Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Students blogging

I have started my Year 1 students in 2011 on their personal blog journey through kidblog. Reflecting back on it this year, I realised that I am not entirely happy with how that went.   So, where to next?
I have decided to start this year by getting them to choose a piece of their writing to publish on their blogs during our ICT time.  What a challenge for some, as they were only new to school and were still learning their alphabet! Everyone persevered however and they are slowly, but surely on their 'blogging way'.
The next step will be to move them away from just publishing their writing on their blogs to getting them to reflect on their learning.
In Techie Brekkie today (week 6), there was a discussion about how well my students are starting to share their learning on their blogs.  A remark was made by a teacher that they don't use blogs due to time limit and students not knowing how to connect on their Notebooks, which lead to them interrupting the guided reading programme.
I was taken aback by this, as I taught those particular students the same skills I am busy teaching my students now.  Adamant to stay positive through this, I decided to make sure that students are independent by knowing how to choose another internet connection, if they are unable to connect via the main connection.
Surely this morning, when working with a guided reading group, it happened to me!  One student said: "I can't connect!"  I choose to ignore that and continued working with my reading group.  After a while I looked up to see the student working away, as another student had fixed the 'problem'.
As a perfectionist, I find this stepping back sometimes very hard, but I do persist and can relish in this EUREKA moments!  This is rewarding personally, as well as professionally to see how this give my students confidence in their own abilities too!