Student Blogging and Blogfolios

Student blogfolios was the main goal for my class this past year. I felt that the quality of writing and learning in each subject would improve through the use of blogfolios. Just a couple of weeks before the school year ended, students finally launched individual blogfolios. The students got a chance a customize their blogfolios and learn how to post their work. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to be part of the excitement myself. I also found it to be the perfect way to end my year with these students and to learn alongside them.

It was around this time last year that I attended the Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston with four of my colleagues. I came home inspired by all that I had learned at the conference, and I started a blog. As Silvia Tolisano explained to us in her workshop, if I wanted my students to reflect and think metacognitively about their learning, I needed to do the same. I started the blog and pretended it was my secret online journal. I wrote about how I would start my year. I also wrote about my hopes and wishes for teaching this group of children. It was also the place where I could document my learning and professional growth.

Two years ago, my PGP( professional growth plan) was to improve the academic skills and engagement in learning by having the students become guest bloggers on the class blog. My colleague Faye and I had similar PGPs, and we both started our work by teaching our students in grades three and four, respectively, all about blogging during the 2018-2019 school year.

Each class started by making a paper or google docs blog post and sharing it with their classmates. The students gained skills such as researching, putting thoughts into their own words, the importance of copyright, and using copyright free pictures. They also learned to read and make appropriate comments on their classmates’ blog posts, all while becoming good digital citizens.

The students also became guest bloggers of the week on our classroom blogs. I thought they would take ownership of their learning through this venue, but to be honest, they didn’t. My grade four classes did take part in the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge. They loved getting comments from other students and teachers in other parts of the world. It made a difference when they realized other people were reading their work. They also loved visiting other blogs, making comments, and interacting with other students. I had hoped they would become motivated and engaged in writing their weekly guest posts. The students didn’t get as excited as I would have liked.

My original goal was to start blogfolios at the beginning of the year. We then hoped to launch in March before our school year changed course. Luckily we did launch before the end of the year, and what I observed and learned in such a short time has inspired me to make blogfolios an integral part of my teaching regardless of the grade I happen to teach.

The students’ writing did improve through the use of blogfolios. They paid attention to spelling, punctuation, and the quality of their writing. At the beginning of distance learning, we wrote persuasive essays. For many children, the assignment proved to be challenging. It took a lot of effort and encouragement to get them to write an essay. A few children wondered why they should write an essay when no one would read them. Writing speeches for public speaking proved to be difficult as well.

I then let the students write a blog post of their choice, and I told them it would go in their blogfolios. The students had the freedom to choose their topics. Something amazing happened; the students started writing and writing any chance they got. The writing flowed, the blog posts were interesting. Competitive skiing, Minecraft, and Electricity were a few of the topics. The amount of writing doubled and tripled, the quality improved as well. I got to know my students in a whole new way and to see what they what made them passionate. The thought of other people besides their teacher reading their work excited them too. The students presented their blogposts to the class and answered questions. Everyone was engaged and interested in what their classmates had written. These students needed to end of the year and remain excited about their learning.

We had a whole group discussion reflecting on our writing from persuasive essays, speeches, to blog posts. I told the students that I had noticed how excited and motivated they were when they asked to work on their blog posts, we talked about how much more they were writing as well. The students reflected how they found it so much easier to write about subjects that interested them. You don’t have to do as much research you can write about what you know. They talked about how they wanted to share what they were interested in with others. Writing for their blogfolios seemed effortless and came so naturally to them.

The students received their first comments, and they were thrilled that someone read their work. They were happy to reply. They also started to write in French and Hebrew too. I am pleased that they will get a chance to continue putting their work into their blogfolios and documenting their learning throughout the years. My hope is the students take even greater ownership of learning in a few years. I am excited to see where this platform can take them.

As for myself, I will be back teaching Grade 3 classes again. I will positively be setting up blogfolios for my students, having them do blogposts, learn all the skills, and take part in the student blogging challenge. I look forward to helping my students document their learning, think metacognitively, and share their voices with an authentic audience. I believe that the students will learn so much and be able to push the boundaries of the traditional grade three curriculum. Stay tuned! The 2020-2021 school year should be an exciting one.

Why do some students thrive in distance learning?

 The Sky is the Limit

This post has been a long time in the making. I intended to publish in the Spring, for the #BlogginThruIt challenge. If you have read my earlier post, you would know that I was quite busy teaching my classes during distance learning.

My students all did a great job with distance learning overall. Sure there were some challenges along the way, but for the most part, students rose to the occasion. Some students thrived during this period. They excelled in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in the physical classroom.

Focus and attention in the regular classroom presented a challenge for some students. I saw the same children paying attention, completing assignments, and participating actively during distance learning. They worked harder, met with success, and gained greater confidence as a student. One student had the quiet at home to read and focus on a chapter book. He started to love reading and was proud of his accomplishments. Another student found it easier to look at the teacher more on the computer screen and was not distracted by friends.

Quieter students also thrived during distance learning. Their voices were louder through blogs, speeches, and projects. They were quite expressive readers and took a more active role in class discussions. Three of my shy students gave eloquent speeches and made it to the public speaking finals. They also found it easier to reach out and ask questions through google hangouts.

Students with anxiety found it easier to be at home and concentrate on lessons through Google Meet. The day to day stresses of being in a noisier classroom and interacting with more extroverted classmates was gone. They found it easier to reach out to teachers and get individual help when needed. They also connected more with their teachers.

Student voice and choice took on greater importance. Genius Hour, Stem Bingo, and Blog post challenges let the students take their learning into their own hands. They loved the freedom and unstructured time in the afternoons to pursue subjects and projects that interested them. Some students learned about coding, 3D architecture, stop motion animation. One student worked on putting electricity into his treehouse and building a go-kart. Another student coded a raptor into a Minetest( Minecraft like) game.

There was one student in particular who had distance learning challenges. His mother was worried if he was ready for Grade 5. This student decided to make his drone for his Genius Hour project. I met with him individually to discuss his project. He told me how he had ordered motors and wires. He told me how he had learned about electricity and how he was thinking about designing the propellors. His older sister arranged a meeting with a friend studying engineering to help problem-solve drone building. As he talked and reflected on his project to date, he stopped and told me,” I have learned so much already by working on this project.”

Our class had also made a connection via Flipgrid with students in Taiwan. The children made videos to learn about each other and our different countries. There was one student in my class who had been attending Chinese school on weekends to learn Mandarin. This boy took the opportunity to practice his Mandarin and make bilingual videos to share with the students in Taiwan. He also took the time to learn and create a Stars Wars-themed bilingual video for May 4th. This global connection provided him the perfect venue to personalize his learning through these authentic tasks. The students in Taiwan loved learning and practicing their English with us.

The majority of my students become more self-directed. That is not to say that we didn’t have our challenges at the beginning with Roblox or watching Youtube videos. Some difficult conversations with parents and students took place. The students realized schooling came first, and they were in charge of getting their assignments done. The students became adept at navigating the schedules following the links and sharing their completed work.

Students took advantage of the unstructured time in the afternoon to pursue their interests in writing stories and blog posts. It is funny how much harder they worked on assignments they chose themselves. Some students wrote epic stories, and some worked with a partner to create a terrific blog post. The quality of the work improved as the students became self-directed and owned their learning.

Distance learning allowed the teacher greater freedom too. I had the time to personalize programs so students could extra help, a small group lesson, or enrichment. The key was to keep all of the students busy and engaged. In the physical classroom, I always had someone or many students needing help. In distance learning, I could offer more individualized teaching during office hours or in the afternoons. I could send a quick message to a student on google hangouts while continuing to teach the lessons.

I will be reflecting more on how the students thrived in the Spring and will embed these lessons learned into my planning for the upcoming school year. All students should have the opportunity to thrive and reach for the stars each school year. It is my job as a teacher to create the environment to make this happen for my students.

 Update December 6, 2020
I chose remote learning for my own quiet 13-year-old this fall. She has focused on her learning and has been able to reach out to her teachers. I am happy to report she is thriving in virtual school.

I have been teaching in the classroom for the last 13 weeks. I have made a point of connecting with my quieter and anxious students a little more. I check in with them more frequently throughout the day and give them a chance to share their voice. I am happy to report they are thriving as well.