Google Hangouts! Connecting Your Students to the World

Google Hangouts are a great way to connect your students to the world.  Recently, Mrs. Keene from Leonard Lawrence Elementary hung-out with a teacher from Raleigh, North Carolina.  The end goal is that these two classes will embark on a blogging buddy journey this year.  Each student will have a buddy who leaves comments and suggestions on each other’s writing pieces posted on their respective Kidblog.org sites.  

But first, they had to figure out where the other class lived and what grade they were in.  There are several roles involved in a good hangout.  Here are the roles we used to make the hangout successful:

• Greeters:  These people had a clever opening and welcome greeting for the other class.  
• A Videographer:  This person is in charge of capturing the video as the hangout is happening.
• A Photographer:  This person takes still shots to be used in a video once the hangout is over to showcase the hangout, (see below).
• Inquisitors: These students work in groups to come up with closed ended questions that help the mappers determine the location of the class in question.  For our Hangout we had three different inquisitor groups.
• Documenters:  These people work on a collaborative Google doc to take notes during the hangout to document questions and answers in case anything is questioned later on.
• The Mappers:  These students have maps in front of them.  Based on the answers to the questions being asked, they mark through areas that are eliminated.  
• Closers:  These students say a polite “thanks” and close out the hangout with follow up steps if necessary.  

I was impressed with their questions and they learned a little bit about time zones, different foods, and sporting events in both states.  Our goal was accomplished!  Not only did the students learn a bit more about their world and others in it, they had to use deductive reasoning to solve the puzzle.

And now the fun begins!  I can’t wait to see how their blogging buddy partnership is going to flourish and impact their motivation for high quality writing.  The whole thing took about an hour including prep time, and I think was worth it.  Check out the video below from their experience.  

Written by:  Jenny Krzystowczyk

@jennykbps

Blogging as a Tool for Revision- Rethinking Blogging for Kids

We love seeing our students publishing their writing to the world on Kidblog.org or Edublogs.org.  Teachers feel accomplished when their kids are excited about writing.  What’s more motivating than having new and interesting people read what you have written?  I am excited even now as I write this post imaging who will take the time to read what I have written.  I am even more intrigued by who will take the time to leave me a comment.  Blogging is motivating for students, its that simple.  

What if we used student blogging as a revision tool instead of just a publishing tool?  

Teaching students the power of revision can make a good writer great.  What if you did a few writing lessons where the goal was to publish three times for one piece instead of publish and move on?  What would that look like in a classroom?  

I think it would look like a version of Austin’s Butterfly, except in writing.  Imagine it… Partner your class up with another class to form peer editors between students for a few weeks. Set publishing dates loosely so students know when to look for their partner’s posts.  Next, teach your students how to leave positive and constructive comments.  You could focus your writing mini lessons around traits of writing so that students are looking for those elements as they read their partner’s posts.  Teach your students to always leave 2 positive remarks about the post and then add one helpful critique.  

This does two things, it keeps the comments positive and provides explicit ideas for how the piece could be better.  Providing students the opportunity to focus on one piece of writing over a longer period of time, an authentic audience of peers, and providing specific feedback can be a powerful tool to improve writing skills and techniques.  Furthermore, your students would have three digital pieces of writing to reflect upon for self-analysis.  Self-analysis is a great extension opportunity for every student.  

Here are some ideas that comments could center around:

• Add more details to paint a picture with your words.
• Set the stage early in your post.
• Hook the reader with a question, sound effect, or emotion.
• Include an image that ties to the theme of your post.
• Elaborate on your ending.

I challenge you to take your student blogging to the next level.  Blogging shouldn’t always be quick and easy for students.  It should allow students the opportunity to spend time improving their writing, by focusing on conventions, voice, art, emotion, and purpose.  Our pacing guides can be overwhelmingly fast.  I believe the best teachers know when to slow down and provide opportunities for students to delve deeper into a project.   

I personally love the Lucy Calkins method of teaching writing as it incorporates effective writing techniques through the use of high quality literature.  You can check out her methods from Columbia University here.  

What's your favorite method for blogging with students?  How do you see revision helping young writers?  Please leave your thoughts below.

Written by, Jenny Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps

3 Ways to Get Your Students' Writing to Go From Good to Great!

In many classrooms, writing curriculum looks the same across grade levels.  Teachers teach formula writing quite often. You provide graphic organizers and tell them to connect their ideas to the text, their life, or the world. We ask them to write about their favorite vacation, their hero, or what they did over the weekend.  And every now and then you come across a student who is able to paint a picture with words.  You can’t wait to see what he will write next, but you know he or she can do even more.  You wonder why this student continues to produce good writing when you know they are capable of producing excellent writing.  Maybe the problem isn't the student, but the audience.  If the only person who reads their stuff is their teacher why bother?  You read the final copy after some conferencing and editing, pass judgement with a score, and that is the end of that piece.  This is writing happening in isolation without their ideas getting beyond the four walls of your classroom.  In a connected world kids need to write for a greater purpose, passion and audience.  Here are three ways to motivate your students to produce better writing.

Project Based Learning

Tapping into project based learning can provide some of the best writing you've seen so far.  Project based learning establishes an end goal that taps into a student’s passion on an idea and provides the perfect opportunity for persuasive and narrative writing pieces.  One of the key ideas in project based learning is being connected to the world and community.  Read more about it here.

Are You a Writer?

Math teachers solve problems every day on their boards in order to guide students along and teach concepts.  Teachers read aloud to model good intonation and storytelling.  Science teachers demonstrate experiment before kids dig in.  Why then are you not writing your own stories in front of your students?  Teachers sometimes clam up at the thought of writing about a topic. However, it's crucial that you show your own passion for writing.  One of the best places to do that is having your own blog.  I challenge you to begin your own blog as well as writing in a journal in front of your students.  

Blogging

With blogging kids have a global audience especially if the teacher is a connected educator on Twitter, Facebook, or Google plus.  All of a sudden, a good writer will begin to feel passionate about their writing, knowing that it has to be worthy of the web for publishing.  I am actually writing this post at 4:00 am because I can't sleep thinking about it.  It is nagging at me in a way that I had to pick up my iPad and get my ideas down.  That is how authentic writing happens- when you feel passionate about a topic and it wakes you up in the middle of the night clawing at you until you give in.  

The formula writing that is commonplace in classrooms will help them pass AP exams and that is about it.  Don't misunderstand me.  There are techniques that can help students write better stories. The use of alliteration can enhance language, using metaphors is another powerful tool.  Giving three examples to support an idea can be effective or inserting a powerful quote can help drive a message home.  However, none of these tools are any good if the writer isn't invested in the published destination.  

Our kids are reading blogs, watching YouTube videos and reading twitter feeds.  They are natural consumers.  What if we leveraged their writing to make them creators and contributors?   

Real writing comes from passion and drive and knowing that a lot of people are going to read your writing.  As I construct this piece I am thinking of all the people that I will tweet this post to, email the link to, or use at a conference.  I only hope that you as a classroom teacher understand my message here.  Use formula writing if you must, but also provide the opportunity for free writing on topics of interest to students, especially those who understand the power of language.  Open up the world of blogging with a platform like kidblog.org.  Then take it one step further and get yourself on Twitter so that you can mediate an even larger audience for students.  Check out http://comments4kids.blogspot.com  for some inspiring classroom blogs by students.  You are wonderful and brilliant, but you alone are not enough to motivate students to reach further.  Open up the world to them with technology and watch the writing go from good to great!

Written By: Jenny Krzystowczyk

@jennykbps

New Year's Resolutions

Well it’s that time of year again when we all make our NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!!!  This year I want to encourage teachers to set some technology goals for themselves and their classrooms.  To avoid using technology for the sake of using technology alone, try to consider how your tech use will increase student learning, communication, and collaboration.  Here are 10 resolutions to choose from that will directly impact your students.     

Resolution	Benefit to Students
Create a workflow in your Google Drive for your students.  Check out this Playlist for more information.	Students receive immediate feedback to experience increased collaboration and have access to their work anywhere, anytime.
Utilize a back channel for a class discussions like Twitter or Today’s Meet.	Now everyone has a voice during a discussion!  It also provides the opportunity to teach internet etiquette with students.
Use mobile devices like smart phones to give quick formative assessments by using Google forms, Socrative, or Nearpod	Immediate feedback and data to drive targeted instruction.
Engage in virtual fieldtrips with Google’s Connected Classrooms and Google Hangouts.	Increased global awareness for students, and increased diversity appreciation.
Create a blog for yourself as a teacher to keep your audience up to date on all the great things happening in your classroom. Edublogs and Blogger	Boost communication with parents, students, and the world.
Team teach with yourself!  Create video tutorials using Quicktime or YouTube capture to post to your YouTube channel.	Additional resources for your students for remediation, repeated watching, independent learning, and access for absent students.
Get yourself connected in a Google Community.  It is easy to search communities that are applicable to you.	Expanded knowledge and ideas always positively affect your teaching and outlook over all!
Get your students blogging!  Use kidblog.org to increase student writing.	Students who publish to a wider audience are inspired to produce higher quality work.
Read 1 of these blogs at least once a week!  Unless you already have a favorite online educational magazine or blog you can’t go wrong with these blogs!	Your own professional excellence is something you will treasure and your students will benefit from your continued growing knowledge!
Create Playlists in your YouTube Channel on the topics you teach. Use them throughout the year as supplemental or inspirational materials for your students.	Videos allow students to learn at their own pace by being able to rewind or watch only the part they haven’t mastered yet.

Written by: Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps