I’ve been writing lately about our first elementary blogging project at my school. Because this was our first attempt, I’ve been very hands-on. I have been teaching the lessons while the teacher assists both in class and by tracking down permission forms. We scheduled one extra lap visit per week so I could teach the introductory lessons, help edit blog posts, assist with publishing the first posts, approve the posts and moderate the comments.
I’m happy to say that the classroom teacher is gradually taking over. First, she figured out a rotation schedule for their silent reading time. Each day, x number of kids rotate through using the four classroom computers to write posts, reply to comments, and leave comment on our blog pals’ blogs. No longer do they need to spend lab time blogging.
Today I took the next step and changed the blog email address from mine to hers. Now all comments will come to her to be approved. I’ll also show her one more time how to approve blog posts, and then the system will be hers to run.
Thus far, she seems pleased with her students’ excitement and their eagerness to read and write blog posts. This project is now supporting her classroom curriculum. I hope all my other integration projects go so well this term.
If you are a tech integrationalist, are you being successful at gradually releasing control of projects? Do you have any tips to share to help the rest of us do this well?
If you are a classroom teacher, what steps can tech integrationists take to help you feel more comfortable assuming control and responsibility of integration projects?
Susan,
I am not a tech integrationist per se or a classroom teacher; I’ve got a little of both perspectives. (I am developing a 21st century learning environment with a K-12 independent school in Atlanta.) I’m currently working with middle school teachers, and what I find is they will take ownership when I put them in situations to share their work with other faculty or administrators. Instead of me telling them what we’ve done and created together, I have them share it–or we share it together. As you know, anytime you are required to get up in front of others and lead,guide,teach you learn more than if you are sitting on the sidelines. So, my encouragement to you would be put the teachers in situations where they are coaching and sharing their budding practices with someone else. Then they will take more ownership of the ongoing process as it unfolds in their own classrooms.
Good advice from Laura . . . it’s okay that the teachers are new to this, we are all learning together. There is no better way to get a teacher engaged than to have them teach.
I am a student from NY and I liked reading this blog because I feel like I am like the teacher. I know English pretty well but using the Internet to do actually education (and not lame research where student pick the first site they see about their topic and print it) is very new and exciting to me. It is a big help for me to learn things in steps. I have created my own web page and now I am moving on to a blog page. I am very excited and lucky that I am doing this all before I start teaching, I feel like I am better prepared to offer students a new view on education.
I completey agree. I am not currently a teacher, but I am workings towards getting my degree and I am curently teaching in a fifth grade classroom. I have to say that i am very engaged when i am teaching and I think that is the way to get teachers engaged. I also have just completed my own teachers website for one of my classes and I am moving on to making my own blog as well. I am so interested in this so that i can bring all of this to my own students one day.
I think its great that teachers are trying to incorperate blogs and new technology into classrooms even though it is just difficult for them at first as it is for the students!
Laura and Ellie, I think that is great advice. This past fall, 12 teachers from my division were able to attend the Learning 2.0 conference in Shanghai. When they returned, they paired up and presented at the ed tech conference our school hosted a few months later. Preparing to present pushed them to put into practice the new ideas they had gleaned in Shanghai.
Sislam and Joelle, Welcome to blogging. I hope you find that creating your own blogs and webpages is a rewarding experience. It is a great way to start developing a personal learning network.
Anonymous, Thanks for your comment.