19th January 2006

Edifying student bloggers

posted in blogs, web 2.0 |

Mark Ahlness’ Mighty Writers are 3rd grade students at Arbor Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Washington.

I think pre-service teachers in certification courses should be required to visit classroom blogs like Mighty Writers and leave positive, supportive comments and feedback for the students. This assignment can potentially both edify the young student writers, and educate the pre-service teachers about the powerful and effective ways web 2.0 technologies can be utilized in the “real” classroom. I did this last fall with my students in Microcomputer Applications. They read and commented on posts by Bob Sprankle’s Room 208 3rd and 4th graders in Wells, Maine.

Mark also maintains a professional blog titled, “Mark’s edtechblog,” social bookmarks, and a personal homepage.

Go Mark and go Mighty Writers!!! :-)
I am hoping wherever our family moves this summer, we’ll be able to find innovative teachers like Mark and Bob who are integrating technology creatively with students to help them become better communicators in the 21st century! We need to be championing the work of classroom teachers like Mark and Bob not only in the blogosphere, but also “out there” in the face to face world. I will be sharing both Mark and Bob’s classroom blogs with campus technology integration specialists next month at our state TCEA conference. If you know of other good examples of teachers and students using blogs in the classroom to improve student writing/communication skills, please comment here and share the links.

My social bookmarks list of classroom blogs is available on http://del.icio.us/wfryer/classroomblogs.

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On this day..

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 3:20 pm and is filed under blogs, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 4 responses to “Edifying student bloggers”

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  1. 1 On January 19th, 2006, Natalie Watt said:

    I wanted to say that I really enjoy reading your posts, and especially appreciated this one. As a third grade homeroom teacher and a computer teacher for second through fourth grades, I am having all my students use class blogs to publish their work, but I am having difficulty getting people, even my students’ other teachers, to comment on their work. My students are currently very excited about their blogging (we just really began this month, were are in New Orleans and missed the first four months of school), but I really don’t know how long they are going to stay excited as long as they are getting almost no response. Anyways, keep up the interesting conversation!

  2. 2 On January 19th, 2006, Mark Ahlness said:

    Wesley,
    Thanks for your wonderful words about my Mighty Writers - and the comments you left on their blogs were just fantastic. Wait ’til they read them tomorrow! We are just putting one foot in front of another, my kids and I. To be mentioned in the same sentence with Bob Sprankle - well, I think he’s in another league altogether! Anyway, I’ve enjoyed reading through your blog, and I will stay posted. All the best - and good luck with your move. - Mark

    Another blog to check out is fifth grade teacher Gordon Brune in NY. His very active classroom blog is at
    http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=251

  3. 3 On January 20th, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

    Thanks to both Natalie and Mark for their responses and work with classroom blogs– I would encourage others to check out and comment on her second grade and fourth grade literary galleries. I have added these and other classroom blogs to my social bookmarks for classroomblogs. I’ll be adding to this list in upcoming weeks prior to my keynote at the TCEA CAMP-SIG meeting on Feb 8: “Cultivating Digital Literacy Through Blogging and Podcasting.”

  4. 4 On January 20th, 2006, Dylan said:

    Thank you for giving me good luck for me because I did get
    the play station 2 and I’m going to Mexico again.
    I hope you have a good time and I might see you at Mexico.


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