The personal is the political.
I am the proud recipient of a spanking used set of laptops for my classroom use. The imposing white cabinet comes with a lock. It takes me several days to hunt down the resident brilliant elementary school techno-dude to ask him for the combination, (he's probably at the D.O. working on their website) which he emails to me. I open the lock. Twenty-one Macs. Cool. I want to figure out a way to get my third-graders to bookmark the new premium Spelling City program our district has purchased. I open up one laptop and the folders for K, 1, 2 pop up. No grade 3. I'm 3. I take a wild guess for the password for grade 2. I type it in. It works. I'm in. I Google Spelling City and I find the forty lists I typed in last year. I find the screen names and passwords I created my class in August. I bookmark the site. Now I just have to get 21 eight year-olds who can't copy the date off the board to simultaneously do what I just did--and then remember their screen names and passwords. Which brings me to the topic of this blog.
I need to backtrack some more. I am a writing teacher. I love language and the thought it simultaneously reveals and transmutes. I love teaching "catchy beginnings" and the closely examined life. I love simile and metaphor and "juicy words." I love teaching children to move action through dialogue by writing plays about their lives. I love fables and folktales and the moral of the story. Could blogging get that smart little boy who spent twenty minutes of Writers Workshop in the bathroom to become passionate about writing? Perhaps. Could it embody the English Language Arts Standards? Absolutely. So what's the problem?
The problem is the hurried life of the Elementary School child (and teacher) and the vagaries of technology. The informational and technological expertise required for each of the five subjects I teach is increasing exponentially--all of my subjects are hands-on workshop-based models--Investigations Math, Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop, Comparing and contrasting world cultures in Social Studies, Science 21, Words-Their Way spelling. Children are being pushed to perform at a dizzying velocity--often beyond their current level of expertise and development. This simultaneous with homes with two working parents, single-parent homes and the lure of electronic games. It is then incumbent on the teacher to provide instruction whose interest rivals computer games and that is differentiated to meet the needs of all children.
For the teacher, managing the materials, training and technology for all of these courses of study is becoming increasingly demanding--to the point where elementary teachers are spending more and more time preparing, cataloguing and implementing curriculum with each passing year--as we are being held increasingly accountable for student progress, to parents, principals, superintendents, the state and the federal government.
Can technology help? Ideally, yes. But just yesterday I was in the middle of a Smartboard lesson with an interactive 100 chart and my computer froze. This had also happened the day before. Now, you cannot fiddle with a computer for ten minutes in a classroom full of elementary students on a regular basis. The techno-wizard told me to drop my computer off Monday morning for him to troubleshoot the Smartboard Program--so it will not be available to me on Monday, either. Now, getting back to my plan to implement Spelling City on my classroom set of laptops. If I multiply my issues times twenty-one--with eight-year-olds trouble-shooting the problems, I have an abject nightmare on my hands. So, (I really am making a point here, however circuitous it may seem) would I love to have my kids blogging? You betcha! Would it support the ELA standards? Absolutely? Is it realistic? Absolutely not.
Not that that has ever stopped me from embarking on a new undertaking.
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ReplyDeleteI love your honesty.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could just as easily be that elementary techno-dude, II hope my words will ring as true. I am not a nuts and bolts tech guy. I try my hardest to be instructional, but I can attest that September is the hardest month of the year for techo-dudes and dudets. Some years are harder than others. After the summer’s updates you just don't know how things are going to work until you turn it on. I acknowledge that this is not comforting when you are managing a class of 27, but by all means contact your “elementary techno-dude” and try to work through these difficulties - it will be worth it when it is working in October.
I encourage you to continue to explore the use of blogs as part of the writing process. That said, I would avoid using blogs as a writer’s notebook. I think there are better places than a public blog for that kind of personal exploratory writing. A personal Google Document, for instance, is a great place to keep a notebook of seed ideas. If you do not have Google Apps for Education, how about a regular notebook? One with paper, beautifully decorated with the things that the student loves? I think that is perfectly appropriate for third grade.
All that said, once a seed idea is selected, nurtured and revised, publishing to an authentic audience is pure magic. When students recognize that their writing has a potentially globally readership the motivation to write, and write well, explodes. It sure beats hanging your poem on the refrigerator. A well dotted cluster map will beat a “Great Job!” sticker any day.
I hope this techno-dude can encourage you to give your class blog a chance at the end of your next publishing cycle. I wouldn't stress about individual blogs - not in third grade. Use a class blog as the publishing medium and encourage families, nuclear and extended, to comment; you'll see your community of writers spark at the newfound power of having their words read.
Great idea, John! I was thinking that the suggestion was that each child would have an individual blog. Those writer's notebooks--beautifully decorated--are in progress--and due Monday. But to publish a writing unit on a blog--how motivating! I guess I would need parental consent. What about the issue of parents comparing children's work...or, some children getting tons more praise than others? (This has happened before in more traditional response formats) Just thinking it through...
ReplyDeleteYou might need consent - it depends on your district policy. It is a good idea to send home a letter in any event.
ReplyDeleteSome children will receive more comments. It is true. That said, class parents are a wonderful way to even the score - get them involved. If you can encourage another class to blag you can create peer mentors who work together. Ultimately, you are the moderator of comments so you can put things in perspective if perspective is lost.
Thanks for your thoughtful suggestions!
ReplyDeleteI really felt your pain on this one...can't tell you how many times I've had my back turned to a fractious group of 8th graders while twiddling with a frozen media cart. Although some of them did get a kick out of trying to help me with the tech issues! I think most teachers these days realize the importance of involving their students in the wonderful world of technology, but also feel the dismay of all the set-backs. It's always possible, of course. But some technologies work for some classes and grade levels, and some for others. I think in the end, there is a whole lot of trial and error. Good luck with your classes!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with all of you guys and this topic is very interesting. Using the technology can cause a lot of surprises. But don’t you think that at least you are trying the best for students? Students are very different from one another. They have their own way of thinking, interest, traditions and cultural backgrounds. I feel like it will make you feel better, if you just think as you are trying many different methods to benefit every single student in your classroom. It is impossible to make every student interact in your classroom by going only one direction. That’s why as good teachers we need to take some risk and learn from the positive and negative outcomes. Spending a lot of time planning lessons as an intentional teacher is our job; and whenever we get a negative outcome we need to make it into positive. You can do it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support, guys! Guess what? I got 21 eight year-olds to bookmark Spelling City--and they are soooo motivated. I printed out labels with their user names and passwords--put one on their laptops and one in their homework assignment pads--and there is a link to the site through my class website--so I'm on my way. I got five of my former third graders, who are in a colleague's class (who just taught them the same thing) to help me out--so during their recess they came and got to be the big shots and help the third grade freshmen set up their bookmark bar. Where there is a will, there is a way!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your post! As a fourth grade teacher, I would have similar concerns about students blogging individually. The thought of managing and moderating that, on top of the thousand other things we do each day, seems quite daunting. But I like the suggestions of others to use a class blog as more of a place for published writing to be enjoyed and celebrated. I, too, would have concerns about parents comparing student work, and possibly an unequal posting of comments, but I suppose if it is only happening a few times a year, it would be more realistic to moderate and manage the comments on the page. This also got me thinking about how it would be a great way for parents to share student work with other family members, like grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It would be very easy for parents to send a link to the class published writing blog to Grandma Mary in Florida and Aunt Laurie in Michigan. Wouldn't that be motivating for students to see feedback from other family members and friends, in addition to their teachers and peers?
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I can totally understand the frustration and anxiety that comes with adding "one more thing" to the endless juggle of things we do. However, I think its great that you were able to overcome the challenge of getting all those 8 year olds to log in to Spelling City and go with it!
I have to admit, I'm very jealous of the fact that you have laptops and a smartboard in your classroom, but I know that if and when the time comes for those things to be in my classroom, the day to day frustrations that come with technology will be accompanying those lovely tools! Hopefully we'll all have some great techno-dudes to help us with the transition :-)
Thanks guys, for the support! Yes, Nicole, we elementary teachers know what it takes to pull this off!
ReplyDeleteToday I got my eight-year-olds to go into their hard drives, open their applications folders, drag Google Earth onto their docks, open it, and zoom in on our Elementary School. "Ms. R. this must have been taken before they built the new wing." Out of the mouths of babes!
All this modeled on the Smartboard, linked to my computer. Who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks and puppies impossible ones?