Mozilla's Firefox Browser
Topic: Blogging Basics
I downloaded an RSS Reader a while back. It works well, when I remember to open it! My brother just told me about a free browser, Firefox, which has the capability of setting up live bookmarks. So it's an RSS Reader, but not a separate piece of software to remember. I downloaded it and it works really well. It's also supposed to help avoid some of the security issues found with Internet Explorer. You might want to check it out.

A Book about Blogging
Topic: Classroom Blogging
It?s Blog-Wednesday again!This week, Sandra Gluth points us to a Blook:

"Well... here is an incredibly helpful blook (book about blogs) written by
fifth grade students from J. H. House Elementary school in Conyers, Georgia.
This is a must-have for any teacher even considering using blogs in the
classroom."

(Mac users - I had trouble getting the blook to load in both Safari and
MSIE. However it did work when I tried FireFox... )

Blogging in Workshops
Topic: Blogging Basics
I decided to try using the blog to gather information from participants during a workshop. The post for November 14 posed a question about multiple measures that I wanted to have them respond to during the session. In the past, this would have been a large group brainstorming session. This time, I asked them to talk in pairs or trios, come up with ideas, and then post a comment to the question. Despite the fact that only 3 of the 70 participants had heard of a blog before (and none had used one), they were able to do this with about 3 minutes direct instruction on how to make the post. Besides providing everyone an opportunity to contribute, and the ability to use the responses right then to have a brief discussion, there's now an archive that participants can return to later. I'm going to do this again! And everyone wanted to learn more about blogging in a future session!

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."