How Do You Measure Student Growth?
Topic: Classroom Blogging
There's a great deal of emphasis placed on standardized test scores as a measure of students growth. However, there are many other indicators of student growth that, when considered along with test scores paint a more accurate picture of what's happening at your site. What are additional sources of data we can use?

Puget Sound ESD Blogs
Topic: District Communication
This is actually a region, not a district; however, there are a number of blogs here that are of interest to administrators. NCLB, technology, and specisl services are just a few of the topics.

Another Principal Blogs!
Topic: Personal Blogs
Will Richardson highlighted this blog on Weblogg-ed and I wanted to share it here as well. The Coe School's Principal's Page is another example of a principal using a blog to communicate with the school community.

Are Americans Really Reading Less?
Topic: Classroom Blogging
While driving north today, I listened to a report on NPR's Weekend America show. Rick Karr was discussing the recent NEA study on reading in America (there's a link to the study provided in the link above). Their conclusion is that Americans are reading considerably less now than they were ten years ago. However, according to Karr, the study focused on the amount of time people spend reading fiction in hardcopy. So, time spent reading online or time spent reading other genres wasn't included. I don't know how anyone else feels, but it seems to me that reading is reading, now matter what the genre or format. Am I off base here?

Blog Tools
Topic: Classroom Blogging
It's Blog Wednesday! Today's site is a great starting point for those who
have been reading about these blogs but haven't been confident enough to get
one started for themselves yet. Barclay Barrios provides tools, tutorials
and accessories for the blog-shy teacher (or administrator)...

Thanks, Sandy and Pete!

Back to Blogging
Topic: Personal Blogs
Well, I understand now how people get distracted and put their blogs on the back burner. My daughter's wedding was last weekend, and it's been tough to devote much attention to anything else. So, I've relied on posting the weekly education-related blogs from Sandy and haven't done much else.

I have deided to try blogging during an inservice with principals, however. It's coming up in early December. It's a brainstorming activity and I want to capture their ideas. I was originally thinking about using Inspiration, but that means one person needs to record while people talk. This way, everyone will be able to record his/her own ideas at one time and we'll then have them collected in one spot where everyone can review them. It will also model how easy it is to post an entry.

Educational Bloggers Network
Topic: Classroom Blogging
It?s Blog-Wednesday again! This week, Sandra Gluth points us to the
Educational Bloggers Network.

"EBN is a collaborative of teachers and organizations using weblogs in
education. Its purpose is to help its members, kindergarten through
university, to access and use weblog technology for the teaching of writing
and reading across the disciplines. The network provides a forum for
educational professionals who use weblogs, an array of opportunities for
teachers to continue their professional growth, and a framework for
cooperation to deal with issues that affect the integration of weblog and
other digital technologies into teaching and learning."

Update on Blog Spam
Topic: Blogging Basics
I've learned a bit more from Will Richardson about the blog spamming issue. Apparently the spam takes the form of comments posted to something already on the blog. Will tells me that it seems to primarily hitting high profile blogs and that he hasn't seen any on his students' blogs. One fix is to turn off the comments feature, but that's the reason many people want to blog- to hear from others. How sad...

Blogging Glossary for Educators
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Well, it's Blog-Wednesday. Sandra continues to learn more about blogging
with this blogging glossary. "Have you ever wondered what 'blogstipation'
is? or been in fear of the 'blogerati'?" she asks...

Blog Spam
Topic: Blogging Basics
A while ago I mentioned that I am trying an RSS Reader to easily get updates from several other blogs. It's working like a charm (when I remember to open it).

As a result of checking Will Richardson's Weblogg-Ed today, I saw he had posted a couple of messages about his blog being spammed. The text of his message didn't explain how this is happening (if it's in the form of comments on his messages or what). I've posted a comment to his blog asking him to explain how this is being done. If I get a reply, I'll post a link here. Spam would be a real issue if schools are going to use blogs.