543 Social Networking Intro...

Greetings and salutations!

When life forces you to have problems, life forces you to learn, and learning forces you to grow [photograph]. (2012, April 28). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/deeplifequotes/6974672646/

When I first read the syllabus, I realized that I this course was going to take me out of my comfort zone. While I love using technology and see the benefit for social media as a tool, I am not a social media junkie. Fortunately, I joined Twitter during 537, created my blog as part of the M.E.T. program, and have had personal Facebook account for several years, so I am not coming into this class totally blind.

Even though I am in my final semester of the M.E.T. program, I have never really used social media for professional development, except for the blogging and tweeting directly related to classes. However, both personally and professionally, I have a tendency to binge on blogs when I am trying to find information. I haven’t found a balance yet, but I am working on it.

Ten years ago, I attended a workshop on using blogging in the classroom and have been wanting to incorporate blogging ever since. Finally, this year I got the go ahead. In the district where I work all things categorized as social media are blocked, but I found the one exception – Edublogs, probably because it has a “.org” designation. Now that I have an all clear, we began blogging in the classroom 3 weeks ago. It is going much slower than I had anticipated, as the students aren’t all jumping on the blog bandwagon just yet. I do see glimmers of interest in students who are finding an outlet for their creative side. It has been especially helpful for those who don’t normally interact with other students.

My hope for this course is that I will stretch and grow while I learn to use theses platforms to enhance not just my learning and teaching, but the learning of my students as well.

Russell Street School Reflection - Parulis

This site should be a benchmark for what every district should be doing. Of course most school districts in my area do have websites with general information and some links with some information for parents...some of the time.  In an area that is ran by corrupt politicians (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/) , there are a lot of cover ups always trying to take place and that might be on a greater level, but it has to start somewhere. Russell street school puts everything out there. From the classroom agendas right on a website to their annual reports and meeting briefs, they really don't disclose anything so that is a lesson we can all learn.

As I read in another post, our districts have students make final graduation seminars. I feel that they should be doing something we currently do at Boise. From the start of the term, create a blog and build on it throughout your time at the school. By the time you graduate all of that " I didn't learn anything in High School" talk would be defeated. You have just created a wealth of knowledge for yourself that you may be able to to take with you throughout the rest of your life. I plan on using my portfolio page from Boise with me for job interviews, showcasing my projects and even just to have as a great reference. I think having a digital portfolio is the best way to go in the digital technology age.

Huge Engagement, Few Concerns

This is very impressive how an elementary school is so technology immersed. What Russel Street School is doing is so good for public relations, for parent involvement, and for student engagement. The students must be so proud of what they are doing and to see themselves online.

A few things I wondered when I first came across the site was How involved are the students in this? and Is it just the staff making digital content of what students are doing?

Very quickly it became apparent that the students really are learning to use technology in hugely relevant ways. Apparently they all have Google accounts and probably regularly use them. Here is the first line that suggested this to me from the post Term 2 Student Review: “You need to remember to log into your gmail account, complete the survey and then log out so nobody else completes the survey under your login.”

But that is just the beginning of these kids’ technology use. They even all have blogs, like Abby’s blogspot here. The use of students’ pictures online and first names does raise questions for me about permission and liability. Do parents need to sign off that their kids can post online? Have they had any issues with this? When I think about my own administration, I have a hard time seeing this getting cleared.

As a side note, it was also fun to see the New Zealand dialect in lines like these: “Take your time and have a think about your answers” and this pair of lines that I actually thought was a typo at first “share some of your favourite stories with you family” (“you” for “your”) until I later read this line that got me thinking maybe they just talk like this: “we want to collect you ideas about your learning

Personalized Learning at Russell Street School

Russell Street School in Palmerson North, New Zealand is an excellent example of the possibilities for communication, collaboration, and authentic audience inherent in blogging. While the website contains good information about the school and programs, it is the Thursday Notice Board page that shows the vibrant life of the school. Kindergarten classes posted videos of their learning, with occasional instances of student voice. The second grade blogs were full of examples of student work at both the formative and summative stage. Some even had specific invitations for comment. Older elementary students had their own individual blogs, with both public and private pages. Individual blogs showcased student work or student reflection.

The thing that most strikes me about the blogging at RSS is the openness. Student faces are shown. Student names are used. Learning activities are chronicled. It’s a very different mindset than I’ve come to accept as the norm. Many teachers are concerned that blogging (or any other sort of documentation of what is going on in their classroom) is a potential liability. Many parents worry about their childrens’ images appearing online. And yet when you see a school that is doing it so well, those concerns seem a bit unreasonable. In theory, most educators seem to agree that transparency is one of the best ways to improve teaching and learning, and I think RSS validates that belief. In my district we are starting to talk about personalized learning, and it is clear through both teacher and student posts that RSS is living that vision.

On the down side, I now have a phrase stuck in my head -“wachoo eachoo are”. And the line “Vegamite. Or might not” cracked me up. If that makes no sense to you, visit this post and crank up the volume!

Reflection on Russell Street School

I was very impressed with the blog that Russell Street School uses to build a community of learners.The blog unifies administration, staff, teachers, students, the local community, and the global community. It truly is model for how blogging can be used for a variety of purposes. These purposes include general communication, classroom communication, classroom progress, individual progress and reflection, and portfolios.

First, I see this blog being used as a communication tool. There is a monthly calendar, links to news within the school and community, updates from the principal, and updates from the school office. Parents and community members are able to access the blog to receive general announcements. Second, I see this blog being used as a place for classrooms to communicate their weekly goals, tasks, and progress. I loved scrolling through the classroom blogs. I thought it was neat how the teacher contributed, individual student's contributed, and groups of students contributed. Videos, images, and links all helped draw in my engagement and understanding of what the students and classes were accomplishing. If I were a parent of a child in the school, I would be very excited to have a place that I could access with information about the daily classroom experiences and learning. I noticed that many of the videos were edited with images, video clips, transitions, music, and audio. I wondered how much the students were involved in this process and how time is allocated to complete the videos, as well as, update the blogs. As a result of taking this class on blogging, I have learned first hand how a blog takes commitment and a lot of time to maintain. Third, I see the incorporation of individual blogs that seem to serve as a student portfolio. I loved how students were posting their goals, rubrics, coursework, and even more videos. I wonder if these individual blogs will continue with them as they jump to new grade levels or if they start a new blog each year.

One area that did not seem to be utilized in their blogging initiative is commenting.We have been encouraged to comment on a regular basis to deepen our understanding of content and to provide feedback to our peers. I could see commenting being important in the individual student portfolios or as a way for peer review or instructor follow-up. I also am very curious about the tools that the students are using for videos, images, and blogging. Are they provided with these tools? Do students have access to these tools at home? How much time do students spend developing videos or organizing images? Overall, Russell Street School is leading the way with classroom blogging. It has become a part of their school culture and stands as an example for how blogging can enhance and deepen learning in our schools.

Russell Street School - 21st Century Learning

There are amazing things happening at the Russell Street School.  From blogging to creating i-videos, any visitor will notice that these students are taking technological skills and applying them to their learning.  As you view different classes, you notice the pride that the students and teachers hold.  In numerous classrooms, you find blog posts containing pictures and videos of students learning.  In some classrooms, you find teacher updates with material the students are working on.  In the upper grades, the side of the blog contain individual student blogs - this is the best part of the site, in my opinion.

The student blogs are individualized, each with a different theme.  As you go through the blogs, you notice that the same assignments appear, but each student is taking ownership of their blog by filling in rubrics, creating reflections, uploading i-movies, and individual pictures.  This is what education should look like when you merge traditional teaching with technology.  The technology becomes a mode to help demonstrate understanding of the material - i.e. the kinetic energy and integrity videos. I personally liked the seeing the different subjects intertwined - science, physical education, and writing.

I found that they encourage children to bring their own device (laptop or Apple iPad) or they have parents pay for the devices.  They explain that this helps the school achieve the expectations and vision they see for their school.  In many public schools here in the States, that is difficult to attain.  It does, however, create the expectation that children will be using their technology in meaningful and purposeful ways - which is evident in the work that is displayed. 

As I viewed the site, I thought of all the possibilities that I could accomplish in my classroom.  It is exciting to have a school who understands how to use tools in the "right" ways instead of just using it haphazardly. I can see why this school is a model for how blogging should look and feel.

Russell Street School

Russell Street School in New Zealand uses a different methodology than we are used to see.
Ii amazed me the way of sharing what is going on in the classroom thanks to teachers and students blogs. I see it as school-wide and not just an initiative of one or two teachers.

It is impressive to see how the mentality of the "Board of Trustees" (what we call SBDM) approves and support the elearning in the classroom. Most of the time,we teachers don´t spend time on activities like blogging in the classroom because of the lack of time. We don´t spend time on blogging because we think that the final product (essay, presentation...) can be done in a piece of paper or cardboard and it takes less time. In Russell Street Elementary they understand that blogging is not a tool to publish the essay. The final goal is to be able to publish electronically a reflection, summary...These are needs that students will have in the near future. Students will become workers very soon and should learn the skills to be successful in their jobs as posting properly in blogs or forums. These skills are very different to writing a letter in paper, what was essential years ago but there are other needs these days that we can not avoid. The students from Russell Street School are not just learning how to post in a blog, they are learning to create a community with other classmates, their teachers and parents, who are able to follow their learning in a very interactive way. After seeing how the students from this school create their online portfolios, it came to my mind an app that I shared in my blog a few weeks ago called "Three Ring". It creates online portfolios where students or teachers are able to share the work done in the classroom with their families. This app does not share just written assignments but also videos or audios done by students. I can´t wait to start the school year to start using it.It also surprised me to see the way of incorporating culture in the learning environment, for example with the video about soccer. I feel like sometimes teachers, parents and administrators are too focused on making sure students learn the content, so students are able to get a good score in the standarized test. We forget that education is not only content but also collaborations between students, something that students from Russell Street School show when they make videos, Power Point presentations and publish them in their blogs.

I like how the principal publishes weekly a post with information of the school and keeps the parents updated. I understand that most of the families from Russell Street School have access to the internet and are able to follow online the progress of their kiddos.Unfortunately, most of the schools in the United States are not able to use the model of the school in New Zealand yet because not all the families can afford it. I
feel that we could start using the traditional way (sending home all the school news and written assignments in paper), but also electronically, to start a transition. Encourage the use of the public libraries or let the parents to use the computer labs at school after the instructional time, would help them get used to seeing the communication between teachers and parents about the work done at school, in a different way.

Russell Street School Impression

Absolutely fascinating. My daughter just 'graduated' kindergarten, and on the last day the teacher gave each student a collection of their year's work in a binder. This showed the progress she made in writing and comprehension, photos of moments during the school year, artwork completed, and had a calendar accompanying it. The students' blogs on the Russell Street School site seemed to do exactly that- they chronicled the school year individually, while the class blog chronicled the school year as a group. This is a far superior method of chronicling the year, with the ability to quickly navigate about the year and the ability to include video representations of what happened. Helen's blog had a video on 'showing integrity' that was an assignment done using iMovie and was adorable, but useful. Feedback was given all throughout the students' blogs directly after posts, mostly in a positive fashion.
I found this blogging methodology this school is using to be captivating, both as a parent and a teacher.

Joy of blogging at Russell Street School

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.

Russell Street School Review

Russell Street School is a blog that contains blogs and information about a school in New Zealand. On the blog you are able to find different classes and student work.

On the Room 9 blog you can see what homework they have been assigned, and what they are doing and learning about in their classroom. On that same blog you are able to access different student blogs. The students use their blogs like an online portfolio/showcase of their work. They post completed work and assignments. They also have videos of different activities that have done in class. Each blog has its own personal touch put on it by the student. The students have added pictures of different things that they like, as well as things that they do in their free time. I really like that students each have their own blogs and add different content to them. 

Having the students blog in the classroom is a great way to get students comfortable with using blogs and technology in the classroom. It would be interesting to see how the teachers at this school monitor the blogs, and if they require a certain number of posting or if they give the students prompts on what to write. I have heard of students having their own blogs for learning, but I have not been able to see it in action. I love being able to see firsthand how the Russell Street School is able to do this.

Russell Street School Reflective Blog

This is an excellent example of what a school blog really can do!  There are multiple examples that gave the reader a real feel for what the school is actually like.  In a sense, the blog gave the school a unique personality by showing the individuality of the students through their work and their reflections.  It is obvious that this is truly a community partnership that includes students, teachers and parents.  This site highlights the inclusive nature of Russell Street School.

The school definitely illustrates the ability to merge a traditional school with modern technological tools.  By having both the students and the teacher’s blog, everyone is able to see the same project or event through multiple perspectives.    Parents are able to “see” what their students are accomplishing on a regular basis.  Students are able to look back and reflect on not just one piece of work but on their entire collection of accomplishments.  Russell exemplifies student-centered learning.

The one question I really had was how much time does it really take to put this together?  Do both students and teachers do this on their own time or during school time?  The links are fantastic!  But who puts these together?  I know how much time my own blog takes so I can only imagine the effort that goes into this site.  

Another feature of the site I particularly appreciated was the “eLearning center”.  Every school should have all of their policies in one easy to find location.  As a parent, I cannot tell you how many times I have searched and searched to find this information for my son.  Some things are on his school’s website, some are in the school’s paper manual, and other pieces of important information were sent via email.  I also loved how they had an archive of all their newsletters.

This site was visually appealing and easy to navigate.  There was a lot of information, yet never felt too cluttered.  They did an excellent job merging technological and educational principles but always remaining student-centered. 

RSS Reflection

I am really impressed with the way Russell Street School uses blogging. First off, the parent-school connection appears to be in a great place. Parents can see what is going on with the school, what their children are learning, and do have access to various resources. I love how they include videos of the students and of relevant content. It makes it more personal!

The blogs also provide for an opportunity for students to write for an audience. Not just their teacher, but blog viewers! Which includes the world! Pretty incredible concept. I know when my students have an audience for their writing, they tend to care a bit more about what they write, and how they present it.

I loved looking through the digital portfolio examples. I am really hoping to do this with my upcoming class. I liked how they utilized other technology tools with their blogs (YouTube, Vocaroo, Padlet, Screenshots, etc) and even did homework assignments on their blogs. What is so great about this digital portfolio is that it provides a record of learning, and allows you to see growth, as well as reflect. I am beyond excited to get rolling beyond the occasional blog post that I had my students do last year, to a much richer and more powerful learning experience this year with the idea of digital portfolios.

I love what the Russell Street School is doing, and plan on showing my administration the power of a school blog, to showcase student learning as well as keep parents in the loop. All we have for parent/school connections are a pretty extensive website and a Facebook page that is underutilized. I am hoping they see the power of the Russell Street School blog!

Russell Street School Reflection

What a great school blog! There were pages and pages showing student work, reflection, and personality. One must wonder why they take the time to put so much material on these blogs? From browsing through the website, it appears they put all this content online because they truly believe in the school-home-community partnership. The educators there know that they open up many opportunities to students when parents can see exactly what is going on in the classroom and they can support the curriculum at home. Community members (near and far) can view what is happening and know how they can contribute. I think it provides a beautiful model for local involvement in education.

In the school's e-learning strategy report they claim that "an audience for e-learning enhances and celebrates student voice." It is striking how rarely you hear or see an adult in these pictures and videos. On the student sites, there are many mistakes but they are not fixed"by adults. The adult/teacher voice was fairly quiet and usually showed up on student posts to encourage and give constructive feedback on how to improve. I strive to create a student-centered class and I love this example of a student-centered school.

This truly seems to be a 21st Century school. Information can be accessed anywhere and at anytime, much like everything else these days. But is it too much? Do teachers have to be available 24/7? Do parents still value visiting the school and having face to face conversations about how their child is doing? Is any paper sent home anymore, are some parents not able to regularly access all of this online content? With every student's work on display is there teasing about the quality of someone's work? How do parents feel about their student being so vulnerable online?

So while RSS is doing some amazing things to foster community-based (local and worldwide) education, I am sure they wrestle with many of the questions asked above and more.

Russell Street School Prompt

At first when I visited the school's website, I thought I was going to be looking into an online school.  I was interested to find out that this is a regular school that uses a lot of technology.  Another interesting fact about RSS is that this school goes all year round.  I'm curious as to how that works for so many reasons, but I'm sure it becomes the norm like we go to school August-May/June and have about eight weeks off.

How RSS uses blogs is what I want to create with my classes.  I didn't plan on having students create their own blogs just to prevent issues, but I love that some classes use their blog as a portfolio.  This is great for so many reasons, but I especially like that parents can see how and what their child is learning along with how their child thinks, writes, and participates.

I never would have thought of young children blogging.  I planned on keeping my class blog simple for my seventh graders, but once they are introduced to it they will be able to handle it.  It is so good for them to be able to learn to type at a young age, practice their writing skills, reading, peer reviewing, and much more.

None of the Street Talk videos worked for me. They all said "Video does not exist".  If any of you were able to watch them, I'm curious as to what they were, what they were about, how they were created, and why they were made.  I saw RSS won an award for creating these videos I really wish I were able to watch at least one of them.

I love how the entire school is on board with using this much technology.  It is a great learning experience and very beneficial for the students.  I learned a lot of different things that I can do with my own blog from this school; posting Student's of the Week, quality work pieces, examples of work for parents to see, and MUCH more!

Russell Street School and Interactive Blogging

What I like best about the Russell Street School's approach to blogging, that differs from everything else that we've read and seen, is that they seem to use it to create and foster community. Some of the previous readings started to move toward the idea of blogging to develop community, discussing it as a journal for research or a way for people to connect on a given topic, but no one took it that far yet. The Russell Street School has it seems, whether intentionally or not. 

By having their students blog for each class, both as a class and then on their individual blogs, it gives them two things. First, they're able to share their work as a unit with their community members (classmates, school members, other teachers, and parents). Second, individual blogs gives them a sense of identity and a piece of that community. Young people seem to really desire a place of belonging, and while the school itself focuses on creating that, the blog is actually a physical location of their own space on the web. A few of the students even used it after the end of the year, writing goals for themselves for the coming year or about their lives and interests outside of school. 

Furthermore, the blogs became a communication tool. In the younger years, teachers commented on the entries of the students, summarizing their work and their progress. Then, the teacher would give them a "next step" for where they want to focus as they move on in a given skill. At the older levels, the focus seemed more on either self-reflection or peer feedback, where students reflected on their own progress in a skill area or a peer gave them feedback on their work. I saw a lot less teacher feedback at the older levels. Though there wasn't much written on why, I assume it's about a "gradual release of responsibility" and increasing levels of "metacognition" at students grow. I know that older students still value feedback, of course, but they do need to do their own internal reflection as well. 

Finally, the school blogs about itself and its own goings-on, as a whole. Someone posts about the events, special honors, great teachers and lessons, and makes the place seems like it's not only proud of itself but that people reading the site should be proud of the school and its students and faculty as well. By participating in this communication, the school reflects on itself and allows those in it to reflect on themselves toward progress and education. This, in turn, creates the community atmosphere that comes across so clearly from a website about a very small school, literally on the other side of the planet from me. 

Above all, what I want from blogging that the Russell Street School accomplished is developing a community. Through blogging, we can create a space for students to share their work and grow in a positive way with feedback from peers and faculty members and community members, all focused on building a supportive community. If we can keep talking about the good things going on in the school and have students share their own "good things," they can buy into it as well. 

I don't believe for a second the school is perfect or that this would be the be all, end all solution to any sort of culture problem a school might face. However, it's a great way for a teacher to build community in a classroom or a building to build community within itself for its students. 

Russell Street School Blog

Here is a fun and insightful fact I read on the site. Maybe you also saw it? "The school uses technologies to focus on skills and competency development, enhance students enjoyment, participation and creativity. We still use books, paper, paint, construction materials etc regularly, where technologies provide no additional benefits they will not be used." I thought this is something we should all reference as we do our planning for our classrooms. We shouldn't use technology just for the sake of using technology. This is how I first felt whenever the technology tools first started to appear 15 years ago. After I starting using the graphing calculator more regularly in 1997, not much else has been super helpful in the mathematics classrooms until recently. Even then, it is still tough to beat the tech behind the handheld calculator. Then there was the doc camera and projector; that was an awesome improvement. Now the graphing calcs can have backlights, which is another amazing improvement. Math is still done best with pencil in hand and write your steps on paper, because typing math has a long way to go before it becomes faster than handwriting your work.

These kids are keeping a blog of their work similar to what us adults need to do to for several EdTech courses and our master's degree portfolio! What a great way to showcase all the student work and parents can see it anytime they want. Plus, I can imagine getting rid of some papers in my house that my daughter has created!! If my daughter had a blog to showcase her work, we would have a lot less paper in our house. This is a genius idea!

This is pretty amazing video work. I found the Street Talk Video Episode 6 but it wouldn't play. So I went to YouTube and searched for Russell Street School and lots of videos appeared. I especially enjoyed the video from the 5 year olds (Year 0) who give a tour of the school in the video. http://youtu.be/b6Fc2bbk1Zw By having to perform for this video, I imagine the kids are learning a lot of skills. The Year 0 kids even wrote all the scripts! They have to learn what to say, pronounce the words correctly, speak clearly, and speak loudly over the wind. A great addition to this video creation is that the older kids in the school, from years 5 & 6, were the ones helping the younger kids make the video! The credits state the year 6 kids helped with the filming and editing and the year 5 kids did the final video editing. I wonder if these kids know how much they are learning about what adults do at their jobs?

Very cool stuff!!  -Angie Kruzich

My relfection about the Russell Street School

There are many schools who use their websites as a showpiece.  The sites are constructed to present the schools as places where "wonderful things" are occurring in education and the community.  And, while the site effective shares information and content, something is missing.  They fall flat because it is more about the presentation of "tidbits of information" and less about the "moments in education" which so desperately need to be shared.

The Russell Street School (RUS) website/blog is really quite impressive and extraordinary.  The site shares what the students and faculty are experiencing and this in turn creates a wonderful, exploratory learning environment.  The RUS blog posts depict learning as it occurs "in the moment" and the photo montages (and stills alike) are shared in a blog format (as if chronicled by a a reporter).  They are not staged for "perfect moments" caught on film. It's a living, breathing journal of elementary education and we are fortunate enough to see this occurring with this children throughout the blog.  Moreover, the staff has sincerely taken the time to efficiently and creatively use media to graphically showcase their students learning various things which is obviously enriching their education.  From the materials presented, the students were really enjoying themselves. 

You can also see that the RUS community is one that is student-centered.  This blog is an extension of this already established community.  While the blog has a homemade quality indicative of a first-go at building a blog, the pages beneath are what makes this site so special: the focus is on the raw content, not solely on the beauty of the site.  I believe that the students are really the headlines in this simplistic deign as opposed to a pretentious facade with nothing supporting the beautiful fonts and carefully coordinated colors. The newsletter and calendar are also available for students, parents and the community where everyone can participate and relive the amazing programs and events at RUS.  Moreover, with each class making their own contributions to the site, this further personalizes the experience as each individual teacher sees their students growing socially and academically throughout the year.

Within the ehe environment at RUS, teachers have ample time to create these entries which reflect the day-to-day interactions. They are not going though the motions of using technology to create an online community, they are actually creating this community within the school and then bringing this community to their school blog.   This blog is inspiring and is the formula every school website/blog can use to foster an online school community that reflect the one that already exists...digitally.

The Russell Street School Blog is an excellent example of how all members of a school community can document their learning journey and share their experiences with both the local and global community.

Having read through many of the classroom blogs, I get the feeling that knowing that their thoughts, opinions, ideas and experiences are going to be shared with a broad audience gives the students a different sense of pride in the work they do.  The individual classroom blogs with links to educational resources also give students and parents a chance to discuss and extend any school interests at home.

The student's posts are full of reflection on goals accomplished, revised or not-yet-met - this is a part of the learning process that is easily forgotten and neglected.  The main page and each of the classroom and student pages are full of supportive resources for parents and other members of the school community.

I think this is a great way to share the learning story of the school and to connect students, families and other community members to the school and the learning.  As our little school begins to blog and connect via social media, I plan to use the Russell Street School website as an example.  

Russell Street School Blog

Wow! There is so much content on this website and I love it! It is easy to see how many people are contributing to the various blogs connected to this site and it is very impressive. I think having all the students having their own blogs connected to the school's blog give them a sense of ownership and pride in their school.

I love that there are so many videos and they are made by students and teachers alike and the fact that the first video is about the World Cup. This is not necessarily academic (though I'm sure many wonderful teachers found ways to make it academic) but rather something fun for the kids to focus on and for the community to see.

The student work is very well done and creating these videos cannot be easy work, but will benefit them hugely in the future. I also love that on the student's personal blogs they are setting goals for themselves and putting those goals out there for the world to see, which I think can be very motivating. When other people know what you are working towards, you might work just that much harder to accomplish that goal, and you can get more help when others know what you are trying to do.

The links for parents are wonderful as well. They show what types of work the students will be seeing in their year as well as what they might be expected to produce. They are easy to locate and well labeled.

I love that every aspect of the school has their own blog page from the library to sports teams to individual students. It is clear how much pride every students and faculty member takes in this school.

I plan to attempt a blog starting with just out ATP (gifted) students this school year and I can only hope that they are as enthusiastic as the crew at Russell Street clearly is and that it can someday build to include more and more classrooms, teachers and other aspects of the school!

Russell Street School Reflection

What a fantastic resource! Russell Street has obviously invested a large amount of time and effort into creating their blogging platform. At first glance there is a ton of content on the homepage alone and they have done a great job organizing it. I really enjoy that in two clicks you can get from the homepage to any individual student blog. That is usually very difficult to do especially with this much content. Also it is very neatly organized into three sections. The nav bar, the main content bar and the side bar. The only suggestion I could make here would be to move towards more of a responsive design as so much internet traffic is mobile now.

As I was perusing the content I was really impressed with the quality of work especially the video content. As a former high school technology teacher I understand the amount of work and effort that is required to create even a simple 3-4 minute video. The video that Liam created about the orangutans that participated in the Sydney film festival would have taken weeks to complete. The stop motion alone was very well done and the research that  he did was very informative. I wonder if all the videos created are done by students or if some are done by teachers or if there is a staff member whose job description includes the creation of the videos?

I also noticed that most of the videos are uploaded to YouTube. I have no idea how old the account owners are but this has been a problem we have run into at our school. According to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act a person must be at least 13 years old to have their own YouTube account. As we have a GAFE domain at our school its imperative that we are diligent in making sure no one younger than 13 sets up an account or we could possibly lose our domain. I wonder what Russell Street does to avoid this? I suppose the teachers of the classes might post all the videos but that would be time consuming and onerous. We've recently invested in an in house video database for students under 13 but this limits the publishing of material to be only internal.

Ever since I have been a teacher one of the biggest discussions we have had as a staff every year is how to keep parents informed. I really love what Russell Street has done in this regard. Not only do the student blogs have lots of pictures and videos they also include the work of students and oftentimes images of rubrics so that parents can stay informed on a regular basis from home.

Russell Street School Reflection

The use of blogging to document life and learning at the Russell Street School seems to be very natural. Each class has a blog and it appears that students must also have their own blogs to document their learning growth. I enjoyed viewing video creations by students and video that documented class activities, as well as other ways learning was shared.

Two things really caught my attention. First, I think the site is well thought out with a variety of resources for the whole learning community in an easy to access format. Links to important information for everyone are found posted on the right side (information for supporters, parents, etc.) of the site. I am curious if this was always so or if the blog grew into this layout over time. Because of the thoroughness of this site, I think it serves as a good model for other school or learning communities wishing to connect in a real-world, practical manner with parents and other community supporters.

I also took a look at the link on the right for student portfolio examples. I was interested in this since I am currently wrapping up my own portfolio for the EdTech program we are enrolled in (and am excited about finishing in August). Some schools in my own district have attempted to require students to create portfolios but I don't think any of them have gone digital which makes so much sense for learners today. With the requirement of completing a senior project in my state as well, I would think documenting all parts of the project online would be a hugely practical and appropriate use of technology. In the district where my children attend school, students give presentations to the school board (using Power Point software usually) for their senior projects. If these students' entire project was documented through a blog it could easily be adapted to demonstrate their learning growth and progress in their project.

After looking at the Russell Street School blog, I got to wondering what other quality school blogs are out there. I tend to refer to the Edublog Awards every now and then and found that they have a list of 2013 award winners. The Cougar News blog published by a middle school is one that I found interesting but it doesn't represent the whole school as the Russell Street School blog does. It is a nice example of a blog written by students though. I also found Edutech for Teachers while there and think the technology specialist author has some good information to share. With more and more schools participating in one-to-one device programs, I would think that presenting themselves digitally in the manner of the Russell Street School would make sense and that we would only see more of these kinds of sites.

Impressions of the Russell Street School

If you haven't taken the opportunity already, visit the website for the Russell Street School in Palmerson North, New Zealand. Spend some time looking at the blogging activities of the students. Watch two or three episodes of the student created Street Talk show. Go to the sites for Room 9 or Room 14, scroll down and click on some of the Student Blogs and see what the students have been up to.

In looking through how this school - from teachers to students - use blogging as a part of their educational experience, what are your impressions of what you have seen?

You should post your response to this prompt as a unique entry on this blog. Please accept the invitation that you received to join this blog and then post your response.

Great source:  Edudemic