Giving+Your+Elementary+Students+Their+Blogs

Presenters: ** Monica Edinger, ** 4th Grade Chair Jennifer Kirsch, Associate Teacher Ellen Nickles, Technology Coordinator School: [|The Dalton School]

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 * Description:** A fourth grade teacher and technology specialist have collaborated for the past three years to introduce and support students with individual blogs. In this presentation we will share our journey including a carefully constructed curriculum and the steps used to implement it. We use the blogs for language arts, social studies, and a myriad of other activities. Every year our use of the blogs; for instance, this year an associate teacher has been using them to teach various expository writing techniques and we hope that she will join us in this presentation. To see the class blog, go to [|blogs.dalton.org/edinger]. There is a page with links to all the students blogs for these past three years (most of this year's students have public blogs as of this writing).

2007-2008 Edinger House Student Blog Timeline
Teacher uses the [|class blog] regularly to post assignments, resources, and student podcasts. || ||  |||||||||| Regular meetings between teacher and technology coordinator to prepare and plan. Student blogs are built and tested (checklist). || blogs are private ||  || [|Students respond to student blogs from previous year] ||   || [|Your Very First Blog Post!] ||
 * **September** ||  |||||||||| Students start journal writing.
 * **October**
 * November**
 * December**
 * ~ **January** ||~  ||~ Events/Skills ||~   ||~ Topics ||~   ||~ Teacher Post ||
 * > Week 1 ||  || Introduce student blogs,
 * > Week 2 ||  ||   ||   || [|Oral history immigration project] ||   || [|Your Second Post] ||
 * > Week 3 ||  || [|Add Images] ||   || [|Historical fiction book post]

(Students add images to their posts from the previous week) ||  || [|Your Historical Fiction Book Post] ||
 * > Week 4 ||  || [|Learn to Comment] ||   ||   ||   || [|Commenting on Historical Fiction] ||
 * ~ **February** ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 5 ||  || [|Link to other sites]

Blogs made public to world ||  || [|Middle School Play] ||   || [|Your Next Post: The Tempest]

[|Great Posting and Commenting!] ||
 * > Week 6 ||  || Personalize: decorate blog banners and add taglines

[|Learn to scan] blog banners (2 Labs) ||  || [|Partnered with 3rd grade buddies to write about a New Orleans school]

[|Response to historical fiction reading] ||  || [|A Visit to the “Old Country”]

[|Margru Post] || [|Amistad Poetry: Part II] ||
 * > Week 7 ||  ||   ||   || [|Students write poems and create collages, which they scan and post] ||   || [|Amistad Poetry: Part I]
 * > Week 8 ||  || Choice

[|Categorize posts] ||  || [|Students given the option to write reviews] ||   || [|Reviews] ||
 * ~ March ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 9 ||  || [|Upload audio files] recorded by teacher with iPod

Publicity! ||  || [|Students write short posts to introduce their recordings] ||   || [|Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! post]

[|Our Podcast of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!] ||
 * > Week 10 ||  || [|Record themselves in FirstClass] ||   || [|Student post their Cinderella stories along with a recording of their favorite passage] ||   || [|Today’s Post: Your Cinderella Stories] ||
 * ~ April ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 11 ||  || Discuss and show [|examples of a post series] ||   || [|Students write their first post in a new series, “All About Alice,” in which they document their learning and project progress]

[|Forced Immigration] ||  || [|Alice Project] [|All About Alice: What We Did First] ||
 * > Week 12 ||  ||   ||   || [|Second Alice post]

[|Mourt's Relation] ||  || [|All About Alice: What We Did Next]

[|Mourt's Relation] || [|Some write letters from the point of view of a fictional character they created for another Language Arts assignment.] ||  || [|Pilgrim Life in Plimoth: Letters Home] || Week 17 ||  || [|ComicLife] ||   || Students work on Alice comics in school and may write book reviews on their blogs during Lab or at home ||   ||   ||
 * > Week 13 ||  ||   ||   || [|Third Alice post] ||   || [|All About Alice] ||
 * > Week 14 ||  ||   ||   || [|Students write about a recent field trip to Plimouth Plantation.]
 * > Week 15 ||  ||   ||   || [|Fourth Alice post] ||   ||   ||
 * ~ May ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 16
 * > Week 18 ||  || Review audio recording and uploading to blog ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * > Week 19 ||  ||   ||   || [|Fifth and final Alice post]

[|Students are interviewed by their third grade buddies. They record the interview in FirstClass and post them on their blogs.] [|(Introduction to the interview)] ||  || [|Final Alice Post] [|Alice Comic]

[|About-to-Be Immigrants Interview New Citizens of Big Dalton] ||
 * ~ June ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 20 ||  ||   ||   || [|The Wizard of Oz Post] ||   || [|The Wizard of Oz Post] ||
 * > Week 21 ||  ||   ||   || [|Your Final Blog Post of the Year] ||   || [|Your Final Blog Post of the Year] ||
 * > Week 22 ||  || Blogs closed to students, read only access ||   ||   ||   ||   ||