Prelude: Twitter as Teacher Twitter has become a reading and watching adviser for me. The 400 or so people in my Twitter network tweet a TinyURL link and a succinct blurb, and if it catches me at the right time and place, BAM, I’m reading and thinking and learning and reflecting – and, as now, [...]

I read a recent post from the Edina School District (wherever that is ) called Student Blogging that brings up Will Richardson’s recent post requesting examples of a certain type of student blogging he wants to use, presumably, as a (or is it “the”? That’s a key question) model. Here’s Will: Maybe I’m asking too [...]

Tuna’s Aquarium via kwout Christina Kang is a senior in my AP Literature class, a leader of Project Global Cooling, a Flixn star of a summer post (see her discuss a David Sedaris short story in a video embed here), and one wonderfully creative and natural student blogger. I want to introduce her blog to [...]

I’ve chronicled my ups and downs with turning my students onto passion-based, self-directed learning via “Visionary Classroom Blogging” since starting the project back in October or so.  In saner moments, I’ve also reminded them and myself that blogging magic doesn’t happen overnight.  My own experience, stumbling about like a drunk through my own first month [...]

In my second Open Thread a few days ago, “Your Dream Elective Class for a 1:1 Laptop High School?“, I invited any comers to propose a beyond-the-box fantasy for an elective “English Workshop” class I began this week. Sean Law of the new Slam Teaching blog (again, a must-read blog for anybody more interested in [...]

Lesson learned: if you start a digital video, finish it quickly. I started this months ago as part of the “Visionary Student Blogging” project for my AP Literature seniors. Some crazy introductory idea that I hoped would help them see how blogging could be an escape from school-as-usual. I didn’t finish it the way I [...]

I’ve chronicled my fantasies (and here) and ice-water reality-baths about this project so far. I told you last week or so how my initial approach – to invite buy-in rather than “assign homework” – didn’t work. Too many students were simply not writing. That carrot failing, I went “teacher-y” and used the grade stick. It’s [...]

If you’ve got an hour to burn, you might enjoy watching Will Richardson and Gary Stager in this moderated keynote discussion at NYSCATE recently. (h/t to David Jakes for “bootlegging” it with his laptop for UStream.) Stager’s skepticism about much of the edublogosphere discourse is a healthy corrective for the “cheerleader 2.0″ bandwagon we’re all [...]

Comments from friendly supporters encouraged me to be patient, to be realistic, to not give up on the “Visionary Student Blogging” / Connective Writing senior project. All good advice that I needed to hear and remember. Then I checked my Bloglines for new posts from my seniors. I found this from Nicole: . . . [...]

Sometimes you just want to give up. Instead, I’ll go transparent and see what ideas, counsels, or commiserations come from sharing. It’s about the “Visionary Student Blogging” connective writing project. The problem? Little vision, little connective writing. It’s partly senioritis, I think. College applications, SAT’s, too many commitments to too many extra-curricular activities (got to [...]