Children, Writing and Engagement

As part of my integrating ICT into literacy programmes throughout our school, I have been surveying kids beforehand to gauge who they feel that they write for (their audience).  The intention then is to get the classes motivated and engaged with an audience through a means such as blogging. 

Yesterday I received the most insightful answer as to why a 7 year old child doesn’t like writing.  Here is the answer “because it’s a waist[sic] of time if you do it at school because know one [sic] will read it.  I only like writing at home because I show people”.

If a 7 year old can verbalise this and feels this way about writing, what are we doing as teachers to recitfy the situation so that kids know that they aren’t writing just for the teacher.  I am hoping that there are kids out there that write because they are passionate, write because of a desire, write because they want to know not just because Mrs So and So said I had to write.

When I think back to when I was in the classroom, I have to admit that a lot of the writing I got my kids to do was because I said so.  There was very little “authentic” writing, and as a teacher I felt I had to teach towards portfolios and assessments.  I want to change this about my practise. 

Earlier this year, as part of a class’ Inquiry Based Learning, the kids needed to write to the council, write newsletters, write a script in order to convey a message or ask for assistance.  The quality of the writing that was produced was very high.  The class teacher was even “blown away” by the level of writing that the kids were producing.  When I asked the kids if and why they were enjoying the writing, the majority said it was because it was a real problem they were trying to solve so it was a real letter (etc) that was going to be read by someone.  

As teachers we need to provide a context that is authentic and has an audience in order for our kids to engage and attain in writing.  What do you think???

Tags: engagement, writing

Some of our class blogs

We have set up some of our classes with blogs….hopefully by the end of the year all the classes will be blogging.

Check out these budding bloggers, admire their writing and leave some words of encouragement…

Room 1, Room 2, Room 3, Room 4, Room 5, Room 6

Room 7,  Room 8 

Scholarship Day….Over….Phew!!!

Oh my goodness…I finally taught adults…one of the scariest things I can think of. I was awake most of the night having those god awful nightmares about everything going wrong and true to form those nightmares came true.

Started off ok….had a few problems with videos buffering but got those sorted asap. Unfortunately when it came to making blogs with my small group of 6 teachers edublogs failed us…..the whole point of today was to get everyone set up with their own blog and they walked out without setting one up….disappointed, yes, excited by their reactions, definitely yes!!

I think today I was able to pass on my enthusiasm for blogging and the possibilities of web 2.0 technologies. We watched Karl Fisch’s “Did you know…” presentation and got some great conversations out of it. We also watched another video “top 10 reasons to blog” by Frieda Foxworth.  All in all it started conversations about web 2.0 and how we can use it both professionally and personally.

Of course there were all the questions about privacy and security, who really cares what I write? type thing, but I  think that after reading a few blogs, the teachers were beginning to get into the idea that this whole blogging lark might actually be beneficial to our own professional practise. (correct me if I’m wrong!!).

Anyway, right now, I’m shattered…I haven’t had such a full on day being able to share something I am truly passionate about with people who understand my passion.  Thanks guys for a fab day!!

A Lightbulb Moment….

It is always exciting when a child can listen, follow instructions and then create a piece of work then and there using the skills you have just helped them discover.  What is even better is when nearly 12 months later, a child can produce work that draws on those skills in a different context and produce an amazing piece of work.  This happened this week….

One of our year 6 classes was given a home learning task to create an advertisement for Walk To School Week.  Most people created paper versions (posters, brochures etc).  However one girl took it further and created an animation based on the topic.  The skills she used I had taught her in term 2 of last year and to see them being used in a different area of her curriculum made me all aflutter….

Check it out here 

Coaching blogs

Just a quick one….

read my coaching blog here

Read my coaching buddy’s blog here 

I’ll add more once we have more up and running

New Year, New Challenges

So 2008 has sneaked up on us and here we are just three years out from the world cup coming to New Zealand (not that I’m counting).

As usual the first few days of the new school year were filled with teacher only days, organising classrooms and unfortunately filling in insurance forms for 12 of my laptop babies that some awful people stole from our school - locked classroom, locked cupboard, alarmed school…..and here we arrive at Friday of the first week back (week being yesterday and today!).

It’s always so refreshing to see the kids and their natural enthusiasm for the new year, new teacher and new class.   Of course it’s also heartbreaking to see the new five year olds crying (although mums crying always outnumber children?!?!?).  So what are my goals and aims for this year….

i) The first challenge is do with the scholarship that I was lucky enough to be awarded.  I am currently in the process of arranging a day of PD for 6 teachers at my school to set up and begin to experience the blogosphere and the learning and conversations that take place.  I have some goals that I want to achieve this term but I am still in the process of writing them in an articulate form so will post once they are here.

ii) The second challenge I wish to accomplish is to create a culture of blogging to enhance literacy within the school.  I am hoping that my scholarship will help implement this.  After reading and discovering so much about the benefits of literacy using web 2.0 technologies, I want to share them with my school.  Due to the lack of my own class, I am having to rely on other teachers to try this and see for themselves the benefits of the experience in order to create this culture.

iii) I’m also lucky enough this year to be able to take a gifted and talented Maths group.  People who know me are aware that although I am a computer geek, maths is my passion (I’ve been known to dream about binary numbers!).  I am wanting to use ICT and technologies to help further and extend these kids.  Any ideas greatly appreciated!!
I will keep updating progress on all of these…..

Are you smarter than a Junior High-er?

So this is apparently the level of education you need to be able to read my blog

Interesting…my facebook profile needs a high school education….

try yours outhere

SCRATCH

Okay. Someone mentioned SCRATCH to me earlier this year and I filed it away in my “maybe one day” pile. Well that one day has happened.

I have a group of 11 year 3 and 4 kids that come and see me once a week for two hours. So far this year we have done a couple LEARNZ field trips which were great for creating the mood for the year, although they didn’t really align with what was happening in the classrooms. Then we entered the Webchallenge which really challenged the kids and got them doing a lot of research as well as design. It had left me in a little of a conundrum as to what to do this term…

Hark back to the “maybe one day” file in my head. I went to the MIT website and downloaded the free version of the software as well as checked out some of the work done by an overwhelming majority of kids. It looked fun. It looked challenging. It looked like something I’d want to do.

Until I played with it. To be honest I found it a bit difficult and ended up with a picture resembling a pig turning round in circles. Then a devious little plan entered my head. I could get the kids to use SCRATCH and I wouldn’t know how to use it so then they WOULD have to figure out how to solve any problems. I announced it to the kids. Showed them the pig in circles. Got them excited by it. Showed them some of the stuff other kids had done. Told them they could go and have a play with it.

“Miss Wills, how do you…”

“No Idea”

“What do you mean?’

“I don’t know how to use this, you have to figure it out yourselves.”

“say What?!?!?”

“You need to be able to figure out something new using the skills you already have. One day, in the not too distant future, the stuff you are using now won’t be around and you’ll have to teach yourself how to use the new stuff!”

Now the conversation doesn’t start with “Miss Wills, how do you..?” but with “Does anyone know how to…?”

Kids are loving it, parents are being forced to download it at home…and I know that I can’t cheat and tell them the answers….

We will be uploading the games they are making onto the website before the end of the term for you to play but until then, I shall sit quietly in my room and watch them create.

EHSAS Scholarship

I’ve been lucky enough to have been awarded a scholarship for the coming year.  I’ve never applied for a scholarship, let alone won one so am still feeling a little in la-la land over it.  EHSAS stands for extending higher standards across schools and our cluster’s (7 schools in the central Auckland region) focus is on professional coaching and mentoring as a form of professional development.

So I wrote my proposal entitled “Professional Dialogue Using Web 2.0 Technologies”.  Why?  To be honest I feel that I have gained so much since entering the blogosphere and been reading, writing and conversing with other professionals.  My practise has evolved along with my reading and writing and I feel that I have gained so much that I want it to become something that my colleagues  also can share in.

At present whenever something like blogs, podcasts or aggregators are mentioned, eyes glaze over and I am left feeling like I am trying to teach some lost Amazonian Tribes Language to people who speak a different language to me.  I want people to realise that there is some really great stuff out there, but more importantly that they can be authors as well as consumers of the information.

I also want to bring the clusters together.  It’s about breaking down the boundaries - this time physical distant and time - between educators for a common goal.  The more people involved in a conversation the more rich, more diverse and more challenging it becomes.

I know for the most part, this exercise is something of a contrived situation.  It’s something I have done personally by my self in the last six months.  Something I truly wanted to be doing as opposed to my school telling me that this is what I should be doing.  So I am hoping that as the next year progresses I shall be able to share my own passion for conversations and professional dialogues with people who at this point in time haven’t even considered being an author of information.

I shall be creating a new blog to record my year on the scholarship.  Not just yet but soon….

Happy World Teachers Day

Congrats on being a wonderful teacher….smile, you ARE doing  a great job!!!!

Congratulate your colleagues  on their great job….

Treat yourself to a glass of wine, chocolates or flowers…..go one YOU DESERVE IT!!!