Joy and education do go hand in hand at Russell Street School. Just looking through the blog posts of the staff and students you can see that they truly love what they are doing. The various classroom pages are filled with color and stories that match. This exuberance is repeated in the videos such as the little kids "playing" tennis. There are many videos on the site that are outdoor activities, however, it isn't just fun and games - it is learning!It is apparent that the school actively celebrates student successes as the spelling boards, posts showing student improvement on math tasks, and shout out from teachers showing growth on edited papers.
The website espouses the use of technology, and from the various classrooms it is obvious that technology truly is not a stranger at this school. The statistics for some of the different class rooms are surprisingly high in the number of tweets and videos that they have posted. What stood out the most about this blog is that even the very young students are contributing posts. The blog post aren't full of words, but the images convey a story and pride in what they are posting. This virtual field trip was a huge eye-opener on what can be done with some time and enthusiasm. Just watching some of the videos created by students in the 11-14 classroom show how the students embrace using different technology to enhance their learning.
It doesn't appear that this school is stuck in a "sage on the stage" mode of instructional delivery, as the students post show that they are actively engaged in applying academics, especially science, even the very young students. The kinetic energy project, the insulation experiment, and such are just a few examples of what I saw while peeking in some of the different classrooms.
The reflections and summaries from the teachers were great, but the student posts are what make the site. The site really does highlight that students of all ages and abilities can incorporate blogging to enrich their learning.
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