I love reading student blogs. They’re fun, more creative, more thoughtful and usually a lot better than a paper response. But here’s why I don’t revisit that mode of writing — they won’t remember their username and passwords, nor will they remember to give me the url. Ugh. Of course I discovered that they forgot their usernames/passwords on a day when I had a sub. You know it has to happen that way, right?
I just need to set aside time to revisit the housekeep aspect of blogging. I do miss it.
I forgot how hard it was to start the year! I’m out of teaching shape.
It’s interesting how our digital natives adjust to technology so easily. This week they registered for Moodle, Quia, and a blog all in the same day. That would send most adults into cardiac arrest. By the end of the day I was tired and not all the kids had a blog, but overall it went well. And none of the kids seemed really upset. The vast # of usernames and passwords should’ve been a huge turn off, but it wasn’t…or it was and they didn’t complain. And I noticed on Wednesday night at least 5 people were online in moodle from 5-9 at night. That’s good stuff.
At first they didn’t know how to handle the moodle concept and they needed me to tell them what to do. Soon they’ll get it…it’s their choice as long as it’s for class…
I’m excited to see where this goes. They seem like they are willing to use their language as art. The blogs will allow them to do that — to take their words and display them in an artistic way for a real audience.
I’ll be gathering cyberpals soon enough, I bet.
So, I brought the kitty here…he’s whiped out…just tuckered out. I don’t think the kids have put him down. It’s interesting to see just how many of them are doing something - more than 1/2. And many of them don’t need the extra credit, nor do they even care about that. I think they’re doing it, just to do it…or because they don’t want to do the reading assignment for tonight. 
I peeked at what they start - they’re going at pulling heart strings.
Right now a varsity wrestler is cuddling with him again. He is monopolizing the cat a little bit, but the cat doesn’t seem to mind. The kids have been so gentle with him. They’re noisy and antsy, but it’s all good energy. They’re having more fun with his toys than he does.
It’ll be interesting to see where this all goes. It feels good to help this little guy out and to see the kids do something positive and real with their writing skills.
I had student submit their Multi-genre projects electronically. I burned the CD and I’m over 1/2 done with grading, but my goodness…it’s taking forever. In the mean time, they submitted their Personal Narratives on Moodle. I’m so far behind!
Grading online is much more difficult than paper grading in that I struggle with the distractions of the computer (I’m just as bad as the kids) and I can’t write on the papers. I use a rubric and write references to where points may be lost, but I fully doubt that they’ll look back at their papers to see what I’m talking about. I guess I’m just writing the references so I know where they lost points.
One time, two years ago, I opened each electronic submission and saved it to my space. Then I typed comments in another color and inserted comments. I then emailed those back to the students. Phew! As you can imagine, I did that once…just once.
There’s got to be an easier way to give feedback electronically.
Whenever I feel like I’m on the right track with regards to technology in Education, something comes along that makes me realize that I’m still pretty darn lame.
http://www.scottmcleod.org:80/didyouknow.wmv
Eh, after I thought about it for awhile, I guess this doesn’t mean squat. I mean, the basics (reading, writing, speaking) stay relatively the same. Right?
I ran a little test with my most recent unit. I gave them some short directions for assignments and told them to “read the links provided” for more information. I stressed that several times. It seems that kids are pretty acclimated with being spoon-fed material. So I’m wondering if they’ll read on their own. Some of the links give them specific directions. I’ll know who didn’t read, that’s for sure. I’ll give extra reminders/help for the kids that need TLC, I suppose.
It seems like they’re not that great at exploring links and reading off the net for actual learning–they don’t regard the net as a source of learning so much as a tool to play games or watch movies. They’ll use it for research and that’s about it. I don’t know how much they’ve thought of the net as a giant library (if they sift properly). To some degree I suppose I’m still spoon feeding (by choosing the links for them), but at least I’m asking them to be more responsible. It’ll be interesting to see what the results are.
I didn’t know what to expect when I started snooping around http://www.moodle.org. I soon realized that I could spend HOURS there reading about Moodle and how to use it. It’s not for someone that hasn’t had some type of Moodle experience though. All the people there have it installed on their networks and currently use it as teachers. It’s nice to know that the Moodle community is so huge and helpful. It’s wonderful how the internet has linked millions of people together.
I’ve known about Moodle for about 2 years but I never thought I’d get the school to put it on our network. Last year I was a high maintenance teacher because our laptopls weren’t working. The last thing I was going to do was ask for yet another favor. But someone else must have done the asking for me (whoohoo!) because Moodle appeared on our server this winter. I have several loves in my life…Moodle is one of them.
I wanted to get real training on it, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve read the manual and I’ve been teaching myself as much as I can. Some parts are still too far over my head. Some aren’t useful. Some are just too much work. But for the most part, the tools within Moodle are just unbelievable.
The kids have been using it for about a month and they like it. They can navigate around it easily and I don’t have to explain a lot. Moodle is a tool for their generation - they seem to naturally figure it out. It’s strange. It’s nice to know that I’m using something that they can use in the future. It also helps them fine-tune their skills that will apply to other realms of technology. And I’m still using the same curriculum, worksheets, activities, etc that I was before. I’m quite certain they’re writing more as well. I can type a lot faster than I write. I’m more willing to write and with more detail.
For me as a teacher I’ve been a little exhausted adapting to Moodle. Here are a few changes:
1. Students are submitting assignments online. This means I have to read them online. For one, I get really distracted when I’m on a computer. It takes longer to grade assignments because I check my email…grade a paper…mess with this blog…grade a paper…snoop on Ebay…download photos of Jenna…get the drift? Giving feedback has also taken a new twist as I can’t write on the documents. I could save them to a folder, write on them, and email them back. But with over a 100 students, I’m not ready for that. So, I’ve created rubrics with a lot of room to write.
2. The kids do and don’t work more efficiently. I wish I could have someone else observe them. See, I front load all the assignments for a week or two and let them work at their own pace. That means some kids fly ahead…some drag their heels. I made the mistake of staying that they could work at their own page. Magically, a huge portion thought I said, “Do nothing for 2 days and then start working.” Well, changes had to be made. It’s been interesting to plan because the kids aren’t all at the same place. Sometimes it’s been shocking when a kid that I thought was on task suddenly reveals that he/she is 4 assignments behind.
I have more thoughts, but my elbow is bothering me for some reason. Overall, Moodle is wonderful. I’m a little overwhelmed with all the tools I have in front of me. It’s a good feeling though. I know I’m lucky.
Dawn Hogue has been instrumental to my progress as an English teacher. If you’re looking to learn from someone and soak up the CE idea, she would be a great start. Actually, she’s in Sheboygan Falls, WI - not too far from me.
She has a real nice blog: http://dhogue.edublogs.org/
