What's Your Story? Blogging for Everyone - GROWN UP VERSION

Unfortunately, I don't know a song from The Sound of Music that talks about starting in the middle.

*if you have no idea what I'm talking about - check out the post immediately before this - and maybe give a little pity laugh cause I'm trying to be funny*

So let's just add in a different image of a Julie Andrews movie and move on...work?!

Also, clearly, if you know me...this makes sense.  

Ok, let's move on to the actual point of this blog post.  We've already talked about using blogging with your students.  But how many of you have ever considered using a blogging platform for yourself?  And no...posting a blog question for your students doesn't count.  But good try! 👍🏼

No, I'm talking about as a professional or even as person with interests, hobbies, and a life outside of school...having a place where you go and write.  Anyone...anyone? This kind of "What?! Are you crazy? shocked and confused" response is kind of what I'm expecting.  So let's take a step back. 

   

Think back to last week.  Was there a lesson or an activity that went REALLY well?!  The kind where all the kids were on point and the content was clearly being learned and understood?  The kind of lesson where you wish your admin had come in and done an observation on that lesson?  Did you tell your pod or your grade level?  Did you tell your significant other?  Did you tell your family?  What was it about that lesson that made it so fantastic, you could leave school that day saying "This teacher thing...#nailedit!"

Those of you that had that moment or multiple moments like that CONGRATULATIONS!  That's a fantastic feeling isn't it?!  There is so much constant growing and changing and learning in education, that it's really nice to have a feeling of "I know what I'm doing".  With all those people you may or may not have told...did you know there are other educators out there who would LOVE to hear your idea.  You're look at me, maybe even smiling, but in your head, some of you are saying, "There's nobody out there who would possibly want to hear what I have to say."  You're wrong.  I mean that in the nicest way...but you're wrong.  

I'm just going to leave that there for a minute.  

I want you to now think back over the week and remember where there any moments where you...well, where you failed?  Not miserably, not according to anyone's specific standards, but in comparison to what you would have liked to see.  Were you not prepared?  Did a lesson NOT go according to plan?  Did you wear two different shoes?  Did you forget where you put your keys?  Or anything else where you just felt like...whatever your word is.  My particular phrase is, "What is wrong with me?! <insert face palm>"  Now with that moment, did you share it?  Did you tell family or friends and laugh about it?  Did you reflect and try to figure out what you did wrong so you can adjust it for next time?  (Like putting navy shoes in a box labeled navy and the same with black shoes so you can clearly tell which is which in the dark when you're half asleep.  I won't say whether this has happened to me or not.  I'll let you come to your own conclusion.)  When you shared, did you feel better?  Did you get advice?  Did it help you to organize and come up with some solutions and/or adjustments?

For those of you that felt that way last week, or ever in your life, would you consider the fact that there are teachers, humans, around the world that would love to hear about new teachers and experienced teachers that are having the same trouble?  We so often stay in our circle within our school that we lose perspective.  And it's so nice to step outside that bubble and hear that everyone is in the same boat one way or another.  If you are saying, "There's nobody out there who would possibly want to hear what I have to say."  You're wrong also.  I mean that in the nicest way...but you're wrong.


Regardless of everything else, here's a little piece of advice for you.  If you are the person where it helps your brain and your heart to get everything out on paper, try blogging.  Write it down and do it for yourself.  Use it as a professional tool; write down ideas, reflect on your practice, note observations that you make about the educational world around you.  Do it for yourself.

Here's my secret...I blog because I always wanted to be an author as a child, this gives me that ability. I knew that I could write about my thoughts and share my ideas and honestly, I knew nobody would read it, so I was safe.  I was doing it for myself, so I knew that I would do it.  Like a pedicure...treat yourself.  But I needed to get words onto "paper" for my heart.  It was only recently, that I began "advertising" my posts.  I still don't have a ton of traffic, but I don't care, because I'm writing for me.  These posts are for me, because I wanted to use my blog as a platform to present.  That's MY idea.

So....what's YOUR idea?

Let's see if we can get you to post or at least start, your very first blog post today.  My platform of choice is Blogger obviously, but here are some links:

Blogger | Weebly | Edublog | Wordpress

Do you have an idea of something you'd like to write about?  If you don't have one off the top of your head, that's ok...here's a prompt:

What's ONE thing you've learned in the #CUENV conference

that you'd like to take back and use in your classroom next week?  

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cue-nevada-8488458164

I'm going to leave you with another tidbit (that's a fun word huh?) the folks that I share my blog with and that I read their blogs...they are regular teachers.  They aren't famous, even in teacher circles, they are parents, and new teachers, and singers by night, and fans of controlled chaos in the classroom, and avid readers, and turtle lovers.  They all have a story...just like you do, just like I do. And I learn from them and I feel confident because of them to share my story because of them.  And I'm going to post some of their blogs below...I recommend you take a look if you're needing some inspiration...or sometimes just a good laugh.

Laura Steinbrink: www.rockintheboat.wordpress.com

Amy Soupiset: www.soupin6th.blogspot.com

Melissa Chouinard-Jahant: www.iteacherimother.blogspot.com

Holly King: https://hollysking.wordpress.com

Tricia Reyes: http://learn2tri.blogspot.com/

Alana Stanton: http://morethanalessonst.blogspot.com

Shawn Ford: www.fearlesseducators.com

Krista Penrod: www.lovelearninglovelife.wordpress.com

and of course I'm going to encourage you to read mine: www.ebgtechtalk.blogspot.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on either of these posts, tweet me @ebgtech, or find me on Instagram @ebgtech.

Oh yes...and keep writing! 📓 ✏️ 📝 💻

What's Your Story? Blogging for Everyone - KIDS VERSION

Let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kendallkaos/2330888410

No, but really, today we will talk about blogging, for your students and for yourself.  Let's start with the students.  Let's talk about: 

• what are some platforms your students can use 
• why would you use it in the classroom with your students
• how can you use it with your students
• what are some ideas that you can take back and use on Monday...or Tuesday, we're flexible

PLATFORMS

screen shot from Edublog's website

Just like with everything else, blogging platforms are always changing.  Currently, Edublog has made student blogging completely free.  I will admit that when I taught in CCSD, Edublog was blocked but that may have changed.  It was also not free. Like I said before, things change and with technology, they change quickly.  It would be easy to find out if Edublog is blocked and it may be easy to get it unblocked. What I am seeing is a lot of options that make class blogging possible. You can have a "class", there are privacy settings to keep student blogs safe, and you have the ability to track student posts...to name a few.  

By Google (https://www.blogger.com/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

If you are using Google at your school, you can also turn on Blogger.  Each student has their own blog built into GSuite.  You don't have all of the control that you do with Edublog, but there are work arounds.  For example, each time a student posts, they could turn that into an assignment in Classroom or fill out a form with link.  That would make it easier for you to view their blogs, as opposed to spending time just searching.  With Blogger, I have heard tell that you can also limit the posts to viewable only on your domain.  So that's a nice little bonus.  

Kidblog is the blogging platform that I have used with my students for years.  Granted at the time I started (yup, that old) Kidblog was free.  Unfortunately, it is not free anymore.  Fortunately, (for me) my school pays for it.  Blogger has a lot of the fantastic features that Edublog has; moderation, publishing statistics, and privacy settings.  It also has some option to connect with Google.  With Kidblog, you have to make that judgement call if it's worth the money, is it worth the time to write a grant, etc.  For many of our teachers, it was worth it, so our school invested in it.  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/8478930729

The last option I have, but that doesn't mean there aren't other ones out there, is Weebly.  Weebly is a website where you can build your own website, for free.  One of the page styles that is available is a blog.  You can create a class webpage and include a blog or build it as ONLY a blog.  In order for Weebly to stay free, the one account would have to be under your name.  So you wouldn't be able to manage a class and their own individual blogs.  However, you could have individual students post daily.  It would just depend on how you want to approach blogging.  Which we will be talking about shortly!  WIN!

WHY WOULD YOU USE IT?

Blogging just like everything should not be "over done".  Right?  Everything in moderation. However, you want your student to practice writing skills.  You want your students to practice typing skills.  Blogging at its most basic function, are those 2 things combined.  

I have a friend who is super tech excited.  She teaches 2nd grade.  We've been in school 7 weeks (5 weeks when I'm writing this) and we just met and chatted briefly about Kidblog.  She was SO excited at the end of last year about the fact that her 2nd graders could get on and post a blog!  It was the best thing since sliced bread...well maybe not THAT exciting, but still pretty amazing.  She wanted her 2nd graders to get on right away this year.  As soon as possible.  However, when we chatted, she had decided to hold off.  Before I could even ask, she said that she wanted them to do a little more writing on paper first.  Essentially, they weren't ready to be online writers yet when they were still learning to be on paper writers.  Regardless of whether I agree or not, and I'm not telling, I cannot argue with her logic for her class.  

My point being, look at your class...does getting online and writing make sense for them?  Are they writing in interactive journals?  Are they writing on loose leaf paper (those used to be such magic words)?  Are they writing on handouts?  And what are they writing?  Are they writing letters?  Are they writing stories?  Are they writing answers?  Are they writing jokes? 

And my last question: who are they writing to?  We all know that students will typically meet a higher bar if they are working for an audience other than their typical audience.  It's just like with everything else.  If it's always for the teacher...it gets old.  With blogging, they have the opportunity to write for each other too.

And now my last why.  With blogging, because the audience is more than just the teacher, you have the opportunity to reinforce the formal writing expected in school, but you also have the opportunity to teach that more informal, but still correct (lol ur not gonna be bloggin' like this ru?), writing. Along with that informal writing to an audience of peers comes the ability to guide them through appropriate commenting, digital citizenship, peer editing, etc.  There are so many avenues that you could take to have the kids write for each other and analyze for each other as well.  

HOW CAN YOU USE IT?

Looking back at the Why Would You Use It...we covered a couple of How Can You Use Its.  But there's always more! 

Here are just a few random ideas.

• free writing - give those kids that don't love writing an outlet to write judgement free
• centers - put blogging in a writing or ELA center
• A Day in the Life Of... - have students write from the perspective of someone else, dig deep and explore emotions and ideas and reasons; think a day in the life of Rosa Parks...why wouldn't she move?  Did she intentionally want to be remembered?  Did she really want to start a movement at that moment?  Was it planned? etc.
• visual writing prompts - provide that controlled choice in what they write about 
• travel journal - Ashley has 4th graders blog through Ancient China; they learn about the dynasties and write as a time traveler learning about the culture, art, food, etc. 
• reviews - books, movies, restaurants, etc. provide opportunities to learn how to articulate specific positives as well as constructive criticism
• story - tell a story...or do a story chain (each person writes so much and then another picks up where the last one left off and repeat)
• recipes - learn how to write and follow a recipe
• scientific observations - write observations throughout a science experiment, start with a hypothesis and include the conclusion
• NOW YOU!  What ideas do you have that we can add to this post?

STARTING NEXT WEEK

We all know that you go to a conference like this and everything you like, you want to implement immediately.  But then (at least me) you get overwhelmed and you implement nothing.  Let's avoid that.  Everything 👆🏻 is great...but you're not going to do it all right away; ease yourself into it.  So let's talk if you don't have a blog for your class, can you get one?  If you can't get one for your class, get one for yourself.  

• post a blog and ask your students to post their replies as comments - it'll be a great intro and easy for you to keep track of student responses
• ask students to post an About Me post - tell the class 3 things that yourself; depending on their age you can ask for something that nobody else knows or add in a fun/interesting twist

GOOD LUCK!

Be Proactive

Well....I'm back at it.  Blogging?  Yes, but no not really.  Blogging for school?  Yes.  Yes, that is correct.  In fact, this part of this blog will not make it into my blog that is turned in.  I had to cross post for my own self.  For the part of me that needs to be on my blog.  The part of me that needs to write and just has found every excuse not to write.  The part that has said "lesson plans, keeping in touch with friends, homework, sleep, Vox, my pets, my family, my husband, supporting teachers, student council, Twitter, conference planning, our school TV station, sunshine committee, exploring Google, meetings, and so many other things (not in that specific order) need to come first".  Well, now I have to write.  So now I chose to write here.  I will copy and paste and add that tiny extra step. But somehow my soul has already breathed a sigh of relief.  No one will see this.  I will not blast this, I will not announce it, I will keep this to myself. But that's ok, because that's who I am doing it for.

And now...homework.

When I think of being proactive, I think of planning.  I think of being prepared for a variety of paths so that no matter what happens, I have a plan and will not react.  The phrase be proactive became a regular part of my vocabulary when I was working with some challenging students in a high risk school.  The focus of everything was to be proactive: be prepared.  Have behavior plans, have incentives, know the triggers, know their positives, look for signs of a bad day, start the day with good things, etc.  I was being proactive for my students.

Now, I need to look at being proactive for myself.  Am I proactive?  How can I be proactive?  How can I make it a habit of mine?

My natural personality is not one of "proactivity".  My natural personality is one of frustration and, I admit, I pout.  However, I also recognize that pouting and being frustrated and complaining doesn't get me any where or solve any problems.  The only thing it does, is become annoying OR become a breeding ground for negativity.  THAT is not my natural personality.

So how can I proactive?  I am going to take a look at how I approach school (both work and MA) at the moment.  Working on a MA while working full time alone is extremely overwhelming.  However, somehow, at school I have also managed to take on an incredible amount of extra curricular activities. It has gotten to the point where my attitude is becoming very poor.  I believe that this is the perfect opportunity for me to become more proactive.  I have already made it clear to my administration that I need help.  However, I need to be more proactive about seeking out the help I need.

I should accept any help that is offered instead of playing it cool, like I have everything under control. I should ask my colleagues if they can handle a task so that I can focus on a bigger priority.  I should take control over how I react.  I should be proactive.

This is a skill that I know I am capable of mastering.  It is something that I work very hard at typically.  However, now I recognize that in a time of stress, I need to be more purposeful at being proactive.

I will be teaching this skill to a group of teachers that I Vox with from all over the country.  We are all in a similar situation in that we are all teachers at the beginning of the school year.  We all love education.  We all work hard to make our classes a valuable and engaging experience for our students.  We are all experiencing significant causes for stress as the school year starts.  I believe that they would all benefit from hearing the words "Be Proactive".  It's a chance to put a word to what they already do, celebrate their successes of being proactive, and recognize when they are not...when we are all needing to change a negative habit and be more proactive.