Technology Reflections

Today I set up accounts for my 7th grade reading class. I worked out a few of the bugs from the experiences with the 8th graders yesterday, but it still wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked. I need to learn that as long as I learn from mistakes, it’s OK to make mistakes (there’s a great passage from the Phantom Tollbooth that says just that). Anyway – I managed to get all the 7th graders logged on to their accounts and posting today. I had a few false starts when I forgot to add a class as users and they had to repost their comments. Luckily, I had had them copy and past their posts into a word document for safe keeping while I figured this all out.

The 8th grade class went better today, too. Yesterday I had them post reflections on this past school year. Today I had them write a book review like I had the 7th graders doing. The kids were pulling me all sorts of ways during class and I was getting aggravated, but at the end of class as I was summing up the class for them, I realized that every one of them had been actively engaged in their writing and the reason they were all clamoring for my attention at once was because they all wanted me to see what they had written. I have the blog set so that I have to approve of each comment before it is published. I was pulling up finished comments and editing them with each student. It was also showing on the overhead screen. After a few students saw what I was doing, the “Read mine next” appeals started. While it was hectic at the time, I realize now that good learning was going on.