I am considering blogging with 7th and 8th graders

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Permalink Reply by Martha Lipold on August 20, 2009 at 3:16am

Keep me posted. I haven't used blogs yet - I teach 6th and 7th grade science in a very technology-rich environment. I'm interested in seeing what you do - and possibly setting up some sort of connection. I'm a little skeptical so far - I want to see them used as a valuable part of middle grades instruction before I dive in. Comments, anyone?

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Munoz on September 3, 2009 at 10:52am

Trying blogging also with my 8th grade business technology class. Already set up an edublogs account but I am still trying to piece together the lesson to get them started. I'm looking for a direction, because I would like for them to blog several times a week. As I get it together and try it out I will post back here.
@Emily Maybe once we get going we could have our student's post comments on each other's blogs? Just a thought. Maybe contributing to others outside the classroom would be fun. I can see expanding their audience to other classrooms as a motivational tool. What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Emily on September 3, 2009 at 12:52pm

I haven't decided what platform we will use. I want to give them some time to work on a topic and layout, design, ideas for a few posts. Since I only meet with them once a week it will be hard to get them to post very regularly. I will be using gaggle this year for email and I may use them for the blogs as well.
but I'd love to have another class to work with. I'll let you know when we get going some more.

as a comment to Martha, I see the value in them learning on what is appropriate for posting online, and to learn lots of web 2.0 applications. I don't really know what to expect but they seemed excited when I presented it to the class this past week.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Lee Carroll on September 3, 2009 at 12:57pm

Emily,

I started a class of 5th and 6th graders on blogging last year. I created a Ning network with the idea of getting other schools involved, giving each school their own private space and then a common "public" (but totally private to the outside world) area. This eased the minds of several parents who were concerned about security and safety.

Due to time constraints and the fact that the project wasn't launched until later in the year, we didn't get to do as much with it as i had hoped. I was only doing this on a volunteer basis. I am not employed as a teacher specifically to teach these kids Web 2.0 technologies. If you are interested in learning more about what I have set up and perhaps joining me in this project, please message me and I will give you more details. My children are really excited to get other schools involved. I have connections in England, Germany, The Netherlands and New Zealand that I am trying to talk to to get them on board.

Let me know.

Tracy

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Permalink Reply by Emily on October 1, 2009 at 7:47pm

I'd like to find a way to connect with your class, if that's possible. We have started blogging, and we are slowly getting going with it. My blog is mrswaldal.edublogs.org, and the kids have edublogs as well. It seems to be going well. Our problems been more with our internet not be reliable.
thanks

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Permalink Reply by Eric E. Silvern on February 20, 2010 at 11:34pm

I just tried starting ning last week with my six ninth grade classes. I set up a group for each class. But it kind of backfired. I couldn't manage groups well and students had access to all other groups, so instead of following my post and the lesson for it, they just got busy emailing each other. Seems like the only solution would be to have six seperate url's which would be way too much work. Would like find a blog site where students could create blogs and reply to others on their blogs but not send private emails.
Eric

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn on February 21, 2010 at 9:18am

Try Edmodo.com. You can separate you class and they will only be able to communicate with others in the class. You can post assignments and communicate with your student's blog. It is more a classroom interaction and setting up each class is quite easy.

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Permalink Reply by Eric E. Silvern on February 22, 2010 at 12:48pm

I tried ning too. Broke my classes into groups but I could not seperate groups and members and pretty soon everyone was just using it as a myspace page to send emails to one another. Still looking for one with more controls.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Lee Carroll on September 3, 2009 at 12:59pm

BTW... the kids LOVE this! I give credit to the administration because they really don't understand it (I'll work on them later), but they do understand that the kids need to know these technologies to be prepared for today and tomorrow's world.

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Permalink Reply by Susan on September 9, 2009 at 7:02pm

http://coachgorman1.edublogs.org/

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Munoz on September 9, 2009 at 8:13pm

Susan,
Nice looking blog! Did you have to pay to add your student's blogs? I see their names listed on the side. Does that happen when you set up their accounts as a part of your classblog? Still trying to understand this so I can get my kids blogging. Thanks for any tips or advice you can offer.

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Permalink Reply by Emily on October 1, 2009 at 7:48pm

your blogs look good, my students have are at about the same point. We will start adding widgets and more posts this week. I'll also have them look and comment on your student blogs.
my blog is mrswaldal.edublogs.org and the students are linked on the right-side

also how did twitter go? I am not attached to another class, with material to talk about so I have trouble getting a meaningful conversation going. I am thinking of getting another teacher involved so we can discuss a topic they are studying.

thanks

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