Teaching to reach every single student

I have been working for the past couple of months to get myself set up to use blogs and wikis with my 7th and 8th grade science students.

First, I tried to get clear about what my objectives were. Ultimately, I decided they were teaching literacy and fostering collaboration. To open up the conversation beyond that of a one-to-one teacher-student exchange. Fine.

Then, I worked on the technical pieces. I started my own blog (this one). I experimented with various blogs for use with students, especially edublogs, learnerblogs, and classblogmeister. I set up wiki spaces with PBWiki and JotSpot. Etc., etc..

I have received enthusiastic support from my administrators and fellow teachers.

It never even occurred to me to include the students before I was “ready for prime-time.”

This week, however, I realized I had gone as far as I could without really involving students, so I arranged to meet with a couple of small groups of students during lunch a couple of times this week. I walked them through my goals and plans and asked for (and really wanted) their feedback. Their enthusiasm was immediate; their suggestions valuable.

Shame on me for trying to teach collaboration in somewhat of a vacuum.

The first class blog will go live this week.

B minus 5 days…

Blogged with Flock

This blog is used by Crystal, a computer science teacher. She is using her blog as a place where students can have access to assignments; as a place for their responses to various class readings; and as a place where they can register progress or questions about projects.

Here is what she has said elsewhere about her vision:

My goal is to teach computer science, and for my students to have a place to share ideas on problem solving techniques. Part of problem solving is doing a little research, and I’ve made them lazy about this research. They have just turned to me to “fill them up”. Now, I’m asking them to fill eachother up with ideas.
G-Town talks » Why are we using blogging in the classroom?

I have been trying to make this whole process less complicated. She has helped me do this.
JCC CSC 1590 Computing Fundamentals I

Blogged with Flock