Using Rubrics to Assess Student Blogs

Every time I talk about blogging with students, I am inevitably asked about the assessment process. I understand that some educators are wary of "grading" this new(er) medium for student writing, but I think that blogs are actually much easier to assess and to offer feedback on than are some other forms of traditional assessment.

First, most blogs have a comment section. I often leave comments for students in this space. I find that students are excited to see that I've commented (because I don't always do it) and I have found that they often will correct whatever I've suggested in a timely fashion.  Typing, for me, is easier and quicker than writing by hand. Students cannot lose their blog post, but they sure can lose a piece of paper that I've commented on!

Over the past three years, I have been working to develop rubrics to use with student blog posts. I have narrowed down my general criteria to the following six:

Evidence of Critical Thinking: Thoughtful observations, connections between readings and the larger world and/or your life, and growth in your thoughts/ observations from the beginning of the year.

Evidence of Critical Reading: Evidence of thorough readings, comprehension of reading materials, insightful reflections, and connections between readings materials.

Evidence of Creative Thinking: Inclusion of photographs, music, videos, or other media that enhances the presentation of the post; original ideas presented in readings are extended in a creative manner.

Evidence of the Ability to Write Clearly and Effectively: Grammar, spelling, capitalization errors do not interfere with audience understanding. The structure of your blog posts allows for understanding and is easy to follow.

Evidence of Awareness of Diverse Audience: Opinions, justifications, rationalizations, and summaries are written in a way that allows a diverse audience to understand your intent. Writings are not offensive, but engage audience members in your ideas and opinions in a creative manner.

Community of Practice: Wherever necessary, credit has been given to original source for photos and ideas. This is done through embedded hyperlinks.

Why these six? There are some specific challenges and opportunities that are presented in blogging. The challenge is that students cannot write a whole lot of text, because no audience wants to read on and on when they're reading on a computer. Blog posts need to be a lot more concise and quick. There are no five to ten page literary analysis papers on my students' blogs. This does not mean that we do not do this type of writing; it is just not appropriate for a blog format.

Another challenge that actually helps to build students' skills as writers is the unknown audience factor. A student who writes a post as if the audience is comprised only of me and his or her classmates has not prepared an unknown audience to be able to comprehend the meaning or significance of the post. This fact helps to create better student writers.

Something that blogging allows for that the traditional pen and paper routine does not is the ability to add-in images, videos, and songs. There are several students in my classes who do not think in a linear, linguistic fashion. Allowing students to add-in other types of media has helped those students who are not always able to completely express their thoughts through the use of language. I have absolutely found this feature to be invaluable in the blogging process.

Students are required to contribute to the blogging world with their thoughts, but also with their links. Just as plagiarism is not okay on a research paper, the same is true in a blog post. The more that students link to the outside blogosphere and web pages, the more that their writing will be picked up on google. This is just good practice for social responsibility. 

Finally, I wish that you could see students' faces when they look at their counters (cluster maps and flag counters). These counters allow students to see that their writing is being read by a huge, global audience. Once in a while, students will get a comment, but usually viewers will leave comments on my blog. Students love and cherish these comments; they are proof that the world cares about their thoughts and opinions.

I hope that this criteria helpful. I welcome feedback and suggestions for other items that I may have overlooked.

Using Google Surveys to Gather Information

At the end of every quarter and at the beginning and end of every school year, I have distributed and collected surveys to my students. Often, these surveys helped me to better my instruction, plan for the variety of learners I have in my midst, and reflect on my teaching.

I have loved using surveys, but gathering hard copy surveys can be cumbersome. Plus, some students are not great writers and will choose to not write out a detailed answer because their fine motor skills are lacking or they just don't want to fill out another worksheet. Because of this obstacle, I decided at the beginning of this school year to offer all of my surveys online using google docs.

And what a difference it has made! I can store all of the results of my surveys in my google account, offer the same survey to multiple classes (or create class-specific surveys), create nifty graphs with the flick of my fingers, and project results onto my whiteboard using my LCD projector. This has become a tool for my reflective purposes and for students to reflect.

So far, I have asked all sorts of questions. Google docs offers many different types of questions, including: short text, long text, multiple choice, more than one choice (check boxes), ranking on a scale, and graphing. There are so many options that you can make your survey as complicated or simple as you choose.

Best of all, students have reported that they love the opportunity to offer feedback to me and to think about their learning. By offering surveys, I have allowed them to be active participants in their learning. When I make an instructional or planning decision based on their suggestions or feedback, I let them know. This way, they can see their feedback in action and they feel as if I've listened to them.

This is a simple, effective way to gather data from your students. You can use the same survey more than once. Results can easily be shared with students and colleagues. Also, you can compare answers from different sections of the same course or different age groups or particular students overt time. I have not run into any difficulties with this program and recommend it without any reservations.

Here are some screenshots of surveys I have used this year:

No More Ning: What Does this Mean For Your Class?

Lately, the biggest buzz on the education front has been all about the announcement from the Ning people that they're cutting back on their free services and will start to charge money for those who have Nings. Almost immediately, I freaked out. Why? Well, I don't personally have a Ning that I use with students, but I do belong to about a dozen Nings and use them frequently. And, I don't know what I would do without the English Companion or Making Curriculum Pop Nings.

Luckily, I don't think that either of these sites are going to shut down. Jim Burke, founder of the ECN has already stated as such. I've not heard anything from Ryan Goble, founder of the MCP Ning, but I'm sure that he'll figure something out soon. How can a network thousands of educators simply fade away? I think that we're too used to this collaboration 2.0 to give it up too easily.

But, what does this mean for classroom teachers? Those of you who've worked hard to develop dynamic, student-friendly Ning spaces? I don't know. I've heard that educators may be exempt from paying for Ning services, but that's just rumor and has no foundation in the statement put out by the Ning people. Already, other blogs and sites I follow have put together lists of free sites where teachers can set up new digs.However, I feel like I might feel pretty defeated if I has to start over after blogging for three school years. That's a lot of work.

Maybe the only realistic option if you're totally in love with your Ning setup is to pay. In his email to ECN members explaining the Ning situation, Jim Burke told us that it only costs $24.95 per year to keep his Ning going. And, I can't imagine that it'd cost more if you used it with students. Maybe this just needs to become another of costs (in a huge list, I know) of operating a dynamic, creative, and collaborative online space for your students.

What does have me worried is this question: Are other sites going to follow this path? Once we're used to paying for Ning services, are wikis and blogs and other such technologies going to become pay-only? How will this affect our ability to collaborate and meet and discuss with others in a global sense? Is there a price worth paying to keep students in touch with others in their communities and around the world?

Lots and lots of questions. No answers. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

A Fresh Approach To Book-Clubbing: Hitting Up Classics Ten Chapters at a Time

This February, I found that I was traveling up to two or three hours a day for a couple of weeks in a row. Sick of music, tired of hearing the same NPR stories recycled, I had an idea: I should listen to audiobooks. I don't know why I am not swimming in audiobooks, because I absolutely love them. Honestly, I never ever think to buy or download them. Or, I should say that I never thought to do this. I now have a huge pile just waiting to be heard.

One audiobook that I started (I am on chapter thirty-one and have not yet finished listening) was Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I've never actually read this book, but after listening I absolutely want to. I don't know what I actually thought this book would be like, but I know that I didn't think that it would be as engaging and funny as it is. I am glad that I thought to download it off of LibriVox.

(But this is not the purpose of this post. It's just somewhat related. Here is what I really want to say!)

In my email inbox, I received an update about a blog I follow on the NPR site. It's called Monkey See. The authors of this blog, Linda Holmes and Marc Hirsch, are hosting an online book club called the "I Will If You Will Book Club". In this club, readers are given a time frame to read a short bit of a literary classic. This month's assignment: The first ten chapters of Moby Dick. The book club does not meet in person. They meet online and used CoverItLive to discuss the chapters they had read beforehand.

I did not have an opportunity to discuss this book with the others in this "club" online, but I did get to read their discussion and comments afterward. From what I read, this was a success. Everyone who participated seemed to think that they had discovered a classic text that they might have never read and were enjoying it. That's success.

So, what are the implications of this style of book club for classroom teaching and collaborative learning. It seems like students could easily use the same type of technology implemented in this club in the classroom setting. Or, maybe not in class but outside of class to collaborate on projects. Or to talk about a reading selection.

If this one blog project can get a bunch of people to read Moby Dick and this reading makes these people want to meet up online in the middle of the day, maybe there are some lessons to be learned about what motivates readers. Is it the actual process of reading or the idea that the reading/ insights/ information/ likes and dislikes are going to be shared with others? Given the fact that I belong to four book clubs, I'm guessing it's the later.

I can't wait to see what other books this club reads and follow the conversation. Feel free join in if you're interesting in having a little puch to read a classic text!

Giveaway: Facebook Fairytales by Emily Liebert

I follow lots and lots of blogs, but one that I read regularly is hosting a giveaway. The blog is Pop Culture Junkie and the giveaway is for a book called Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit. I am a huge proponent of social networking within and outside of the classroom. I feel that my job as an English teacher is to prepare my students for the types and modes of writing that they'll encounter in their lives. Facebook is definitely one of the major sites for networking and writing.

I had planned to use facebook in my teaching this year, but it was blocked pretty soon after students received their laptops. Apparently, students misused this site so badly that there was no way to keep it open. I hope that we can try to unblock facebook next year and set expectations for proper use. And, I might just win this book and get some great teaching ideas!

Tweet Your Life in Eight Words

Teachers everywhere are honing in on the six word memoirs craze. I've written about my intentions to have my seniors include a six-word memoir in their "Senioritis" projects. The only problem with this fun, fresh assignment is that it will cease to be fun and exciting once students have all done it with all of their teachers. It's like the wordle craze that hit a couple of years ago. One teacher in our district sent out an email about the site and almost every teacher in my building had used it by the end of the week.

So, how's about a newer, fresher idea? While searching around Simon & Schuster's site, I found a section called MyLifeIn8Words. This section is linked to Twitter, and (as I'm writing this post) almost 200 twitterers are following this thread. Like the six-word memoir craze, this is not just for teens. Several tweets that I read where definitely written by adults. What I like about this collection is that there is instant collaboration through the twitter platform. Viewers and tweeters alike can instantly see others' tweets. So, it creates a bank of posts that will be added to for as long as this topic is a cool one.

What I'd like to see is a more daily, meditative sort of variation on this theme. Like, 7WordsWeekly. Hm. Maybe I'm on to something with that one. I like it because a memoir or a "My Life" in so many words seems like it needs to be super profound or telling. It also feels like you can't write a lot of memoirs. I'd like my students to develop a sort of picture of their life over the course of weeks and months. I can just imagine the variety of tweets they'd have! And the plethora of themes and moods. I like this better because it builds understanding of life and I can imagine using their collected tweets in a variety of ways. I guess that I'll just have to try this and get back to you!

Here are some of my favorites from a small section of tweets:

Go Paperless For Earth Day!

I am a huge proponent of the paperless movement. Gone are the days (hopefully) where I assign a worksheet or poster that will be handed in or hung up for about a week and then put in the trash or recycling bin. There are so many wonderful technologies where students can work creatively and keep their work forever--Not in their bedroom closet or on a refrigerator, but online on their blogs or wikis or another platform of their choosing.

As Earth Day approaches, it's great to hear that other teachers are making the commitment to go paperless, even if it's only for one day. There is so much waste in our profession; let's try and set an example for our students about using paper responsibly.

On Earth Day (April 22), please join myself, my students, and more than one hundred other educators around the country in going paperless. Take the pledge on googledocs and check back to see all of the awesome paperless creations my students make this Earth Day!

A Whole New Breed: Teaching Millennials

In my short (seven year) career as an English teacher, I have already seen a huge shift in students' use of technology. When I first started teaching in 2003, most students did not have cell phones, our school did not have much access to laptops, and social networking was not the everyday word it has become. Certainly, students were engaged in gaming and most had myspace accounts, but they were not as connected on a daily basis as they are now.

Rather than complain about these changes, I am extremely interested in looking at ways to observe how students' learning and attitudes change as a result of increase exposure to technology. I tend to think of this technological revolution as akin to other revolutions in culture in the past. These changes are uncomfortable for some and definitely help to divide the generations. Certainly this same sort of divide occurred during the 1920's and the 1960's. The difference, as I see it, is that technology is not separate from education, like the "flapper" movement or anti-war protests. Technology, in all of its forms, is here to stay and cannot be left at the classroom door.

Over the past few years, I taken a realistic inventory of the technologies I use on a regular basis. I want to know what I use so that I can incorporate technology into my teaching. If I need to know how to use a particular technology in my life, students may need it in theirs for a college or work experience. I use email, word processing, blogging, nings, wii, texting, itouch, youtube, RSS feeds, screenshots, and my camera phone every week. When I'm thinking of a lesson plan, I sometimes think about a technology that could be used in a real way to better the educational experience for students. If students are not taught to use technology, they may be left behind in those skills that they will need in college or in the workplace.

Wondering where you fit in the millennial landscape? Take the quiz: How Millennial Are You?

So, what does it mean to be a member of the Millennial Generation? According to the Pew Research Center, it means that you're going to be far more liberal, less religious, more open to change, and more connected than the preceding generations. Also, the researchers at Pew have found that the Millennial Generation is going to be the most educated generation ever. What are the implications of this for teachers who are not of the this same generation? To me, this says that I don't have the right to sit back on my Generation X laurels and allow all of this learning about and application of technology pass me by. Because, just as the latest and greatest technology will be passé in a few months, so could your lesson plans!

Read the Study: The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.

1:1 Computing: Not An Automatic Fix

This year, the school where I work was lucky enough to go one-to-one, as in every student has his or her own laptop. I have been wishing and waiting for this to happen ever since I started teaching. In the state of Maine, all middle school students have laptops and then when most students reach high school, their laptops stay behind in the middle school and students use laptops on carts or computers in labs.

To me, it has always seemed imperative that high school students have regular access to technology. After all, they will be entering the work force of the world of post-secondary education where they will need to have a working knowledge of how to use applications and programs effectively. Now, our students will have their own laptop every day, so their knowledge of and ability to adapt technology to their needs will be in place.

But, this is only if teachers use technology in their classrooms. A recent article from eSchool News reminds us that teachers still plan lessons, still manage their students, and still create learning environments that can either encourage or discourage the use of technology. It seems that in the hype of getting a one-to-one program up and running in a school, professional development and data concerning the use of computers can go by the wayside. Obviously, there has been such huge growth in technology over the past twenty or thirty years and not every teacher is comfortable, willing, or able to integrate technology effectively in their teaching. Or, some teachers assume that just because computers are being used means that they are doing what's "right" for students. A computer is just a tool, though. If it's not being used for a purpose, it's just a fancier (and more expensive) version of a pencil or poster paper.

Every time I decide to use technology in my planning, I still go through the motions to think about these basic questions:

-What should students know or know how to do after this lesson?

-What other tools could I use to produce the same learning experience?

-How am I going to know if students are successful in their learning?

-Should I collect feedback about the technology used in this process?

One of the most important questions on this list has been the "what other tools can I use" because there are inevitable glitches in connectivity, power, server maintenance, students forgetting to bring their laptops, sites/ applications not working as planned. In short, there needs to be a back-up plan for any lesson involving computers. Also important has been collecting student feedback about the applications, sites, and methods used. I have offered up two lengthy online surveys to my students this year to better understand where they are in their technological journey. Not all students are experienced and fluent users of technology and not all students love technology. It's important to hear all comments and suggestions to better inform teaching practices.

Finally, I'd just like to put out there that keeping abreast of technology and all of the new sites and apps and tools and ideas is a lot of work. I spend hours and hours every week, every day checking out leads to enhance my understanding of technology. Of course, I love technology so this is not a painful practice, but it is time consuming. I think that there is a lack of understanding about the time and energy needed to stay tuned-in to the tech world. Teachers and students can easily become overwhelmed and turned-off by the amount of new knowledge there is to be had. I would recommend a lot of reflection about how much tech is manageable for you and your students and what you're willing to try in your classroom. Boundaries are necessary when it comes to tech integration.

KWL 2.0

I love to use literacy strategies that allow for both individual and collaborative thought. I've used the KWL strategy to help my sophomore students gather and display information that they've learned about William Shakespeare and life in Elizabethan/ Jacobean England in the past. This was a creative, visually powerful method of showing those who enter our classroom what we've learned, but this year I wanted to be able to show this learning to the world. How? Well, I went through a bunch of ideas before I remembered the pre-made concept sort file that I'd saved last year. I took this basic file (created in pages) and used it for a KWL. I projected the sort on my screen and voila! We had an instant, live, collaborative KWL to use in the classroom. Here is the blank template:


I first asked the entire group of sophomores to think for a silent thirty seconds or so about what they remembered from last year's Shakespeare webquest. As you can see, they didn't retain a whole lot of information. Most students were able to come up with at least one fact about Shakespeare, even if it was simply the title of one of his plays. After this group knowledge collecting/ refresher, students were given another silent thirty seconds or so to think of the questions that they'd like to have answered about Shakespeare. They came up with some awesome questions. Then, students chose partners and worked in pairs to find answers to the questions they'd asked. They also looked for random, interesting facts about Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan/ Jacobean England. I had emailed each student a blank template so that they could fill-in their findings and send it back to me. As I received their emails, I took their information and copied it into the "learned" column. (I decided to type rather than use the tiles because there were so many facts.) Here is the end result of our efforts:

This is now a document that we can add to, reuse, refer back to, and keep for our next Shakespearean experience. As much as I loved using and looking at the huge bull's eye bulletin board of the previous KWL chart, this one is much more functional and it's way easier to read. I plan to use this strategy again!

Wallwisher: Interactive Communication

Looking for a way for students to share their thoughts or reflections without having another in-class discussion? I know that it can be hard to create a quiet environment for those students who need peace and quiet to build their thoughts before they share. Similarly, students who blurt out their answers to questions can sometimes benefit from a little quiet and space to develop their thoughts before they share. These same students also sometimes need a restriction on how long they can ramble before getting to their point.

If you're interested in finding a space where students can post their thoughts and ideas and collaborate in a more orderly, peaceful manner, wallwisher might be the platform you need. I've used it twice in two of my classes for completely different purposes and have met with success each time. Here are links to two ways that I've used wallwisher with freshmen and junior students:

Think-Tech-Share with Freshmen (5 Paragraph Essay pre-writing exercise)

Webquest with Juniors (To lead into unit using Arthur Miller's The Crucible)

In both lessons, students used the wallwisher site to post short snippets of thought or their findings about a particular issue. After using this method with students, I found that their feedback and the information they and I received from the activities were beneficial. I love that students can post thoughts and images on this site. I also love that students can see/ read what others in the class have to say. Several of my quiet students have enjoyed not being interrupted in their thoughts, and the more outgoing students have had to condense their opinions to meet the 160 character limit. I have all kinds of ideas about how I'm going to use this site in the future!

My Daily Bread: Famous Poems & Quotations

Every work day, I follow a routine. I drive to work listening to National Public Radio (NPR), stop at a coffee shop, scoot over to school, open my email, and read a famous quote and a poem. Every day.

I cannot tell you how much I look forward to these regular features in my email inbox. I am often inspired with a lesson idea, a purpose for the day, or am either made to smile or get all goosebumpled by something profound that someone else has either said or written. I think that these daily doses of thought have also opened my line of vision to new poets, politicians, and literary figures that I've never read or heard about before. I regularly want to know more about the person behind the quote or poem and will research them further. I have found quite a few new favorite people and poems this way.

Here is the poem I found in my email inbox this morning:

"Snow Day"

Snowing outside,
and the boy in short pants
swings a broom.

He’s at bat
in his room
that’s a park

for the other boy
smaller and kneeling
waiting his turn

for the Sun,
maybe Spring,
whichever comes first.

by Donal Mahoney

I found this poem to be absolutely beautiful in its simplicity and in its powerful imagery. I love poems like this, but doubt that I would've ever stumbled across it, as I'd never heard of the author before and very rarely seek out poems about snow. I conducted some quick research about Donal Mahoney and found out that he is the son of Irish Immigrants and has tons of poems available online.

Here's the quotation I received in my email inbox this morning:

"Inaction saps the vigor of the mind." ~~ Leonardo da Vinci

Not one of my favorites, but it definitely inspired me to get up and start working! Sometimes I save these emails (I have a special folder for both poetry and quotations) and sometimes I delete them. I often refer back to these emails when I'm looking for inspiration or a new author. Either way, I love getting up and driving to work in the morning, anticipating the poetry and words of wisdom that await me in my email inbox!

To subscribe to Daily Poetry, simply visit this site and enter your email address. It is just as easy to receive a famous education-related quote in your email every day. Just follow this link.

Critical Thinking Tool

This past week, I spent some time searching for a web tool to use for a final project for a graduate course I'm taking. I had this big vision of creating a mosaic of pictures to fit this fairly complicated intersecting circle design that is the crux of the text I read as part of this class. I used google to search for picture mosaic programs, but was not able to find anything. Then, almost by accident, I can across a site called UMapper on a blog that I follow. As it turns out, this is an awesome site and everyone should be thinking about whether or not it is something that can be used in the classroom setting.

I have not yet finished my project for the grad class, but you can view this work in progress if you'd like. I plan to add-in some text to explain the pictures and the intersecting circles. I'm also going to try to add some music to this. I can't wait to experiment with it. I've also been thinking of ways to incorporate it into my teaching. So far, I've thought of several character and vocabulary mapping ideas. I think that there are multiple ways that this technology could be used in a wide array of content areas.

More importantly, this tool is an easy way to escalate the critical thinking levels in your classroom. The conceptual framework developed by students and the huge amounts of choice in design and delivery will ensure that students are using higher level thinking skills. I look forward to playing with this more and thinking about ways that I could use this in my classroom. Please let me know if you think of anything interesting or if you try this out in your classroom.

K12 Online Conference 2009

The theme of this year's K12 Online Conference is "Bridging the Divide". I can't think of a better title to capture the fact that there exists a huge divide in access to and information about how to effectively use technology in the 21st century classroom. As part of this free and user-friendly conference, you can listen to and participate in a huge variety of topics. Some topics are more content specific, but others are more about education in general.

This conference runs for two weeks in December (the 7th-11th and the 14th-17th), but don't fret if you miss any of the sessions. You can listen to any of the sessions after they're completed. In fact, you can also listen to sessions from previous years from the K12 Online website.


Please find the teaser video for session about Digital Writer's Workshop with Jackie Gerstein at the top of this post.

The Largest Professional Development Community Ever!

For about nine months, I've belonged to an online community of English teachers called the English Companion Ning. On this ning, you can choose from a wide variety of groups that are labeled according to the theme or subject that is talked about on the group's page. I belong to a wide variety of groups, from Shakespeare to creative writing to blogging teachers. I've even started my own group, which is a book club focused on Young Adult Literature.

This has been one of the best collaborative experiences I've ever had as an educator. I've engaged in a variety of conversations, shared ideas, shared documents, and met new educator colleagues from across the country as a result of joining this community. There's an awesome book club where the authors of each month's selection actually participate in the online conversations. It's amazing and I can't say enough about it!

This ning turns one today. It was created on December 5th, 2008. If you're interested in joining, all you need to do is create an account right from the main page. You can participate as little or as often as you like and it's absolutely free! A great deal no matter how you look at it. As author/ teacher/ creator of this extraordinary site, Jim Burke, would say, "See you on the ning"!

Book Review: Redefining Literacy 2.0

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the first part of David Warlick's Redefining Literacy 2.0. I felt like it was moving a little slowly, and explaining too much about technology. Just as I was about to lose interest, though, I found his last three or four chapters. Now, I feel like a fanatic about this book.

In this text, there are so many great statements, ideas, and links that I have basically saturated the last half of it with highlighter ink. I love the format of the book throughout. It's simple, easy to read, and Warlick provides a little boxed-off area at the bottom of pages where he's talked about links to give a little recap of those links in list form. The text is clean and straightforward, which adds to its usability.

More importantly, Warlick's philosophy about the necessity of combining/ implementing literacy and technology education in our classrooms is direct and it makes sense. He brings together current research and marries that knowledge with great strategies and ideas for integrating technology to enhance students' literacy.

I also loved that at the end of each chapter, Warlick provides a list of implications for a variety of audiences. He has lists of steps and considerations that directors of technology, principals, media specialists, school tech facilitators, teachers, students, and parents should be thinking about and implementing in schools.

I highly recommend this text as a resource for any teacher, parent, or tech staff who is interested in thinking about where literacy is headed in the 21st century.

Multiple Profiles on Facebook

An interesting post on the Teach Paperless blog made me think about the way that teens create and recreate their identities when they use social networking sites like facebook. On Teach Paperless, there's a discussion going about teens and college students who establish more than one account so that they can create a public persona while also keeping other aspects of their lives private.

I feel like this is a huge step forward for teens and college students. The notion that you can keep the antics and enjoyments of your private life mixed with information about your career or education is a short-sighted one. I know that I am super careful about what I say and write on my facebook because I have such a wide variety of contacts as "friends". If I write an inside joke or allude to something that seems unsavory, who knows how it could be construed?

This is something I am definitely going to keep in mind for this fall. Once my students get their laptops (yay for 1:1), I am going to ask them to create new student accounts on facebook. This way, we can use some of the amazing features of facebook without the hassle of trying to keep our personal and private lives separate. That said, I still want to have some discussions with students about keeping all of their online writing and photos appropriate for potential employers and colleagues. We still have a long, long way to go before teens, college students, and even some adults understand that pictures of serious partying are not okay, ever.

Bloggers are Writers for Real

If there is anything that I learned from seeing the movie Julie and Julia, it is not how to make the perfect hollandaise sauce, but that blogging is powerful and that bloggers are authors.

Early on in the film, Julie is struggling with the fact that she never finished her novel and that she is not the writer she planned on becoming. She laments over and over that she never became a "real" author, until her ever-patient-in-the-face-of-whining husband suggests that she start a blog. Of course, this story starts in 2002, which is long before the term "blog" was recognized as an actual word. The notion that bloggers are writers was a new idea for Julie then, and it probably is for many, many Americans still.

Since I started blogging with and for students, I have heard several remarks that basically boil down to this: students are not learning to write for real any more and they are just playing online when you assign blogging projects. I would like to point out that I think students are writing more now than I ever did when I was in high school. I never went home and chatted with friends using a computer. I never corresponded with the public (or the entire globe) through any of the writings I completed in high school. When I turned in a piece of writing, the teacher was probably going to be the only person to ever see it. End of story.

Now, students have the ability and the want to communicate their ideas and findings with the outside world on a regular basis. Most are engaging in social networking daily. They have instant feedback and regular feedback on their thoughts and ideas when they update their status on facebook; shouldn't we give them the same opportunity for regular interaction and feedback from a global audience in our classrooms?

As for Julie of Julie and Julia, I think that we all know how that turned out. Blogging led to public interest, which led to interviews and a book deal. Now there's a movie and Julie is probably feeling very comfortable with the idea that she, a blogger extraordinaire, is actually a writer. For real.

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Further evidence of a writing revolution can be found in this article from Wired magazine.

Facebook as a Tool for Learning

When I first started using facebook, I was very literal about the word "friends" and had little understanding why all of these people who I barely knew would consider "adding" me as a "friend". Over time, and through some conversations with students, I started to understand that "friends" on facebook can be mere acquaintances and that the more "friends" you have, the more social connections you have.

At first, I did not accept students as "friends". I told students who had requested me that we could become "friends" once they graduated from high school. After a while, though, I started to see the benefits in adding my students to my circle of friends. Some students moved away and I lost touch with them, others dropped out and I had no way of contacting them. Once I started to accept friend requests from students, I was able to engage in meaningful, rich conversations through the messaging and chat features on facebook. I've had students who've clarified homework expectations using facebook as a mode of communication and I've had students who've conversed about characters and plot lines that I've not assigned for reading. In short, I had actual conversations about books with students that were not required or graded and that happened in students' free time. Isn't this something that should be encouraged?

This year, I'm going to find ways to utilize facebook in my teaching. I am not completely sure how I am going to do this and I am definitely accepting suggestions. I am finding this technology more and more exciting and less intimidating than before I started to use it on a regular basis. I feel like students will be more engaged in their learning if I use a mode of communication that is comfortable, accessible, and is something they already use on a daily basis.

Here are some of the facebook applications that I plan to use:

Notes: Notes could be very, very cool for classroom use. I love that students can tag one another and get responses to questions. I love that I could create discussion questions and tag students who can then answers questions and add to the discussion by tagging others.

Visual Bookshelf: I am excited by the possibility of students sharing their independent, or free reads with one another through their virtual bookshelves. I have a circle of friends who read and share reviews of books through this application. This could put a whole new, cool spin on the traditional "book talk" routine.

Photos: It can be challenging for students to share photos in class. I anticipate using photography more and more in my teaching, and I hope to utilize this facebook feature more in the future. I also love that we can tag photos for sharing. This way, discussions and group work could become much more efficient.

Here's a link to another list of ideas for integrating facebook applications into the school setting.

Interesting Article

I am tired of fighting with students about their use of cell phones during school hours. I used to feel slighted or offended when a student would pull out his or her cell during class, but then I started to look at my own habits as a graduate student.

Even during the most engaging discussions, I have my laptop open with my email and social networking sites up and running. I keep my cell phone next to me on vibrate. I have conducted several conversations via email or on a sort of IM platform with students and parents, all while listening and adding to the work going on around me. And, I am not alone when I do this. Does this make me a bad or disrespectful student? Does the quality of my work suffer? I feel like I am more focused because I am not wondering what's happening in all of the other arenas of my life. I am able to finish conversations and work that are abandoned when I leave school and head to the university. I feel like I am more content and focused because I am able to take care of my needs and participate in class.

I'm beginning to feel like we need to see cell phones as the tools that they are and use students' interest and adeptness with them to further engage them in our lessons. I am looking for ways add them into my teaching.

The article "Cell Phones Used to Deliver Course Content" provides some ideas about what's being done with cell phones at the college level.