Publishing Writers

I was much more of a writer when I was in third grade. Probably because then, in my heart, I knew one day I would be one. Though I'm not published in the larger market, I think my younger self would be glad to know I've now authored three separate books available exclusively in my classroom library.

I remember spending a great deal of time devoted to publishing and reproducing my work at my father's work place. I sat in a corner of his secretary's office in front of a great, electric typewriter. As Regina tapped the keys of her new computer keyboard, I tapped out the stories of a kangaroo named Hopper and his forest pals... slightly more letter-by-letter. Upon the completion of a one page story (in all capitals), I would take my paper upstairs to the copy machine. I decided on some number and hit the big round button. In a matter of hours I was published and ready for distribution.

It was as instant as my publishing could get.

Yesterday in my own third grade classroom (this time with me as the teacher and my 15 students as the writers) I showed them how instant their own publishing can be with BLOGS :) I expected them to be excited (they were), but I didn't expect how speedy and truly autonomous they would be with this form of publishing and distribution.

We took a tour of my own Blogging interactions, looking into my personal art blog and that of our school librarian. I talked about my "Reading List" and we explored the make up and set up of the two blogs. Then the kids talked to each other about what other things they imagined could go into someone's personal Blog. When they decided you can write about things in your Blogs we turned to an example I received in my Standards Based Technology course.

You could tell the fire was lit when we found a list of kids' names to click on to see what he or she had written. We found another Nick in the world ("Not the one in our class, though!" they said). We read what he wrote and they discovered the link to his "Comments". They read the compliments from his classmates and Nick's own mother ("not the Nick from our class"). When we started to give Nick our own compliment, filling out the criteria for our post: name, email, website.... At website we stopped (dramatically because it's more fun that way) and I ranted about how cool it would be if we, 3-206, had our own website - or better yet - our own BLOG!!

The kids cheered, my partner teacher hoorah-ed, I said "WOOOOO... we already have one." And took us to the start of our own blog site.

The kids planned and wrote short articles about Ancient Egypt (the final project to a social studies investigation). When the first partnership published over my laptop, one of them typed as the other jumped up and down with glee, reading their work to the other as their writing glowed over our interactive whiteboard. The whole class clapped when the first post was made - then continued feverishly to finish their own to type in their own entry space. The next group typed brilliantly!!! And located the blue "Publish" button on their own when they were done. By the end of the day half of the students had published - with a solid promise to finish on Monday.

Afterwards my partner teacher told me she wished the day were longer so she could even learn more about our new blogosphere. One student said he "thought we were going to make our own. Can I at home?" It felt great to have all that excitement!!

School lets out on a Friday at 2:40 at our school. Arriving at home by 3:45 I checked my email when my home computer finished booting up. Already in my in-box was a comment from a parent to moderate :)

Title and Entry

My initial goal with this blog was to document the world of a public school teacher - to bring light on the job we do through my postings. Now that we're in the 6th month of school (93 school days and counting) and I haven't made it past the first entry until now, I'll admit the escapades of being a full-blown teacher AND a full blown-(grad)student got in the way of being a full-blown blogger.

Time for take two...

I think this round will be much more successful as I will not only be writing as part of a community of educational bloggers but I will also be reading as part of a community of educational bloggers (the piece of the puzzle I was most notably missing in my first attempt), so as not only to put out information and experience but to bring in these knowledges as well.

Taking this professional step will not only allow us all to open our classroom doors and share those small moment commonalities we have, but also allows us to see past our classroom and school and find answers from other voices with similar (and differing) experiences. Sometimes in the school day you can feel how inside our own walls we are, forgetting that "it's not just P.S. ###".

Our students, too, can be so jaded.

In fact, it's possible for some students to not hear an idea or opinion of a students in the very same room as them, let alone the same city, country or world. After weeks of drafting, revising and editing most of our writing work hangs on a board in a hallway that can't always be stopped to look at. Some works are stapled too high for young arms to reach. Parents can't make it to publishing parties, students can't take work home.

Through blogging we can not only open up our students' voices to a greater community, but we can give them their work to share within their smaller communities as well. In the past three years I have been teaching I have rarely been able to allow my kids to take home their prided personal narrative, or an article they researched and drafted in the classroom because it had to be saved for end-term portfolios or some kind of "proof of purchase" for the next grade. Through publishing on a class blog students would be able to share their hard-work with their parents the night it is finished, instead of months and months after. Classes could browse other classes work in the school. In imagining it it feels like kids would have a stronger sense of pride in their work, a sense that their efforts won't be as easily overlooked... because even a stranger could stumble upon their information on the internet.