A New Discovery

I have stumbled upon another great tool on Google: Discussion Boards. I know...nothing new. But, what I realized is that this is a wonderful way for students to turn in papers and get peer feedback with little work from me! A new concept, I know.

I have been using wikis, which have been wonderful, but for a short way to post papers and have them accessible quickly, this is incredible. Check out my seniors' summary response papers. Notice that they haven't quite figured out where to post (all papers should have been under Pages), but once they move them, what an easy way to 1) see if kids typed, titled, included a works cited, etc. and 2) have students respond to each others' writings. They are going to do that Wed. night providing feedback on the writing and their arguments. It should be interesting. I think it's also a great way to "practice" posting responses to reading because this is rampant in college. Professors ask a minimum of 5 postings per class and expect longer responses than a paragraph. This way, our students practice their summarizing, paraphrasing, documentation, and learn how to argue a point logically and with evidence.

Pay It Forward is Having Success

My seniors have really "stepped it up" and have put together a really fantastic event to raise money for a Hopkins Elementary student who has terminal cancer. See the Pay It Forward wiki to read their ideas. Teenagers can really be amazing.

Debates

Thank you for your responses and questions. I know that I have a heightened sensitivity, to a fault.

Movin' on.

Take 5--Cross Referencing Blogs

Amazing. So the "Do you know" movie has gone viral and so has the fischbowl, and many of our posts. I am cross-referencing between blogs as another way to connect. So often you hear people critique technology, saying it creates a chasm between human connections. Actually at times, I feel a little overwhelmed how connected I am! Not more isolated! Communicating with teachers thousands of miles away, debating with colleagues in a less confrontational way just adds another dimension, another to-do task on my list , but more importantly, it adds more ways to think about the world.

Here's an example of cross-referencing other blogs: http://1001teachers.blogspot.com/2007/03/from-student-apathy-to-global.html
(this is a blog that I'm writing on in response to the collaboration with S. Korea and Hawaii).