Report from the Boys and Girls Club Web page project: Two weeks before presentation and I am chewing my fingernails as the kids I'm working with simultaneously consider how to create text for the home page we are creating collaboratively and catch up on the latest gossip about Brittany Spears. This isn't a classroom, it's an after school program at the boys and girls club. Participation is entirely voluntary. I had my agenda and was pretty frustrated when they weren't seeming to follow any of it.
The kids have no problems opening up with a camera or video cam in their hands. But when it comes to words?!? You hit the nail on the head, Mrs. R: I'm going to be (and am)one exhausted ELA teacher. In a moment of ultimate frustration, I said, "why don't I just post some of these questions on a blog, let you think about them and write back?" HUH? BLOG? What's a blog?
O.k., so I didn't use this wonderful little tool in my project with the kids at all yet. Too busy sweating out the technical details of the web site, trying to garner the kids interest (easily established by popping cameras in their hands), and figuring out how to best work with groups that don't enjoy each other's company...
Hey, guess what? Blogs work! (O.k., o.k., profs, go ahead and say it: You told me so.) They loved the idea. The one group of 3 8th grade girls wrote more words as they created that blog than I have ever heard them speak collectively over the past month. Usually they sit together with these high tech phones (the name of this gadget is on the video for my presentation) talking online and intermittently to each other. I wish I had the stealth of a national geographic photographer and could sneak up on them to capture this phenomena without altering their behavior, but I digress...
So my agenda is changing. Instead of face to face focus groups to discuss what to write on the website, maybe our discussions will be more productive online... gives the chance to think and edit.
It's interesting... the 3-5 girls who meet in this group (there is another group of 3-5 boys) act TOTALLY disinterested. Sometimes I feel like I have roped and tied them into participating purely by my own enthusiasm. So I was shocked today when I suggested we look at another B&G club website to see what text they use...and one of the girls said, "We looked up another site the other day." (!!! INITIATIVE!!!) So this means something to them...they want to contribute. And to my surprise, the blog is becoming a better way to do that. Sometimes you just have to let the reigns of your own agenda go a little bit and try something different that might work better for them. Decentralizing authority.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Tamara, thanks so much for sharing this with us. I love any tangible, concrete evidence of what we study and discuss actually happening in the real world. I mean, sometimes I feel like our world of theory in the classroom is kind of detached from what's going on "out there" and it makes me wonder if all our theories can be implemented. But it sounds like the kids are really connecting with blogging and enjoying it. It's so encouraging to hear about blogs in action. I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing more about your project.
I find these kids' behaviors (and initiative) typical of teens and not surprising Tamara. And Tracie, I think you're going to see more of that real world in Jen Donegan's classroom very shortly!!
[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Dismiss Idle Downloads With NZB Downloads You Can Easily Find Movies, Games, MP3 Albums, Applications & Download Them @ Blazing Speeds
[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup[/B][/URL]
You could easily be making money online in the underground world of [URL=http://www.www.blackhatmoneymaker.com]seo blackhat forum[/URL], It's not a big surprise if you don't know what blackhat is. Blackhat marketing uses not-so-popular or misunderstood avenues to produce an income online.
Post a Comment