Blogging Portfolio

This is a concept I thought of trying out at the end of this year. I now plan on using this as my main ELA writing venue and developing an digital writing portfolio. The blog form will allow students to peer edit a little easier, it will allow constant revision and editing and at the same time, allow students to continue writing new articles.

Here is my plan:

1. Students create a Blogger account.

2. Students are given the writing list...a list of differnt styles of writing they will be asked to do throughout the year.

3. Allow time for students to write in their blogs.

4. Near the end of the term, students will create a Googledoc hyperlinking their best writing in each area and explaing why it is their best.

Some examples of articles I plan on doing are:

- Argumentitive Essay

- Career research

- Research Essay

- Short Story

- Descriptive Writing

- Vodcast explanation of peer editing and revising.

- Response Journals

- Pre-writing exercises.

It will be important to teach my students to label or tag their articles properly, since they will need to access old articles easy. A few of my students have begun this process here and here.

Privacy - Students Perspective

I have been following Alec Couros since I began working in the social media side of teaching.  His work always hits home for me and helps me understand things I find hazy. Alec has been in an ongoing conversation that began with a very unpleasant experience, the Flickr Perversion post.

In Alec's post, in particular, the argument between Alec and Dirk, some great points have been raised.  Although I am openly biased here, I agree with and act the same as Alec. In short, I believe that it is our duty as "educational leaders" and parents to understand the openess of the internet, and do our best to control/influence our digital footprints and those of our children and possibly even students.  I, too, and discreet about what I post, but I do put my children and students on the internet.

This brings me to my conversation today.  I shared Alec's comment stream with my grade 10 class and had them discuss it in a respectful and safe manner, using our microblogging platform, Edmodo.  A number of students had great points and insights. The class was pretty evenly split between those you agree with Dirk, those who agree with Alec and those who see both sides.  A few comments stood out and I thought I would share.

Morgan - There are risks you take with putting things on the internet. Alec and Dirk both had fair points and in my mind both were right. We all take risks putting stuff on and are aware that there are people who are sick minded. You don't have to be on the internet to have a person who is not in the right state of mind do somthing that is absolutley disgusting. The fact that Dirk questioned Alec's parenting is stupid, Alec knew all the risks and still did it. Who cares if Dirk didn't agree with this. Everyone has a picture in a bathing suit and the thought that there are people in our society that have to take pictures of innocent people is absurd. Now a days everyone has pictures and I gurantee there are pictures of Dirk that he may not want on there in the future. We all take risks and it is innevitable eventually our lives will be on the internet.

Courtney - I believe that you should put your information online so that you what you have online. I side with Alec's belief. You should put your information online because it is better than fake information where people will discover what is real anyways. At swimming pools, people are in their bathing suits so if there is a picture online, it isn't that much different.

Kimberley - I agree with both sides of this arguement. I agree with Dirk when he stated that there is no reason for Alec to be surprised that someone has favorited a picture of his daughter. The fact of the matter is that there are sick people out there and you are taking that risk if you choose to put pictures of your family on the internet. I only agree with Alec in the sense that he is a father and has pride in his family. It was not smart of him, however, to think that he could put a picture of his daughter out there and then get upset over someone favoriting it. Sure, it is not morally right for a person to only favoite pre-teen pictures of girls but he made the decision to make the photo public. If he did not want this to happen, he should have thought twice before posting it.

Morgan replies to a previous message - Tyler getting your pictures on the internet can be done without you even putting them on. People can take pictures where ever they want. The man who favourited these picture's probably has taken pictures of innocent girls without any consent.

After our conversation, I showed the students a number of the links from above.  I showed them many of the pictures and videos I have put online. Many of these photos are of my family, children the same age as Alec's, and the very students involved in this discussion. Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short with the end of class.

I did hear a number of students discussing this topics a few hours later in the lunchroom. Their discussion, although based on the Flickr Perversion blog post, had turned to their feelings about their own pictures posted online.  

I look forward to our conversation tomorrow when I ask them to analyze their own digital footprints, including the photos and other information that is put online by others, like their teachers.

Stay tuned! 

My PLC Reflection

This school year was much like that last.  As you know, last year my learning curve sky rocketed with my position on the iSITS committee and our school network administrator.  This year has been much the same.  The interesting thing is that the focus of my technology learning and the PLC’s our school has focused on go hand in hand.

However, the PLC learning did not start off as fast as the technology.  It wasn’t until we got together with division III and IV ELA colleagues that the PLC concept made sense to me.  I saw its relevance right away, the process made sense but how it related to my classroom was confusing. As the division III and IV teachers began, it began to make sense and again, my learning curve sky rocketed.

Our common ELA language came by the ELA 30 teachers initiative and we created our standards. Once we had this common language, we began to break down our standards in the PLC format.  This was interesting in how we analyzed the “important” parts of ELA, not all came from our curriculum.

Recently, we have been doing more of the collaboration part, in the aspect of, “where do we go from here”.  This is where I relate so much to the technology learning, although it has been a major part throughout, whether it be study hall or research.  I researched how to bring the big ideas into my classroom and received lots of ideas.  I bounced these off of my colleagues and with the help of them and the Saskatoon PLC format,  I have figured out how we will create, unit-ish plans that will incorporate our standards and big ideas.  

Impressed with Empressr

Empressr is the newest presentation tool I have been working with.  I found this program to be a powerful and easy to use presentation tool that almost anyone could use.

The program offers many of the regular features that other presentation tools have; text, charts, shapes, alignment, uploading and backgrounds.  There are a few extra features of this program I would like to talk about: Interesting transitions, reflections, the import tool and the tech team.

The transitions offered in this program have a nice new look to them.  So for those of you getting irritated with the powerpointless "glass smash" for every transition, there is something new.  Adding the transitions is ridiculously easy as well.

The reflections feature creates a cool looking reflection of images.  Layered, this looks interesting and appealing.  Engaging you audience is always so important, have new interesting transitions and image reflection alone makes the program worthwhile.

The import tool allows one to search for youtube videos, flickr images, google and yahoo.  Once a url is found, you can automatically embed that item into your presentation page.  This makes using social media in presentation crazy easy!  Plus, if you are inserting your own material, you do not need to get the raw file, but can access your own accounts.

The final feature is the tech team.  Hours after I added a question to the support page of the Empressr site, @bryanthatcher contacted me through twitter asking what was wrong.  I explained it to him, in under 140 characters, and he informed me the guys would look at in the morning.  Today, I get a tweet from @globalcitizen asking me to follow him and he will DM me the detail of my problem.  I got back to @globalcitizen and within an hour we were in a Skype chat and he was explaining thoroughly and easy to understand.  

@globalcitizen was extremely easy to chat with, informative and encouraging.  I was given some extra feedback on my presentation design which was also very beneficial.  The fact that tech support is that fast and easy to understand is what sets this program apart from others.  

I would recommend anyone and everyone to try out Empressr.  

My experience was great!

 

My PLN Journey

My PLN began about two years ago. I arrived at NB Comp. with no idea what I was getting into. I noticed two other people that I knew previous to that day and sat next to one of them immediately. Now, I am not usually shy... or quiet, so I struck up conversations with people around me as well. Then it began ...

Donna Desroches, my mentor, stepped to the front of the room and began he delivery of what would be many incredibly interesting speeches. She showed us videos and discussed the "new Web 2.0". She went over some requirements to our group and handed out the true beginning to my PLN ... the LAPTOPS!!!

Once I had this device, I began to play and share what I was playing with with my staff immediately. A few months later I had another meeting with the committee and learned of twitter. Rob Wall described it as blah bleek geek words bleek blah. I had no idea what he was talking about. Then Donna showed us her twitter. Like many of my colleagues, I signed up right away.

I began my PLN via twitter by following Donna and as many people on her twitter as I could recognize from our discussions. People like; Rob Wall, Dean Shareski, Alec Couros, Kathy Cassidy, and anyone from my committee. (At this time, still not named) A number of these people began to follow me and I was hooked. In fact, I can remember the first time Dean Shareski replied to a tweet of mine. I thought it was so cool and that I had just been accepted into a new realm of importance. It did not take long for me to realize that it was not I that was in a new realm, but my learning and my ability to engage students.

I continued to follow people and get followed.  This brought on random but scattered converstations.  I lurked more than I spoke until that summer.  I took more time to reply to people and therefore get replied to.  I began to have meaningful, intelligent and worthwile conversations.  These conversations sparked new ideas, brought up new people to follow and therefore, new people to network with.

While school year number two started, I was already having daily conversations that were intriguing.  However, this had become very personal and I found myself not caring about the committee I was on, just on how I could continue my PLN.  

Then, yammer came along.  A microblog for my school division.  It began as a place for the iSITS committee (finally named) to network without f2f.  I began to see that my committee was another great source to network with.  Great conversations, ideas and resources shared and again a new place to meet more people that can help and network.  

My latest major addition to my PLN is a cluster of Ning's that I belong to.  These social networks allow me to share and network with people of common interests and often common teaching assignments.

So to answer the question of how my PLN has got to be where it is at today.  I have my current 10 steps to Eldon's PLN.

1. Join iSITS and begin to network f2f.
2. Join twitter.
3. Follow people and continue to network.
4. Be outgoing, open and respectful.
5. Blog and Blog Reader ... a daily habit.
6. Keep people close who intrigue you.
7. Join Yammer. 
8. Share ... Share ... Share (It allows others to critique, share back and more)  
9. Join Nings
10. Present at conferences to meet more!

I am sure I have missed many things that have helped me create the PLN I have today.  So I have created this wordle to try to help show the many words that remind me of my PLN.

What has made your PLN what it is today?

How many paths does it take?

What are the most necessary steps for someone just starting out to create their PLN?

For those of you who know me, what am I missing?

Title Photo from saschaa Flickr