Update : Student blogging challenge – 2 weeks in

I am thrilled with the progress and events of the past few weeks.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I have two groups, some with a little experience and some with no prior experience.

Highlights have included :

  • students taking the reins and being proactive – problem solving, finding their own purpose, developing an on-line identity and highlighting their unique skills, traits and interests
  • mentors (teachers from other places who volunteer to support other students) providing a supportive presence and excellent role modelling for commenting
  • beautiful interactions between students within classes, locally and globally by way of comments
  • opportunities for ICT and cybersafety skills to be discussed and practised within a meaningful environment.  We have had a few instances which provided genuine teaching moments about cybersafe behaviours.
  • the speed at which most students pick up the technicalities of embedding html code and the skills they demonstrated in sharing their skills
  • tangible excitement about the writing process due to the connectivity created through this networking opportunity

Sometimes these activities provide moments that affect the teachers more then our young students who are yet to see the full significance or have the global understandings required.  This week, one our our students, Gemma,  received a comment on her post which had explained that they were studying Democracy.  As it happens, the mentor assigned to Gemma was a student from Russia.  Lisabeth explained in heartfelt terms the situation for her :

gemma

We took the opportunity to discuss this with the students, to explain as best we could the contrast Lisabeth was providing.  As children do, they took it in at their own level but it was certainly powerful to the adults in the room !

I look forward to seeing where the rest of the challenge takes us.

 

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