Mrs. Zana’s Class

Last Thursday my period 6/7 class was visited by a reporter from the L.A. Times. He was VERY impressed with the lesson (see the Shake it Up video post and comments to see what we were doing). Today, there was a very positive article in the newspaper about our school and our class. Thanks also goes to my period 2/3 class, who did such a great job that Mr. Dale thought the reporter should see the lesson. As for my period 4/5 class: sorry guys. You would have been terrific too. Instead, we got to enjoy sitting in hurricane winds together for 1/2 an hour. Here is the link to the article. It’s now on the reporter’s blog, which means people can comment about it. If you would like to add a comment, you need to have an adult do it for you, as they do not allow kids under 13 to write.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2007/04/if_wired_right_.html#comments

Click on the link to the Shake it Up video (on the right side of the blog under the heading “blogging”) and watch the video.
Download:Shake it Up - Powered by TeacherTube.com
With your group, answer these questions. Use complete sentences and number your answers. Do not recopy the questions.
1. According to the video, how is the YOUR world today different than the world 50 years ago? List what you think are the three most important ways.
2. According to the video, how does YOUR education need to be different?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the video? Is there a time when sitting in rows and quietly listening to the teacher can benefit you?
4. Is our classroom the type of classroom the video believes you should be learning in? Is it sometimes, but not always? Explain.
5. Now, look at another group’s answers and respond to them. Do you agree or disagree with what they have to say?

I’d like to hear from as many of you as possible. How has this blog affected your learning? Is it a help? Do your parents use it to find out what’s happening? Is it fun? Does it give you a stronger connection to your classmates, your teacher, your school? Do you read the blog from home, but not write on it? If so, why don’t you write? Do you have Internet, but not go to the blog? If so, why? Any suggestions for improving the blog?

What about the wiki? Do you read other people’s journals? Is that helpful/fun/interesting? Is the wiki too hard to use? Does the wiki not work on your home computer?

You don’t have to answer all the questions, or answer them in order. They are just suggestions for the kind of information I’m interested in. Please answer in complete sentences, or I won’t have any idea what you mean.

Welcome to 6th grade SAS. We will be using this blog all year to write and read. How have the first 3 days of school been for you? What’s gone really well? Was there anything you were worried about that didn’t happen? Any concerns you still have? Please use your first name and last initial only.

Today is the 9th day of our summer tech training. What was the most useful for you? Most frustrating? What will you use in your class in September? Any other thoughts?

I’m not a technophobe!

Tonight I finally corrected an assignment that was posted on the blog. I don’t know why I delayed; it was so simple to toggle back and forth between the blog and my electronic gradebook. Much easier than lugging home 70 notebooks, having to find the right page, and trying to read everyone’s handwriting.

I’ve noticed that the chatting has stopped. Have they found another site, somewhere that I can’t access?? My original intent was not to comment on the chat post, but I kept getting asked questions.

I think kids are reading stuff or using the blog to access information without posting comments. Anyone agree or disagree?

There’s so much content here by now that you have to search for some stuff. At the beginning I didn’t realize that would happen. There’s a way to let them be notified if someone posts a comment; we should figure that out. I would also like to know how to add comments to pages, not just posts.

You can read this comic at the website listed under useful sites.

The blog has become a part of our class by now, no longer a novelty.

We completed the poetry analysis project all on the blog (students analyzed song lyrics from songs they suggested and I selected). I was able to critique their responses in real time or from home, but sometimes it got to be overwhelming; too many comments and not enough time. I liked that all the groups could see the work of other groups on the same song or other songs.

I’m noticing that if something is on the blog I have less of a tendency to quickly grade it. Unlike a pile of papers, I can’t see it growing and getting out of hand; it’s nicely hidden away in cyber land.

Mr. Kashman has started a blog. Like our teaching, it is a separate “room”, but the same cast of characters. It is his blog, so it has a different feel to it. Two real communities, collaborating.

I’m getting frustrated with the chronological order of postings on the blog. Things disappear as they get old. Like last month’s lessons, the posts float off into the archives. I didn’t realize when I started this how things get buried. And by this point, there’s so much content that no one is going to look at the old stuff.