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.

I am excited to be part of the

2012 Curriculum Mapping Institute LEAD 21 Academy on July 10 and 11, 2012 in Saratoga Springs , New York.

This two- day academy brings together the top education bloggers and network leaders in the United States. Hands on work sessions will guide you in

• creating a vision of who a school network leader must be
• why the school leader must lead the network
• how you can design diverse social network connections infused with knowledge and powered by passion.

As a school leader or teacher, you have the opportunity to design your own personalized social network that will connect your local and global learning communities.   

For early bird discount registration information please visit www.cmi2012.com

Early Bird 10% Discount ends February 1st.

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a similar chart in order categorize iPad apps for each role.This is by no means an exclusive chart, but meant to be a beginning of seeing iPad apps as a teaching and learning tool to empower students.

If you need a more detailed description of proposed roles to empower student learners, take a look at the following flyer (pdf).

In an attempt to document the trials and errors of using a classroom set of 20 iPads in our K-8 school, I am adding a new post to the collection of iPads in the Classroom:

• Transliteracy- QR Codes and Art
• Working on iPad Fluency with Lower Elementary Students
• Step-by-Step: How to Create a Collaborative Class eBook
• Students Create ePub iPad Book for the World
• Finally! A Book Creator App
• Plan, Do and Review iPad Exploration (by Andrea Hernandez)
• ShowMe App for the iPad- Good Tutorial Designer App?

5th Grade- Storykit- Creating a story in Hebrew

One of the Hebrew teachers approached me with an interest in having her students create a story book in the target language on the iPads.

We chose to test the free app Storykit with this project.

Students read a poem by Leah Goldberg called: (That’s Not Me). Based on the poem, students wrote their own story and created a storyboard how they could illustrate their story.

We had the Hebrew letters added to the iPad keyboard by going into: Settings> General>  Keyboard> International Keyboards>Add New Keyboard> Choose Hebrew

Once the International keyboard is added, a globe appears on your keyboard. Tap the button to cycle through all the different keyboards you have installed.

Once the storyboards were finished, students were ready to work with the iPads. The app allowed users to create their own illustrations, import images from elsewhere or take photos with the built in iPad2 camera and insert them into their story. Students could also add audio recordings to their story.

I showed students how to go to Microsoft Office ClipArt, search for images and download or take a screenshot and edit the image.

Students also used each other to stage scenes from their story to take a photo.

Problems we found along the way:

• students could not re-order the pages of their story in order to imitate leafing/swiping through a book from “right to left” (opposite from the way we turn pages in books in English).
• students were not able to place punctuation at the end of a sentence, since the Hebrew keyboard in Storykit (maybe because it is an iPhone, not an iPad app) does not include a period.

Once the stories were completed, students

• shared (tap share button) their story
• emailed themselves the story link
• went to their emails to click on the generated URL
• took a screenshot of their story pages
• wrote a blog post about their experience
• inserted the story pages into their blog post

I will probably not use the Storykit again, since I want to be able to easily embed the stories on the student blogfolios, as well as export them into our school iBook library.

Take a look at some student samples.

Sarah’s Story

A blog post from Sarah, one of the 5th grade students:

Today in Hebrew class we made a story on an app called StoryKit. We made this on the IPads. My story is called , or in English the name is: It’s Not Me. Our Fifth Grade Hebrew teacher, Morah Liat read us a story about a boy who is acting bad, but is usually a good child. Everyone had to make a story based on that one. Typing in Hebrew on the IPads is very tricky. In English the words go left to right, but in Hebrew the words go right to left. That makes deleting letters difficult. I  spent a lot of time on this Story.

Sydney’s Story

Rachel’s Story

As a follow up to the series Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students, I would like to crowdsource more samples of blog posts and comments for teachers to practice recognizing, evaluating and assessing various levels of quality work.

A meme might be a good way to get the ball rolling.

Wikipedia defines a Meme as:

A meme  is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.

Quality Blogging and Commenting Audit Meme

In order to gather more audit samples from a large variety of age groups and authors, I challenge you to publish a blog post with a post or comment audit.

1. Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student)
2. Take a screenshot or copy and past the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references)
3. Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment
4. Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment
5. Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve
6. Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment
7. Leave a comment with the link to your audit post on Langwitches

If you have not been tagged, please feel free to jump in, write and link your own audit blog post.

I am tagging Andrea Hernandez, Maggie Hos-McGrane, Nancy von Wahlde, Edna Sackson, Linda Yollis, Kathleen Morris, Kim Cofino

Looking forward to their quality blogging audits

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.

I had the opportunity to speak to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Two educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives as well as thousands of other students and teachers from around the world.
Vicki is a teacher from Camila Georgia. She blogs on the Coolcatteacher blog and tweets under @coolcatteacher. Julie is the E-Learning Coordinator at Beijing International School. She blogs at E-Learning Journey and tweets under @julielindsay.

These two amazing women are the co-founders of the Flat Classroom Project  and have co-authored the book “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time“, due to be released in February 2012.

Don’t miss out listening to these dynamic and passionate teachers with concrete advice for any teacher embarking on global education and flattening of their classroom.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Flat Classroom Project
• Flat Classrooms (A community for educators)
• Flat Classroom Book
• Flat Classroom Book Club

For other Curriculum21 Podcast Episodes subscribe to their podcast channel on iTunes.