Tag Archives: Blogging

Re-Charging

This post has been a long time. I have been feeling guilty for abandoning this blog for the last few months, and I am here to confess that I have been busy recharging my batteries and enjoying my summer.

I feel that I lost direction and purpose for the blog sometime around March when I left the classroom. I headed down a decisive political path and spent too much energy on topics that may have been better covered on my personal blog.

I just wanted to reconnect with any readers I may still have out there, and say that I am getting ready to come back soon full force and begin exploring my new position as the K-6 ESL teacher at a British school on Doha. My new job should be challenging and hopefully a learning experience for me and my readers.

In other news, I have been reading a lot of great books…

on which I have a lot to say, and I also just got back from IB training in New Mexico. So please stay tuned! I hope to be back full force in August!

Left Out Again

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I also left this comment, albeit it was the 83rd one, at The Strength of Weak Ties:

Wow! This discussion is at the same time intense and depressing. Once again, I feel like the kid who doesn’t know the right things to say to be considered cool. I am fairly new to the “echo-chamber,” and as a new member I found it at first very exciting, but I am starting to learn what the author means about the tragedy of commons and not just in regards to Twitter.

Even as a newbie, one can feel that there are certain names that always turn up. There are the experts that everyone follows. There are the names that carry clout, and then there are the little guys like me, simply trying to make sense of this all.

Perhaps it is still the novelty of Twitter that makes it worthwhile for me, or perhaps it is my naivety of the Edublog “in” crowd that keeps me out of discussions like this, and for that I am grateful.

I am a Middle School English teacher obsessed with learning and making connections. So it is a natural link for me to use Web 2.0, both for my own learning, but also to try and figure out what can make my own teaching more productive for my students and their rapidly changing world. Which is ironic because as of now, I don’t even have students, but I haven’t let this stop me from trying to use this network of people help me make the connections I find valuable.

I have met some great people on Twitter and made some great connections. My followers are slowly growing and I periodically check to see who they are, not to see if the “popular” kids are watching me, but to see if there is someone out there operating on my wavelength that could prove to be an alley in the war against ignorance. I blogged and shared my ideas when no one was reading, and I will continue to do so when a few kindred souls might chime in.

Let me finished with a quick story: When I was young I wanted to be the next Jack Kerouac, like every wide-eyed idealist, I was going to write prose that would change the world. I quickly realized that I am not that good of a writer, but that has never stopped me from writing. I don’t want to be famous anymore, I simply must write. The same thing is true for blogging. When I started I thought I could get huge numbers of people to read my work and leave 100’s of comments a week, but now I see that I simply need to write and perhaps, I will meet a few people who like what I have to say.

In closing, Twitter may be old hat for the early crowd, but some of us are still getting good mileage out of it. So come follow that…@intrepidteacher

Full Steam Ahead

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What a week I’ve had! All of my classes are fully immersed with our blogging, and everything is rolling full steam ahead. I was sifting through my Google Reader account the other night, reading students blogs, and I was blown away by how quickly most of my students are learning the basics. I simply make small suggestions in class and within a few days they are doing what I ask. They are adding links and pictures to make their posts more dynamic. They are writing on a variety of topics that I never dreamed of “assigning.” I am seeing spontaneous poems, songs, short stories, posts on sharks, National Geographic shows, and much much more. It makes me wonder what would have happened to all of these ideas and thoughts when the kids didn’t have this outlet? They are writing for the sake of writing. They are starting to comment on other blogs. They are trying to reach out, find an audience, make a connection; they are communicating. I never could have dreamed it would be going so well so early.

All of my classes have also created Google Accounts, so they could each set up a reader and start subscribing to other student blogs. We have made initial contact with a few classrooms from around the world, while others are still forthcoming. If you have a classroom that would like to connect with us, please send them here.

I want to give them some time to build a foundation, but I am looking forward sending them over to Paul Allison’s Youth Twitter in the coming weeks, as well as trying out Voicethread, maybe some Vokis, and Flickr.

The second drafts of our Labor Art poems have been turned in, and we will soon be ready to post them on the wiki and start to think about how we will record them for oral presentation on our blogs. Perhaps Voice Thread or a simple mp3 recording. Any ideas?

In other news, I presented a session on Web 2.0 and 21st century to a small group of parents last week and they loved it. They seemed both enthusiastic about the possibilities that these tools could have for their kids education and eager to learn more. It was very encouraging. I even had a student begrudgingly attend with his mom, but he spontaneously wrote this the next day. I am hoping that some of the parents who attended are reading now and will muster up the courage to leave a comment here and join the network I mentioned in my session.

I am facilitating the first session of our teachers’ blogging club, in hopes that I can get a few teachers blogging for themselves, so they can learn the basics and truly understand the power of these tools, in hopes that they will use them in their classrooms soon. I can feel a bit of momentum building on our campus.

That’s it for now. I have blogs and poetry to read. If you want to see for yourself the power of student blogging come join us here. We are still learning, but the passion and enthusiasm is growing and that is the most important step to becoming a writer.

Critical Mass

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It has taken me a long time, since August really, to get my kids online, blogging, and connected. Now that we are finally ready to go, I am learning how difficult it can be to get middle school students to actively and thoughtfully write on a regular basis. I have started by making my students post the majority of their homework assignments on their blogs as a way to make it easier for me to read their work and comment directly. I also hope that this communal pot of homework will allow them to see what their peers are working on. We are discovering, however, that posting homework assignments is not blogging. It is, as one student put it, filing.

So the question is- How can I begin to motivate students to see that their writing is a way to connect to a world outside our classroom? We were looking at some student blogs from Paul Allison’s wiki, and the comment many of my students made was that it was boring to read other students homework assignments. I took this opportunity to remind them that this filing of homework assignments is exactly what many of us were doing. So are their blogs just as boring? They didn’t seem to like that.

I have begun to ask them to take notes in class and reflect on what they learned that day on their blogs, but this is still a very insular way of reflecting and communicating.

Perhaps we could have arrange a group of MS teachers to come up with some questions for our students to answer collectively, hoping that they will use their blogs as a way to compare thoughts. Even better would be if the kids themselves could come up with questions and problems to answer/solve. This exercise need not be a project, but a simple batch of prompts that a group of classrooms could share.

I am confusing myself so let me give an example. Either through twitter or on any given class blog we would pose a weekly or monthly prompt- What is the most important thing you learned this week and why do you want to share it with a larger audience? Or, what is one issue, global or personal, that you would like to help solve? After reading the prompts, all of our students would answer the question on their own blogs, and we would have a day where each classroom would read and comment on another class’s posts. Perhaps this will lead to a more organic exchange once they begin to build relationships.

What do you think? How can we find a way to connect several MS classroom that are blogging, not for a formal project, but just as a means to build networks?

Live, Reflect, Share, Communicate, Connect, Change, Grow…

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Earlier today, I popped into a meeting to talk with a few teachers about whether or not they would be interested in my new Blogging Club. They had expressed interest in the past, so I figured they would be a good starting point. We had a quick chat about the importance of teachers using the tools they are expected to use in the classrooms for their own learning. I felt they seemed genuinely interested, but one comment by one of the teachers really stuck in my head, and like any decent blogger I have been thinking about writing this post all day.

She said, “Yeah Jabiz but you seem to spend a lot of time on the computer. I want to have a life.” I am paraphrasing what she said. I know this teacher fairly well, so I didn’t take offense to her comment. I am quite certain that she wasn’t implying that I don’t have a life, and this post is not a defense of my behaviors, but it really got me thinking, do people really think that using technology is a choice to be made that opposes having a life? Do people think that tech-geeks choose the vacant lifeless draw of their screens over “real” life?

I see technology as a tool (How many times do we need to make this point?) that allows me to do the very things that make up my life. It is not my life itself. I decided to make a list of the aspects of my life that are important to me. In order to show that technology is simply a tool to enhance my “real” life I will share how I use a variety of these tools for each aspect of my life. The following is what having a life means to me, with or without technology.

First and foremost my number one priority is spending time with my 19-month-old daughter. Contrary to what many non-digital people believe, we techies value authentic “real” life experience just as much as others. I feel that people who are not comfortable with technology see those who are, as somehow lacking the ability to enjoy nature, or the non-digital experiences. Having said that the time I spend with my daughter is the single most important thing that I do. We play, we dance, we sing, we bathe, we eat, we are living in the truest sense of the word. When it comes to my daughter, we use Skype so that she can see her Grandparents on a weekly basis. She already says Grand Ma every time we bring out the laptop. I also use her blog to keep our family posted with pictures and videos. If I do not post pictures every week, I will hear it form several family members.

I have developed a strong love of gardening. I am awed by the organic nature of nature. I love spending time watering my garden, raising plants in my classroom, and simply playing in the dirt. Raising plants is probably the antithesis of technology, but I love using my blogs and video to try and share the satisfaction I get from this hobby. I spend much of my time weekend time monitoring my garden. I am currently growing tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, and basil. The pictures I take and share make the experience more authentic for me.

I love to read. I am currently reading the seventh book in a series of seven books by Gore Vidal called the Narratives of Empire. I have been reading these books since June. I have been reading one book after another since I was nineteen. Reading is a fully integrated activity in my daily life. I would survive without books. While I love reading blogs and other websites, I have a profound love and respect for the written word in the form of books. I love the smell of the pages in a fresh book. I strongly believe that literature is the path to human understanding. However, I also see the value in using technology to share my thoughts on what I read and try to instigate healthy discussions. I also use Web tools to keep track of the books I read on sites like Librarything.

I love music. I listen to music every second I can. I love to strum my guitar and record my mediocre recordings. I use technology to share my music with friends and family on Facebook or complete strangers on Youtube. I use sites like Last FM to keep track of listening charts, so I can meet people with similar interests. I use my iPod so as to be sure that my entire collection goes where I go: in my classroom, my bike, or my trip to Tunis. I use my blogs to write on most of the subjects on this list. Music is no different.

I love photography. I enjoy my ability to capture my unique viewpoint through the lens. I use technology to enhance my photos on Photoshop to create CD covers, magazine covers, or to simply capture the beauty of places I have been and people I have seen. I use sites Flickr to store my work and JPG Magazine to share it with others.

I love traveling and delving into new cultures. I find comfort in writing about my experiences or documenting them in photographs.

I have recently discovered that I love to ride my bike, however limited around town, and I have developed an affinity for filmmaking. I have combined these two loves by using technology to share my work with over two thousand viewers on YouTube.

The point I am trying to make is that I do not see technology as something I do other than live my life; it is something I use in order to help do the things I love. I feel I have a very rich life raising my daughter, playing music, creating art, writing, reading, and finally the one thing I have yet to mention. Learning.

I use technology to help me find answers, create discussions, compare ideas, and ultimately as a tool for reflecting on how I process information. I use my network to help me form my own views, learn new skills, and better understand the world in which I live. I haven’t mentioned how I use technology in the classroom, because that is the point of this entire blog, but I hope it is obvious that I want my students to find ways that they can use technology to do the things they love. The point is not to use gadgets because they are the new hip thing to do. I am not advocating that people ignore their lives in order to use technology in their lives. The point is to have a “life.” Live it to the fullest and see if you can find ways for technology to enhance what you already do. Live, reflect, share, communicate, connect, change, grow…

Just so I am not misunderstood, I am not promoting that every human act can be enhanced by technology. A good meal at a NYC restaurant, or a quiet walk in the woods, sitting meditation under a tree, scuba diving in the Andaman Sea, or simply sharing a cup of tea with a friend come to mind as life experiences that need no technology to make them any better, but our choices need not be black or white. To respond to the teacher I spoke with today I say, we can use technology effectively and still have a life. It is a matter of understating which tools are right for each task.

The beauty is when I look at a post like the one I just wrote, I realize how these tools have actually helped link all of my interests together. When people ask me what I have been up to, I offer the trademark response: nothing. I say click here or here or here. As a writer, a learner, a teacher, an artist, or simply as a human being I am thrilled to have the tools that allow me this connectedness.

It is time to go play guitar, watch some TV with my wife, read a few pages of my book, and get a good night sleep. I will leave my RSS reader alone for tonight. I will not check on my student blogs or their wikis. I will not respond to emails or play on Facebook. I do have a life after all….