Super CShore Bloggers!
I was really pleased to see that my girls are still blogging now that it’s the holidays. Befinitedly one of the benefits of not pushing them to blog and allowing them to do it when they wish. They obviously enjoy it.
I was really amazed at Emma who has managed to sign up to PhotoPeach and embed it in her blog with no help at all. I’m trying to ignore the fact that most of the images are from google! :S
I really hope they have the inclination to keep this up next year and continue to refelct on their lives and learning. I think this is a really useful skill that will definitely come in handy later in life. I remember in first year at uni when they first started telling us to reflect on our practice and I didn’t have a clue. I don’t think we give our kids enough opportunities to do this.
I also think that reflection is not something that should be forced and therefore a blog or something similar is ideal as the children can access it when they need to. However, I’m not naive enough to think it will benefit all children as there will always be the children that have to be asked to do something otherwise they won’t do it. So possible a mixture of structured tasks and free reign would tick this box?
Probation over. Next on the list...finding a job!
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
Most pupils seem manage the technical aspects of blogging, for example signing up and using services, a lot easier that the less technical for example IPR. I recall spending what I though was a fair bit of time on IPR and then having to explain to pupils that even if they say “I got this image from google” it was not ok to post images from a google search. Again reflection is harder than just posting what happens or a picture.
As you say a mixture of structured tasks (post and attribute an image to go with your work or standardised reflection 2 stars and a wish) should help this, with the learning from the structured blogging spilling over into the free reign.
It is often the case (I know from my own practise) that teachers spend too much time explaining the technical aspects of blogging, which they perceive as difficult, and not enough on what makes a good post( which teachers might take for granted and pupils find hard).
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:16 am
Yeah I know what you mean about the google thing. I’ve tried and it falls on deaf ears. I’m trying not to think about it any more as technically I’m no longer in charge of their blogs as I have left CShore now. It’s a shame really but I can’t be in charge if I’m not a member of staff.
I didn’t really complete any structured tasks with the blogs this year, to be honest I had no idea what I was doing so I just let them run with it to see what would happen. I didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm by taking away their ownership.
I didn’t spend any time looking at what makes a good post (as is evident from what they write) but again I didn’t want it to be something that I was guiding I just wanted to give them their own online space.
I don’t know what I would do differently next time, something to think about.