The Guerilla Season Blog Project Rides Again!
Topic: Classroom Blogging

Last year 8th grade Social Studies teacher Eric Langhorst and his students engaged in a blogging project while they read The Guerilla Season. In addition to communicating regularly with the book's author, students blogged with at least one other class and a college professor whose field of study is the Civil War. The students' work ended up receiving international attention.

Last Friday, Langhorst posted a notice inviting interested teachers to join in on this year's blog project which will run from March 3rd to April 4th. If your students read The Guerilla Season, it's well worth checking out!

 

Technorati Tags: Eric Langhorst, Guerilla Season, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

 

New Tool from Google
Topic: Classroom Blogging

Google has just added a tool in Google Book that allows users to select and embed text from pages of books included in the Google Book collection into a blog post (see sample Shakespeare sonnet below) or web page. Selections may also be sent to Google Notebook.

The tool doesn't jump right out at you (it's just to the right of the grabber tool), but I think I can see where a teacher could use something like this to direct students' attention to a specific passage for a lesson. I think I'll keep an eye on what happens with it. 

 

 Technorati Tags: Google Book, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

The Guerrilla Season book blog
Topic: Classroom Blogging

I'm always looking for good examples of classroom use of blogs. I found the Guerrilla Season book blog awhile ago and have shared the site with a number of educators.

Now teacher Eric Langhorst has posted a video clip on Teacher Tube that describes how this project works. You can also download the clip here:

Download: Posted by speakingofhistory at TeacherTube.com.

Technorati Tags: Guerrilla Season, school administrators, Susan Brooks-Young

Very Cool School Library Site
Topic: Classroom Blogging

I review hundreds of district, school, and classroom sites every year. Needless to say, it takes something really special anymore for me to say, "Wow! This is very cool!!!" That happened this morning, thanks to a post on Will Richardson's blog.

Grandview Library Blog is very nicely done. The media specialist provides project organizers for students in grades 1-3 and a digital journal for 3rd graders. There are also links to student blogs and wikis. But the real gem is the Grandview Newspaper, featuring student writing, artwork, and multiple podcasts. Check it out!

Technorati tags: Will.Richardson, Grandview.Library.Blog, school.administrators, education

Mountain School Adventure
Topic: Classroom Blogging
This seems to be the day for classroom blogs! Fifth grade students from Alderwood Elementary School in Bellingham, WA recently took a trip to the Mountain School. Their teachers are using a blog to have students share what they learned and comment on one another's posts. They plan to invite other schools that visit Mountain School to use the blog as well. What a great opportunity to build a virtual community!

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Topic: Classroom Blogging
A group of 8th grade students at Murdoch Middle Charter Public School in Chelmsford, MA are doing a production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. As part of their preparation for the performance, the students are blogging. Rehearsal reflections and character sketches are just a couple of the categories. Check it out! A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Lesson Learned from Anne Davis
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Just returned from NECC 2005. One of the many interesting things that happened there was the use of vSkype to enable Anne Davis to join in on a panel discussion remotely. In the course of the panel, Anne talked about the things she has learned from using blogs with students. She later posted her thoughts on her blog. Important reading for teachers and administrators.

Ideas for Teacher/Classroom Blogs
Topic: Classroom Blogging
There have been several posts lately on the ed-tech insider blog about the use of blogs in classrooms. While much of the focus seems to be on the 'right' way to blog in class, Anne Davis referred to a posting she made a while back that offers a number of suggestions for ways teachers can get started-- either personally or instructionally. Check out her post Ways to use weblogs in education for some concrete, practical ideas.

Classroom Blog and Podcasts
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Maine teacher Bob Sprankle is blogging and podcasting with his grade 3 and 4 students. Here's a link to his site: Room 208.

I plan to include this site in my growing list of examples of how both teachers and students can use these technologies throughout the instructional day.

Collaborative Blogging Project
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Elementary (grade 4) and high school (grade 10) students in Canada are using a blog to collaborate on a science/animation project. The younger students are studying simple machines. In the course of their study, they are drawing a picture of a simple machine which the high school students are animating for them. The students are using the Simple Machine Blog to discuss their ideas about the animations. Sandra Gluth and Linda Alloway are the elementary teachers (The Academy at King Edward in Edmonton) and Pete Resco and Vivian Rusu are working with the high schoolers (Jasper Place High School).