- Blogging through the school year, part 1
- Blogging through the school year, part 2
Below are my recollections of important high and low points while blogging with my third graders this past school year, from April through June, 2006. The red links point to my posts on roomtwelve.com, the classroom blog, and green links point to entries on this, my personal blog:
- April, 2006 - The kids were starting to get lots of comments, so I suggested a way of Handling Comments that grown up bloggers use - they continue with this practice. I post another assignment for something to write about while kids are on vacation, Getting ready for Earth Day, no response from the kids - oh, maybe one. I was over my head as usual with the Earth Day Groceries Project, and was getting way too deep into blog conversations that left me frustrated, eventually bubbling over in my lash out Speaking with authority and credibility. But the kids were continuing to grow, able to do some remarkable reflective writing on The WASL.
- May, 2006 - an invitation to write on their blogs about anything - I just gave them "blog time", with some ideas, of course - brought Mother's Day and More!, diverse, interesting stuff. Something I had wanted to do for a long time was Blogging from Tully's, and three kids pulled it off, reading from their blogs, on my laptop, in 21st Century Coffeehouse . The month came to an end with worries over classblogmeister failing, and a discussion of next year, without a blog, in Rugged days.
- June, 2006 - The conversation about the possible end of their blogs brought a very teachable moment in Blogging about blogging, and I was so moved that I posted The Class of 2015, with quotes from several. This was, without doubt, their most inspired and passionate writing of the school year. I posted Just another day to document the changing nature of the classroom. Finally getting picture permission, I posted a group shot, at Here we are... The kids were in a Blogging Frenzy! (also posted on my blog at Blogging Frenzy - crossposting is something I did several times during the year, when the lines between personal and classroom blogs overlapped, or became blurred). Then, in an attempt to try and do EVERYthing before the school year ended, I posted a couple of short videos of the class, The Room 12 Cheer! and Room 12 Cheer - almost! Those were the last two entries on the classroom blog during the school year. I tried to wrap it up personally at Last Day's Eve.
The school year ends, but the blogging continues, with the first student post, at Summer Writers!
There. I'll follow with some personal reflections on what this has all meant as soon as I can.