. The reasons are many:

• it takes too much time
• writer’s block
• no one reads it anyway
• students are complaining of having to write so much
• can’t see the benefits for student learning

By now, we should understand that blogging is not about technology, but about literacies (old & new) and LEARNING. Following the guidelines described in the previous parts of this series, blogging can bring the benefits highlighted therein WITH the understanding that reeking these benefits will take time.

The word “blogging” is in progressive form (the “-ing” form). The progressive form of a verb is the form that is used to indicate that an action is continuing/ on-going.

Blogging is a process, not an event that happens as a culminating activity of a lesson or unit.

The realization and acceptance of blogging as a platform for learning AND as a process, brings in the component of CONSISTENCY.

• Consistency is the key most bloggers list as the reason for successful blogs
• Consistency applies to reading, writing, commenting and connecting!

Consistency constitutes an important building block:

• to establish trust
• to build a relationship with your readers
• to build a loyal readership (you want your visitors to make it a habit of reading your work)
• to experience the cognitive process of learning over a period of time
• to plan, develop, build and maintain a classroom learning community

Linda Yollis, winner of the 2011 Edublogs Awards in the category “Best Classroom Blog” recommends,  in a comment she left on my previous post Part V: Reciprocating,

Teachers often ask me how I have connected with so many classes around the world. The answer is through consistent quality commenting

So, in order to give yourself the best possible chance in making your blog (professional or classroom blogs) a success, prepare yourself and your students to be CONSISTENT!

• Don’t let your blog be an add-on
  The easiest way to have your blog become neglected is to treat it as something in addition to “all the other things you already do”. Find ways to replace traditional tasks.
• Use your blog as a tool to “do the things you do”
  Your blog can be your communication and planning tool. It is also a tool to teach and support your curriculum : reading, writing and 21st century literacies (media, network, global, information).
• Let your blog be your hub
  Plan, document, reflect and showcase your (or students’)  work on your blog. Make it your  space and the center of all your work. Link all your other online spaces to your blogs (wikis, social bookmarks, twitter, etc.)
• Build in regular times to read blogs
  It is a conscious decision and effort to continue your own professional learning. Blogging starts with reading. Reading will give you ideas and topics to write about. Make reading blogs easy and convenient, by adding their feeds to an RSS reader and/or to your mobile devices via apps (ex. Flipboard, Zite, etc.) Read whenever you get a chance during the day and for a set amount of time before you go to bed at night. Read as well when your students have free reading time at school. (D.E.A.R. time)
• Build in regular times to write posts
  Do you have a D.E.W (Drop Everything and Write) time in your classroom?
  DEW time is essentially a daily “free write” time. This has been THE single MOST effective strategy we have used to build fluency in writing”.
  Write right alongside your students. Modeling is one of the best teachers.
• Build in regular times to comment
  Comment on your students’ blogs to build conversation. Comment on other blogs from around the world and about a variety of topics in order to build traffic and connections. Comment as a class to model and coach your students. Make this a time for mini-lessons in writing,  vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, etc.
• Be consistent in making connections
  (content and relationship wise) with and for your students. Don’t give up if a connection or blogging collaboration project does not work out. With time, you will build trusting and reliable relationships. Don’t be discouraged if comments don’t come flooding in. Keep it up…with time they will come.

Don’t give up blogging after a few weeks! Hang in there. Remember it is a process and takes time.

• Reflect often
• What works for you and your students?
• What does not work?
• What needs to be tweaked, thrown out, revised?
• Connect with other educators who are blogging.
• Read, read, read other professional, classroom and student blogs

How have you been successful in consistently reading, writing, commenting and connecting on and via your blog? What successful tips can you share with teachers just beginning the process?

If you are a newbie, how do you envision making a “commitment to consistency” work in your case?

This is Part IV in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing
• Part III: Commenting
• Part IV: Connecting

So, if we are relying, even expect others (educators, mentors, etc.) to take the time to comment on OUR students’ blogs, we need to be prepared to reciprocate. It is a give and take. You will get the effort you put into reciprocating back.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word reciprocate as:

1: to give and take mutually

2: to return in kind or degree

Reciprocating is one of the most important components to make blogging with your students, as a global communication tool, work.

If we want our students to have an audience, we need to be the audience for others.

It is a cycle that needs to renew itself.  We need a commitment from teachers (who are blogging with their students) to contribute to that cycle, otherwise it will come to a screeching halt. By “it” , I mean the connections, conversation and amplification we are seeking via blogging for our students.

Reciprocation can take on the form of:

• taking regular time to leave comments on other student blogs
• teach your students to leave quality comments on other blogs with a link back to their own blog
• be trustworthy and reliable when in a blogging project or partnership with other educators
• take ownership of the quality of blog writing and commenting your students exhibit when connecting with others
• formally volunteer to be a mentor teacher for other blogging classes or students

In a podcast interview, I recorded with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, Vicki shared one of the components of a successful global collaboration project. She talked about the commitment from all teachers involved, the commitment to accept the students from someone else as your own.

I believe that this is key. The reward as an educator comes from teaching others…not just the ones that are listed on your class roll. Your students will benefit as well, when other educators reciprocate to take your students under their wings. It is about teaching through the walls of our physical classroom!

What do you think about the importance of reciprocation when involved in student blogging?

How can your reciprocation contribute to the success of student blogging?

What shape has reciprocation taken on in your blogging adventure or how do you envision it for the future?

This is Part IV in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing
• Part III: Commenting

As a teacher,

• you have started reading blogs in order to get ideas, inspiration and format from other writers and educators…
• you have content that sparks your own interest and that you are able to connect to in your own writing…
• you are going through the “process of writing” for yourself, in order to coach your students in becoming better writers…
• you have started leading your students in writing on their own blogs…
• you are modeling conversations, critical thinking and connections by commenting on your students’ blog.

Now…

you are realizing that your students are NOT necessarily jumping up and down for you, eager to get to work in order to consistently produce high quality writing. Motivation to get on the blog, blinging it up and producing content might have happened for a brief period right after you started blogging.

The newness wore off fast for these digital natives and now it is (most likely with only a few exceptions among your students) nothing more than school work on a digital platform instead of school work with paper and pencil.

An integral component to keep it exciting and fresh for your students (and yourself too) is to:

Make a conscious effort to CONNECT your students to an audience beyond the teacher.

An authentic global audience for our classroom or individual student blogs does not happen on its own. I have been thinking, researching and experimenting  how to connect classrooms to a global audience for a while now.

In my opinion, it comes down to YOU, as the teacher, to make a commitment to:

• be the connector for your students (especially younger ones) or
• teach them how to reach out on their own.

How does a teacher drive traffic to his/her students’ blogs in order to connect them to an audience?

• Blogging Buddies
  Connect with blogging buddies (formerly known as pen-pals).
  Find another committed classroom teacher who is blogging. They can be from your own building, district, state, or from another country.
  (Leave your contact info and blog details on this Google Doc started by Kim Cofino, if you are looking for blogging buddies for your students)
• Quad-Blogging
  Become part of a Quad-Blog. Make a connection via the site or organize yourself with three other classroom teachers from your own network.
• Blogging Projects
  Join pre-existing blogging projects (Student Blogging Challenge)
• Twitter
  Tweet about exemplary student posts to your network.
  Use hashtag #comment4kids (more info about comments4kids)
• Cross-Posting, Linking and Commenting
  Cross-post student posts and link them on your professional blogs. Leave relevant comments on other blogs with links back to your classroom and/or student blogs.
• Experts
  Invite “content experts” of a unit your are studying or specific area of student interest to write a guest blog post or become a guest commenter
• Mentors
  Ask a university professor to connect your classroom or student blogs to a group of pre-service teachers. This can be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
• Parents
  Educate and ask parents to take the time to read and comment on the classroom or their student’s blog
  (Idea: Have students create a “How-to-Video” walking their parents through the steps of leaving a comment and give advice on quality comments)

How do YOU connect your students to a larger audience than one? What has worked for you?  Please share.

This is Part III in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing

In Part III , I am exploring COMMENTING on blogs.

Commenting is a great introduction to student writing on blogs. It does not require to plan and write an entire blog post. Commenting could be used as a stepping stone for students to “earn” the right to author their own blog posts on a classroom blog or before they get to be administrators of their own student blog. I have seen teachers require a certain number of “moderated” comments before students “graduate” to be able to post comments without prior approval. The same teacher then requires a certain number of quality “unmoderated” comments, before the students gets promoted to becoming an author on the classroom blog.

Even with classmates or commenters from around the world leaving comments, WE ARE our students’ first and primary commenters. When we comment on our students’ blogs, we model quality writing AND content as well as encourage them to expand their own horizons to make connections in the online world.

It takes time to learn how to become a quality commenter FOR our students. We, as teachers, need to

Model commenting

• Read comments (…lots of comments) to learn to distinguish between poor, mediocre and quality comments.
• Model commenting to your students by leaving QUALITY comments on their blogs
• Avoid comments, such as “Great job”, “Way to go”, or “I really liked what your wrote”…
• Commenting is about continuing a conversation started in a blog post.
• Commenting is about helping to (potentially) push the author of the post in a new direction, give a new perspective or connect them to new resources.
• Commenting is about relating the thoughts, ideas, experiences or resources of the blog author to your own. Sharing them will paint a better picture of the issue, perspectives, or research.
• Ask yourself if your comment CONTRIBUTED to the conversation, the learning of the author or other readers?
• 21st century skills include critical thinking, problem solving and QUESTIONING. The comment section of a blog is a great place to practices these skills in an authentic environment.

Model writing

• Use traditional writing conventions (grammar, word choices, audience appropriate,etc.)
• Add digital writing conventions (linking)
• Integrate reflective writing
• Compose and publish comments together as a class by projecting the blog post

Model proper grammar, etc.

• When you see a student misspell a word or publish a grammatically incorrect sentence, model correct spelling and grammar in your comment to the post
• As a class, go through comments in moderation and edit together

Take the time to discuss and reflect on comments left by others

• It is the perfect time to upgrade and replace traditionally taught lessons.
• Teach writing in an authentic setting.
• Engage in conversation with an authentic global audience.
• Deliver “just in time” mini lessons, as teaching opportunities pop up unexpectedly
• Model by responding to or continuing a conversation

Know the difference between academic and social commenting

• Students (and teachers) are most likely accustomed to commenting via text messages on their cellular devices and on friends’ Facebook walls.
• Teachers need to be aware of the difference between these “social comments” versus academic commenting
• Recognize when students are falling into social comments and coach them to academic commenting.

Craft an acceptable commenting etiquette tailored to YOUR classroom’s need

• Your classroom blog is an extension of your physical learning space and community.
• The age of your students, special needs and personality play a role in creating an acceptable commenting etiquette that works for your classroom.
• It is important to discuss and enlist the help of your students in crafting your etiquette

4th Grade Commenting Etiquette

As a teacher, becoming a quality commenter is imperative to be able to guide and coach your students in becoming better academic commenters.

Need a playground to practice your own comment skills. Follow the Twitter Hashtag #comments4kids and leave quality comments for student bloggers from around the world.

The more YOU practice…the better commenter you will become… the better you can coach your students in becoming good writers in the digital writing world.

We acknowledge that most of us (teachers) did not grow up with blogs, nor did someone teach us how to write our own blog. If we require our students to blog,  we need to be become knowledgeable about blog writing.

In Part I- I reflected upon the need of the importance of READING blogs as a first step of becoming better blog writers.

Part II-A - Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students- Writing addresses the need for teacher to be writers (bloggers) and to experience the process of learning for themselves, if they are to teach/model/coach/facilitate writing via student blogs.

Image licensed under CC by Andrea Hernandez- http://www.flickr.com/photos/21847073

Part II-B looks at student writing on blogs.
Disclaimer: When I talk about “student blogs”, I am referring to blogs, intended for academic writing sponsored by a teacher.

I have seen too many student blogs, that are of very poor quality. I have to ask myself:

• Where was the teacher?
• Are students not supervised, guided and coached as they blog?
• Are the expectations set too low?
• Does the teacher know what quality looks like on a blog?
• Does the teacher not see that writing on a blog should have the same quality writing standards they have set for analog writing.

There is a need for us to sketch out and define what a QUALITY student blog looks like.

Quality blog writing includes:

• age and developmentally appropriate content, grammar and vocabulary
• focused quality and relevant content
• traditional quality writing characteristics
• evidence of writing for an audience
• reflection
• logistics of digital writing, such as hyperlinking, embedding media, categorization, etc.

A quick survey on Twitter, revealed the following responses from other educators:

What are your primary objectives for student blogging?

Blogging is surely not about learning the logistics of typing and uploading  posts. It is not about the tool, but about the skills that the tool can facilitate. We MUST keep this in mind as we are asking students to write on blogs.

There are many resources available on the web, if you need help in defining or refining what quality student writing means to you.

On Teaching That Makes Sense, Steve Peha lists six traits of quality writing:

Ideas that are interesting and important. Ideas are the heart of the piece — what the writer is writing about and the information he or she chooses to write about it.

Organization that is logical and effective. Organization refers to the order of ideas and the way the writer moves from one idea to the next.

Voice that is individual and appropriate. Voice is how the writing feels to someone when they read it. Is it formal or casual? Is it friendly and inviting or reserved and standoffish? Voice is the expression of the writer’s personality through words.

Word Choice that is specific and memorable. Good writing uses just the right words to say just the right things.

Sentence Fluency that is smooth and expressive. Fluent sentences are easy to understand and fun to read with expression.

Conventions that are correct and communicative. Conventions are the ways we all agree to use punctuation, spelling, grammar, and other things that make writing consistent and easy to read.

As teachers, it is our job to teach and coach our students in becoming better writers. If you have chosen to use a blog as the vehicle to do that, YOU NEED TO GET GOOD at recognizing quality writing in blogs. As with anything else, in order to get good at something, you need to practice.

• Start reading student blogs (your own students and others from around the world)
• Read A LOT OF STUDENT BLOGS! (While you are at it, leave comments for these students too)
• Consciously be aware of what you like and don’t like. What stands out? What is unacceptable? What is missing? What makes you go “Wow”?
• Start rating blogs you read in several categories, ex. content, presentation, connections, etc.

Via the blogs of Kathleen Morris, Kim Cofino and Clarence Fisher comes a perfect baseline of a blogging rubric, you can use to help you assess student blogs. Here is the link to the original rubric, so you can make your edits to fit your own needs.

It is imperative that as a teacher, who is blogging with his/her students, becomes a coach for them. In order to be a good coach, you need to know what you are talking about.

Learn about blogs FOR your students!

If you have created a blogging rubric or have more ideas on how to coach students in writing QUALITY blogs, please share your experience and/or links to further resources.