So many thoughts...
While looking through the blogs of the Russell Street School, a few questions and thoughts came to mind. First I think it is phenomenal that all the teachers have a blog and seem to update them fairly regularly. I wondered what was the work behind the scenes to set the stage for this level of participation? Who is the admin team that is so committed to asking/requiring this lift from their teachers? I wonder if all classroom teachers were onboard due to a conference, a training or a personal mindset they already had when they were hired. I wonder if this is shared at potential new teacher interviews and thoughts and mindset are gauged then - when they are seeking to bring new staff onto the school team.
This does not seem easy to get the whole school blogging. And more importantly, I would imagine a lot of work went into presenting this idea in a way that didn't feel like another requirement of the teachers, but rather something they believed in doing. And then the big question, what sort of training did the school use for their staff?
Logistics & Impact
Of course, there are ways you would want to see the blogs be used differently. I wondered how long the school has been using the blogging model. Increased student contribution seems to be something teachers are using the SeeSaw blog for now. I noticed quite a few blogs that have the SeeSaw e-portfolio pulled into the blog as the home page or separate tab. This is where I noticed the most student talk or contribution through photos of writing or videos in the Educreation/ShowMe style. And when parents commented, I noticed it was through SeeSaw and not the blog posts themselves.
Student Thoughts
Again, I think getting a school site to this level is amazing. For this many classes to be trying their hand at blogging is commendable. I have lots of questions, however, they are in a great place to motivate student learning!
I would love to conduct a survey to see how these teachers and students feel about the use of blogs too! As a teacher, I know the final product may look awesome, but the reality is there was probably many changes, requirements and build-up to what we now see on their blogs. As we know the in classroom, something truly effective and amazing doesn't always start out as such!
ReplyDeleteI was also curious about if they require their staff to do this. Do they make sure they have time in the day to accomplish these things? I fear in our country it will become yet something else we must do on our own time. There is so much of that now.
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