Oct
6
Written by:
Dan Maas
10/6/2009
What is blog storming? Think of the old biplane days when a pilot would guide the airplane at stunning speeds through a barn bringing along a whirlwind of noise and energy into an otherwise quiet environment... well, the 21st Century equivalent might be when a classroom teacher equipped with 30 or so netbooks and a class of expert blogging students swoops down onto a blog that has posed an interesting question... and leaves some 30 comments in the space of 10 minutes! Imagine the owner of the blog that has setup the system to alert her on each posting... all of a sudden, the email box becomes a flurry of blog comment notices!
My friends, that is blog storming and it looks like several of our teachers in LPS blog stormed at the NSBA (see the post here) in the last day or so. No telling if more storms are on the way... because that's how we do things here in LPS. Kids are learning to find their voices by blogging and use of many other technologies. They have learned to not only post to blogs, but to do so thoughtfully, freely and respectfully. On first glance, I see our students using good naming conventions (that is, not giving out full names and locations) and I see respectful tones in the messages... granted, I have not yet read all 80 posts that are there now... but it looks good so far. And the writing is pretty good as well; thoughtful and reasonably well constructed.
Yes, we are a bunch of blog stormers... coming to a blog near you!
3 comment(s) so far...
Re: Blog storming
We're working on it... Ours will start showing up in the next couple of days. I was surprised by this year's group - some of them are arguing for the pens and pencils! I can't wait for the comments to begin appearing from our fifth graders!
Chris Moore
By Chris Moore on
10/7/2009
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Re: Blog storming
I'm torn between sharing this type of activity with staff & students. On one hand it's an opportunity to type (not write obviously) something and share one's feelings about a subject. On the other hand it creates a distraction while our teachers are really trying their hardest to focus their students on specific writing assignments and target their work in specific curriculum-approved areas.
The optimist in me sees this as a great opportunity to write, write write - and I have to think that's good. It involves a larger audience and may get kids fired up about their writing making a difference. (Imagine that?) I could see an entire brigade of LPS students - each Inspired Writing class - assigned to pounce on DIFFERENT juicy posts (like the NSBA post mentioned above) and "storm away". It would show that LPS cares, is watching, and is a player on the world stage.
With Dan marshaling our efforts we could be a force to be reckoned with!
By Mason on
10/9/2009
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Re: Blog storming
I assume you saw the post on the main NSBA Blog . . . boardbuzz.nsba.org/blog/2009/10/a-storm-of-student-opinions/
By Karl Fisch on
10/14/2009
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