Quadblogging in Third Grade

-
Our students are quite expressive.  Many are great writers.  In two of our 3rd grade classrooms students expressed an interest in writing reviews online about books and movies they enjoyed.  After a conversation with the teachers about how to do this I thought Quadblogging would be a perfect fit for them, allowing them to reach a greater audience of their peers.  For those that don't know the term, Quadblogging consists of 4 classrooms (in our case 4 schools with 5 classrooms) taking turns blogging. One school hosts and writes posts for the the week and the remaining three classrooms reply.  

I encouraged the teachers to sign up at the "official" Quadblogging website.  They received no response so I emailed the site manager. Again, no response.  Next I took to Twitter, tagging the manager of the quadblogging site.  And again.....nothing.  I am disappointed that no one had the courtesy to reply. Had I been a brand new teacher and gotten this type of response I probably would have quit, discouraged.  Instead, I decided to search for schools on my own.  The one positive thing I can say about the Quadblogging site is that it contained an open spreadsheet with a list of emails of educators interested in blogging.  I picked about 10 people that fit our age band and sent a blind email: 


To my surprise, three schools responded!  Some had experience with Quadblogging and one was new like us.  I created a slideshow that each school could use to introduce the project and to introduce themselves.



When the project concluded I created a survey to ask our students what they thought of the experience.  Their responses are below.  In all, it was a successful adventure, one that we hope to do again!  If any of you are interested, please let me know nmzumpano@cps.edu









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Twenty Years is Worth Two Cents

-
Image
Time It’s been an interesting year.  My twins entered middle school (time flies).  My mom died unexpectedly leaving me parentless with probate and a house built by my grandfather in 1948 (time stands still).  Oh…and CPS is shuttering my school  (time to move?). The school I’ve built my career at and spent the last twenty years with students. I sat in the library with my colleagues and was read two scripts; one by my principal and one by a Chicago Public School Central Office employee.  With that, it was done (or in the beginning phase of 'done'). Teachers were told to “have a good day of teaching and learning” (one of our daily mantras) and were sent off to teach their students after just being told our school was not remaining open after this school year but our building would remain open with a new faculty and three student bodies.   George Leland school would inhabit our building while May Community Academy and Louis Armstrong Math & Science Elementary would be
Read more

Understanding Plagiarism

-
Image
Our middle school is 1:1 with Chromebooks so students spend a fair amount of time researching topics online.  A teacher noticed there is a lot of copying and pasting of information by students and asked me to come in and have a conversation about plagiarism.  I developed a Prezi with an accompanying notes guide for the students to complete as I presented the content to them.  The Prezi and notes guide are below.  As we wrapped up the students were able to use their Chromebooks for a bit of fun (with a topic that isn't so fun).  We played a Kahoot game where they reviewed concepts about plagiarism from their guide.  They loved it!  What I loved is that Kahoot also provides a summary of student responses to the game- I can see which students missed specific questions which allows me to follow up if needed. Resources used in the presentation (good for teachers and students): http://www.plagiarism.org http://en.writecheck.com (this has a plagiarism checker available) https://o
Read more

Water the Flowers, Not the Rocks: Tips from 10 Years of Instructional Coaching

-
This June I wrapped up ten years of instructional technology coaching. Soon (tomorrow, in fact) I will begin a new journey in my career where I will still utilize my coaching skills but in a different capacity. This new opportunity has caused me to reflect on lessons learned throughout my time as a school-based coach. If you are a coach or aspire to be one following are ten tips I've learned during my ten years in the role. Be a model . Practice what you preach! If you want your teachers to join Twitter make sure you are already there. If they would like to try a new tool or lesson familiarize yourself with it first in order to lend additional support. Be honest . If you don't know something, say so. As a coach, your faculty will look to you as an expert. There have been several times throughout my career that I've said, "I don't know that tool/concept/strategy but let me see what I can find out about it." If you are a former classroom teacher, remind peo
Read more