I teach twenty pre-kindergarten children. I am very proud of their writing skills; they are able to sound out initial sounds and sometimes ending sounds and write the letters that they hear. However, students are not yet able to participate in blogging. I would like to figure out a way to use blogging for my students as well, but my creativity is not allowing me any options.
Although my work with students directly is limited, this blog will become a powerful tool for communication between me and the parents and parents to parents. I usually only have time to communicate with my parents during drop-off and car pool, which only can last for about 1 minute. In the brief talk I had, many parents are interested about what students learn and how they can help in preparing their children for kindergarten. I do send out a weekly letter but there is not much I can communicate through a one page standardized letter. Also, it only serves as an announcement from me and not at all promotes feedback from the parents.
Since students at this age are dependable, parent involvement is essential. First, I will enable my parents to write entries on my blog. I will learn more about the students’ home life so I can incorporate that it the school life. This will enhance my lessons. I will update pre-k news as well as important kindergarten information, this will resolve the issue Will Richardson states of school web pages not being updated regularly (2009, Richardson, p.25). The blog will also contain links for educational websites and educational games. This will give students a learning tool at home and provide information that parents are seeking. Also, the parents will be able to communicate amongst each other for exchange of information and for a source of supporters through out the journey of raising a child. My blog will be written in both Korean and English for my non-English speaking parents.
I am still debating on posting students’ work. I was trying to find out a way to only allow certain post to selected group of people, but have not yet found that feature.
I am open to any suggestions and ideas to make this blog more effective.
Reference:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
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I like the idea of using a blog to keep the lines of communication open with parents. It also sounds like you have some great ideas about what you want to include on your blog, like resources for preparing students for kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the privacy settings on your blog...If you go to the "Permissions" tab when you are in your account, you can select who can see your blog. This way, you can set it up so only your class parents can have access to student work!
Megan, is there a way that I could limit certain parts of the blog for only my parents. I would like to keep my blog generally open to public, but closed in certain parts such as students' work and other confidential information. I can't seem to find that option. Even though I was not able to find that option, your posting have suggested an alternate solution. For now I will create a separate blog and provide a link to this blog and make that blog private. This will let me have the illusion of what I want in my blog.
ReplyDeleteJenn,
ReplyDelete(love the title of your blog by the way!)
I think using your blog as a tool to communicate with parents is a great idea. We live in a time where information is at our fingertips. What better way for parents to get updated information then through a classroom blog.
My only suggestion would be to include the privacy measures before posting student work. I love the idea of posting the work, I just think access to it should be limited.
Jennifer, I would recommend you use a ning for your class website. This year in Kindergarten we started using ning for our website. Ning provides a great platform for social networking. You can have more than one administrator if you want to include other teachers as well. As for your members, you invite your parents by sending them an invitation email. When they become your members, according to your setting adjustments, they can comment on your blog entries or photos or videos. Again according to their privileges, they can upload information to the website.
ReplyDeleteAdjusting your privacy settings is very easy, too. There is a button called "Manage" in your account page. By clicking on it you are directed to a page with all your managing options on. You can manage privacy settings and member privileges.
I find ning very useful and highly recommend it.
P.S. Ning website address is: http://www.ning.com
Elif
Aleaf,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for introducing me to ning. I just checked it out and love it. I am so motivated and excited right now.
Mr. Peterson
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. Privacy is also what I am very concerned about. That is why I'm trying to find a way to make it accessible to my class parents only. Even if it is only accessible to my class, I am going to send out consent forms to my parents. Also, I will have to be very considerate on what I post.
I also want to say, children’s work that I post will most likely not be a picture or so, but more like of videos on how students are learning and what parents can do to bridge similar education at home (My parents are very interested in phonics and often they are very curious about how I teach my students).
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading the posts on this site, and I'm going to check out Elif's suggestion about ning too. It's great that you can communicate with parents in Korean as well as English. I'm curious - together with teaching language, do you have the students draw as a mnemonic device? Posting students drawing of what they are learning may be a great learning tool.
Yes, I do. For pre-kindergarteners, drawing is a pre-stage for writing. It shows me what my students are learning. The reason I would be considerate about posting students work is because many parents are very sensitive. They get worried when they start comparing their child’s work with other children. At this age, students all are dramatically different in their developmental performance. I am worried that competition that may pressure students in such a young age may occur by the postings of student work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if along with the work you posted a positive commentary for parents on why you chose that particular piece of work for your "gallery", and that the postings are simply there for the parents to understand what is going on in your classroom, it may allay some of their fears. Of course, I don't know the parents of your students, but I know that parents often just need reminders and explanations; time-consuming as that is, it often pays off because they stop comparing and start appreciating.
ReplyDelete