Students Blogging for a Global Audience

Recently, I presented a session at the National Council of Teachers of English Convention on "Students Blogging for a Global Audience." Lots of people expressed an interest in access to the site I created for the conference, so here it is.

You'll find tips and resources to get students blogging. Poke around, and let me know what you think.

Click on the image to access the site:

Thanks for stopping at the site. If you have a few minutes, leave a reply to this post.

Examples of Ways to Use Padlet

Here is the Padlet from the activity we did on favorite children's books. Scroll across to see the full Padlet wall with all of the contributions.

Created with Padlet

This is the Padlet the 2nd graders from Canada and Australia shared focused on facts about their countries. Scroll down to see it al the contributions.

Created with Padlet

Here is a Padlet that Richard Byrne did with a group of teachers at a professional development workshop. The Padlet was used for participants to share project samples. Note each of the contributions is inserted into the Padlet with a hyperlink to access an online resource or in some cases a video. Click on the page icon or video icon in the center of each picture to access the online source.

If you would like to view this Padlet online, at the site, use this link: Mississippi Bend AEA Sample.

In his blog, Free Technology for Teachers, Richard notes the tools that the teachers used for their original creations included: PicCollage, PicMonkey, Canva, and Thinglink. The teachers then used Padlet to insert a link to the web page resource or video they created with the other tools.





Here's a Padlet I participated in at the Building Learning Communities Conference, organized by Alan November's November Learning Company, that draws educators from around the globe. We did an exercise in which the presenter asked us about what it means to be a connected educator. You can scroll around this Padlet to see more of the contributions, and by clicking on any of the contributions, watch as a window opens to view them one at a time as slides. Once a slide pops up, using the X in the corner of the viewer returns to the Padlet to full view.

Created with Padlet

These are four varied ways to use Padlet. As you learn more about the tool, what are some of your thoughts about how this tool can be integrated into schools?

As with many online digital tools, the more we use them and see examples, the more we begin to understand their classroom applications. What tools have become your favorites to explore in the classroom?

Created with Padlet

Look What These Kindergarteners Did with iPads

You all know the story If You Give a Cookie to a Mouse. Well, take a look at this Little Bird Tale to see what happens when you give kindergarteners an iPad. Click on the image to view the kindergarteners' story of what they accomplished with their iPads. Their story, "If You Give Kindergarteners an iPad," is both amusing and enlightening, and also reminds us of how given the technology tools and a teacher willing to integrate the tools well, what young children can accomplish. We can stretch their literacy skills as far as possible when we put the tools in their hands and plan our lesson well. This Little Bird Tale illustrates not only effective use of iPads, but also the value of using a tool such as Little Bird Tales for students to create their own books.

• Click to view my tale.
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Wikispaces in the Classroom

Wikispaces in the Classroom released lots of information about the new look and feel of Wikispaces aimed at its use in the school setting. Click on the image below to access the variety of resources Wikispaces is offering to help teachers understand and use all the new features.

Halloween Ideas

The Teaching Channel has a Pinterest board with ideas for Halloween. You can check out the board by click on the image below. Post a reply if the resources on the board are helpful to you. Also, reply with your own ideas about plans for celebrating Halloween with your students.

If you're a fan of Pinterest, you also might want to check other boards of the Teacher Channel. Click on image below to get to the Channel's boards, where you will find plenty of teaching resources. 

Let us know if you found the Teaching Channel boards helpful.

Global Collaborations

Recently, Jess Lussier and Michelle Gohagon of Regional School District 13 in Connecticut, shared an excellent Google Presentation of the variety of ways in which their students, K-6, have been collaborating globally.  These collaborations include Global Read Aloud, International Dot Day, World Blogging Day, and Poem in Your Pocket Day. To see their presentation, click on the image below, which will take you to the post with the embedded slide show. It's worth your time to learn about the ways young students forge global connections. Each slide about a project indicates how it aligns with Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Have you considered ways to connect your students globally, or even regionally? Share your plans or any projects you have already done to connect students with people beyond the walls of your classroom or school? What do you see as the merits of global collaborations?

Cranes for Peace: A Global Project

Once we introduce technology in our classrooms and schools, we open up opportunities for students to collaborate in ways unfathomable before. One excellent example is a quad blogging. The Cranes 4 Peace Blog, a collaborative project, follows this format, with students from countries around the world contributing to a common blog. Here is an image from just one of the posts on the blog,

http://cranes4peace.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/st-thomas-more-cps-peace-cranes/

Check the About page for the project, and then go to the blog itself, The Cranes 4 Peace, to see what the children in this collaborative blog are posting.

http://cranes4peace.wordpress.com/about/

Take some time to look. Don't rush. Leave your comments on this post after you've looked around. Have you gotten any inspiration from The Cranes 4 Peace blog? Would you consider implementing a similar project in your school?

See this website to learn more about the Peace Crane Project. The site will offer ideas for ways you can celebrate in your own schools and bring awareness to world peace.

Here is a video about the project:





For more information about the International Day of Peace, celebrated, Sept. 21, 2013, also  check this website: International Day of Peace, Education for Peace.

Amazing: Hearing Impaired and Deaf Students Connecting Globally

This morning, procrastinating about shoveling snow, I checked email, and saw an incoming tweet from a Connecticut teacher (Joyce Blum) who tweeted 80% of schools closed in Connecticut for Monday.

To verify the identity of this person, who tweeted a response to another teacher, whom I had already tweeted, which put my Twitter name in Joyce Blum's tweet out, I wanted to ensure the tweet was coming from someone in "the know."

Well, once I got to Joyce Blum's Twitter profile, I saw she was a high school teacher of English for the deaf and hard of hearing.

In her tweet stream, I found a link to a blog. Curious about the blog, I checked the link, and there I found myself exploring a neighborhood of blog posts from students around the world, all apparently hearing impaired or deaf. Not only are these students afforded an opportunity to communicate with the written word, which makes sense, but they are also making connections with peers globally and learning about these peers from all corners of the world. This exploration opened my mind once again to the power of blogging as an amazing tool for communication for a variety of purposes.

I invite you to take a few moments, or linger longer if you like, to see how this blog is unfolding. I am wondering what your reactions will be. The blog is at Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year. The number of schools throughout the world who have joined and the students who have contributed speak to the power of blogging to connect students in ways not easily possible just a decade ago. As I tweeted back to Joyce,

I also learned that she is using Edmodo as another communication tool.

She calls herself a "rookie," but she is already doing amazing things with technology tools to help her students express themselves and expand their literacy skills and global understandings. 

Well, back to shoveling, but blogging surely can draw us in, as we explore the world through the comforts of our own home. I am just amazed at how this teacher has used the medium of blogging to enhance students' literacy skills: including reading, writing, visualizing, connecting, and gaining world views. For students who cannot hear or have limited hearing abilities, the opportunities to explore blogging as a communication medium seem amazing. What do you think? What is your reaction to Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year blog?

Lip Dub: Collaborating World Wide

As some of you know, I've been participating in an online course, the Educational Technology Massive Open Online Course (known as ETMOOC). There are thousands of people in the course. We get a chance to participate in various ways, and we can select how and when we want to participate. One recent project was a Lip Dub, and I am sharing the final video to illustrate how people from around the world can collaborate online. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Connecting Classes

Looking to connect your students with other students through blogging. If you teach grades 1 and higher, you should check this blog to make connections: The Comments4Kids.

Even if your students are not blogging, they can still comment on other students' blogs. The Comments4Kids blog posts information about classes who are looking for others to write replies to blog posts.

The Comments4Kids would also be a good blog to follow in your Google Reader. William Chamberlain, a middle school teacher, maintains the blog and updates it often.

Impending Snow Day

In hopes of a snow day, this group of students produced this video.  The video was shown at a conference I attended Saturday (virtually--I was in Connecticut--the conference was in Philly.)

What's your response to the video? Speaking of multi-literacies, note the communication skills these students use.

Other videos from the conference were archived at this site, including one featuring Will Richardson, author of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom. 

EduCon 2.5 Videos

There's two by Richardson at the link, one he delivered last June at the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) and one he delivered at this weekend's conference in Philly, "Why School?" Hold on to these two in the event we do, indeed, have a snow day (well snow night):

ISTE Presentation:

This second one is a full recording of a live presentation that went for an hour, so definitely good for saving when you have the time. The beginning is a bit scratchy as equipment is getting set up, and remember this is a live recording of a presentation as it was happening.

What I Learned

Students taking a course, ECMP 355, at the University of Regina, create at the end of the course a reflection piece on their learning. At the end of the semester, I check on a few. Some are posted here.


















Here is one done with GoAnimate--enjoy!! This one is really funny and clever!



Well, I could post some more, but the point is that technology has allowed us to cross borders. Each semester, I check in with Alec's students to see what they are learning, and I learn from them. I even follow some of them on Twitter and follow their blogs using Google Reader.

Well, Alec, just posted another one to Twitter, so I am adding it because it is a bit different than the others. You need to see it through to the end to really appreciate it! To learn more about why the student, Matt, used stop-motion movie techniques, check his blog post: Summary of Learning




Okay, so I tweeted out to Alec that I posted his students' videos, and he tweeted back to check out this one, so here is another one:




Most of all, through technology, I don't need to move to Alberta, Canada, where University of Regina is, to learn what the students there are doing with tech. I just need to go to Tweeter and follow through. Even more so, I can now share with you what I discover. If you're on Twitter follow Alec @courosa

Let me know what you think of the students' testimonials.