We're learning...

Today went much smoother than Tuesday. I went to the computer lab early and logged all of the computers in so the students didn't have to waste time waiting for the computers to load up. Everyone had plenty of time to post a comment and read what other classmates wrote as well. Most of the students have said they enjoy typing their response to the writing prompt as opposed to hand writing it. One thing I will revise for next Tuesday is to have the students sign in to blogger first and then go to the class blog. Today, I had the students go straight to the blog and try and post a comment and then blogger was asking them to choose a profile. Then we had to copy their comment, go to blogger, sign in and then access the class blog and paste thei comment..it got very confusing.

A: What I thought you taught about nouns and adjectives.

A: What I thought you taught about nouns and adjectives. Expectations: 8-9 sentences with two examples of nouns and two examples of adjectives in your writing.

Some observations and lessons

It seems like it's been awhile since the class has interacted on the blog due to spring break. One thing I wish I would have done with the students when they were creating their blogger accounts was to ask the students to write down their user name and passwords. I would have kept this master list. (I did keep a list of the students' names and their display names). We learned quickly that the students did not remember their passwords and they can only have their password emailed to them. Unfortunately, we don't have access to yahoo, gmail, or hotmail here at school. Thus, the students who could not remember their password could not participate in the blog today. Another feature which I changed on the blog format was the word verification to post a comment. The students were having difficulty recognizing the words and typing the letters correctly. They were getting frustrated and overally I felt that this was hindering the students from typing the writing prompt. It's as if the goal of the research project was being lost because the students were spending so much time with the word verificiation. One of my frustrations with blogger is that it asks for a display name, but to log in the user must put in their email address which is often different than the display name. Again, this is confusing for the students that I am working with.

E: noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb

E: noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb teacher expectation: 7-8 sentences Circle the word that is different than the other three. Write 3-4 sentences explaining how that word is different than the other three. Then, write 3-4 sentences explaining how the other three are alike.

Writing Prompt Type C 7-8 sentences

Which would you rather do, go to the army or be a teacher?

First day of actual research

Today, I had the students turn in signed consent letters. They also filled out a survey with responses to their feelings about journal writing or blog writing depending on what class they are in (1st period will respond through pen and paper journals and 2nd period will respond through this blog). In an effort to give the students background information on the 1st writing prompt, we discussed historical events that were happening in the 1960s when John Kennedy was president. We then talked about events happening in our country currently. I played a segment of Kennedy's inaugural address and a clip of President Obama's inaugural address. The students had to write about how the speeches were similar and what feelings both the speeches stirred up within them. Overall, I thought the assignment went very well. Some of Mrs. Green's 1st period students even read what they wrote. They brought up points that I had not thought of or discussed. The classroom writing teacher informed me that their writing has improved so much over the course of the year.

All about blogs

I am begining my research with Mrs. Green's 1st and 2nd period classes. On Thursday, we will have our students create an account and begin typing their response to writing prompts. They may also post comments on other students writing entries, but all comments must be approved by Mrs. Johnson before they will be published to the blog. Let me know if you have any questions.