Digital Writing Practicum 2008/09

    My students and have almost completed a year together.  The year started off rough with a new teacher who had no clue that she was to co-teach with a special educator!  I was almost immediately asked to leave "her" classroom. 

    Well the year progressed, the students and I did some writing in class when we were able, the administrators talked about legalities and we wrote using paper and pencil.  They wrote and grumbled and wrote some more!

    November came along and I was back in the classroom, the teacher fell ill and the students and I were on our own.  We worked on the computer, but then there were glitches galore.  Fire walls and more firewalls, slowed things to a crawl.

I have a sneaky feeling Geoff was referring to me when he said "Some of you have done a lot in the classroom, but have not written much."  Now, here it is, the morning of our final get together and I'm short on time to read all your blogs (but I will...soon!).

Yes, I am behind.  The good news is I have tried a lot of new things with my students this year, thanks to this practicum.  I feel like I have dipped my toes into the field of blogging, podcasting, newsfeeds and some of the ways to enhance writing using technology.  I have a way to go to be comfortable with this, but feel good about what I and my students have done. 

Since my last entry, my students have done a few activities.  They have:

         As the closure to the Greek mythology unit I have been teaching, my students will be writing a personal narrative or memoir piece. The Greeks had their heroes and we each have "heroes" or significant people in our lives. They will be telling the story or stories of one of these people, and reflecting on why this person is important to them.

   My plans for collaborative writing piece came when I learned that the 5th grade classes were involved in a joint project. The 5th grade classes and several classes from Mississsiquoi High School visited the State Capitol to support the passage of Nick's Law. Over a year ago a young Swanton man, a graduate of Swanton Elementary and MVU, was killed on I-89. This accident involved a DUI situation. Each student in the 5th grade had written and mailed a letter to a state legislator in support of an upcoming bill. On April 28th the students all wearing blue t-shirts labeled with NICK arrived at the legislative session. This was both an emotional and powerful experience for 5th grade students.

I am a podcast failure.  It would not have been possible for me to teach my students how to do this.  I figured out, fairly easily, with the assistance of the tech coordinator, how to create a podcast in Garage Band.  Changing it to MP3 format was another issue altogether.  I actually had to load new versions of things onto my computer and it ws so terriby convoluted and took so many days to complete as a process, I am not sure I'll be able to go back and do it again.  I tried to use a digital recorder to create my own podcast but had technical difficulties with that too.  Trying to figure out how to get 60 students to be able to do a podcast with limited technology and on what was a bit overwhelming.  I considered trying to get one student to play aro

 (Note from Geoff: I posted one these examples here but forgot to link to them. My apologies. I just posted the second example)

Examples:

http://digitalteachers.net/node/210

http://digitalteachers.net/node/211

I have done many book groups in the past within my Language Arts classes. I have to admit, I have never really felt like they were successful.  I have felt as though the class time used in small groups to discuss the books was not being used as it should; students took advantage of the time to discuss the weekend events, rather than the book. As I can't sit with every group at the same time, students have thought of this of the opportunity to chat about things other than the readings; therfore, finding insight in the books they read through discussion rarely occurs.  With much trepidation and a little prodding and guidance from a colleague, I just completed book groups that provided hope. 

      During the past few weeks, I have been working on learning to podcast with my students. I have never done this before, so I have been learning as much as the students. The technology teacher in my school, Jack Adams, has been helping me with this activity, and I am very grateful for his help.

      To prepare the students to begin writing their own podcasts, Jack choose two podcasts. He keyed in "Youth Radio" on Google, and found one called "Energy Brat" and one called "To Sag or not to Sag". We played these for the students, as many of them had no idea what a podcast was. (seventh graders)