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.

The Best Children's and YA Authors for Teachers to Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Beyond

Melanie Holtsman on Flickr http://bit.ly/1hxukOr

I was on The We Are Teachers Blog, and found a link worth sharing to help others find authors to connect with online.

 "The Best Children's and YA Authors for Teachers to Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Beyond"

Among the authors featured in the list are the following:

• Patricia Polacco
• R.l. Stine
• Eric Carle
• Mo Willems' Pigeon
• Lemony Snicket

Author Kate Messener has on her site a list of authors who Skype for free. Her list breaks down the authors by intended school-age audience. Check her post: "Authors Who Skype with Classes and Book Clubs for Free."

Have you tried connecting with authors virtually to bring them into your classroom? Did you realize many authors like to tweet, and a good number will reply? A class twitter account is one way to explore working with an author through the Twitterverse.

Should Schools Have Internet Filters?

"Teach Kids to Be Their Own Internet Filter," an article that appeared in Mind/Shift, highlights building trust in students by not blocking websites. The article includes a student-produced video made at the end of the year to introduce incoming students to media resources at the school. The premise behind the video is that teachers, administrators, and students need to work in unison to build an environment of trust. Here's the video, produced with iMovie.




For further information, refer to the article: "Teach Kids to Be Their Own Internet Filter."

What is your position on schools blocking sites? Should schools have filters in place? Should we trust students to act responsibly online? How can an environment of trust be fostered in schools?

Stuck in a Boarding School, but Liberated by Online Edcuation

Stuck in a Boarding School is a powerful blog post written by a high school senior enrolled in an online Advanced Placement US Government History course.

Image from Stuck in Boarding School post

Read this powerful blog post, Stuck in a Boarding School, and the comments following it.  Once you get to the student's blog post, you will also learn that the post is on a communal blog for students enrolled in the Online Girls School AP US Government & Politics course. Each day another student in the class posts on the blog.

Feel free to read some of the posts to find out what students are learning in the history course and what their online learning has meant to them.

There's also an About link to learn more about the school, the course, and the blog.

Later in March, we will Skype with the teacher, Mike Gwaltney, who also teaches in a regular brick-and-mortar high school in Portland, Oregon.