EDTECH537 - Summer 2018

After researching Russell Street Schools communication through blogging, I was very intrigued.  I felt that it created a warm, fun environment.  As as parent, I would love to see what is going on in and out of my child's classroom in this way.  My youngest son (2) goes to a daycare that regularly posts pictures and updates to their facebook page.  This is such a fun way to see my son happy and engaged when I normally wouldn't see this, since I am not there.  It's hard to get much out of my oldest son (11) besides the fact that his day was good.  I don't get many details, so seeing him and his classmates write blog posts about their experiences would be great talking points for us.  I see how it could make parents feel like they are more a part of their child's school experience, especially if they are unable to attend events like many parents do in elementary school. My only concern is privacy like many others have stated.  I am sure that Russell Street School had

After reviewing the Russell Street School's website, I found the use of blogging very intriguing. I enjoyed seeing all of the blogs being used as a form of communication for the parents. I was very impressed with just how organized everything was. It was also amazing to see that as students get older they are allowed to post their own guest blog from time to time. I could tell that these students really have a community within their own school. Each classroom has their own online presence and one can really feel that just by reading their blogs. I believe this is a great way for students to be involved and a better way for teachers to communicate with parents. I will be bringing this idea up to my administration as a way for us to communicate better with parents and I hope that they will be receptive to the idea.

My first impression of the Russell Street School's use of blogging is wow. I was expecting the blog to be moderated and curated by 1 person but the entire school seems to be involved. Each class has a blog where parents can see what their student is doing and the teacher can keep you informed on whats going on class wise. Students are also active participants and have individual entries. These range from projects to simple posts. I like to keep up to date with my daughter's school but have to wait for the school to post updates. I like the personal feel and the active participation that is put into this school's blog. The blog also has links to assemblies, clubs, radio station, sports and many other useful links for the community. I believe that they make great use of this site and a hub for all things related to the school. Many times, we get lost looking for information on our child's school's website. This blog is well put together and easy to navigate. I do qu

I think, like any teacher who is struggling to figure out where blogs fit into her/his classroom, what Russell Street School is doing is pretty dang impressive. I teach high school, so I would never have considered blogs could be used so effectively with elementary students. As I looked through the blogs from the classrooms and groups in the Russell Street building, there were a couple of thoughts in my mind. Time. How much time does it take these teachers to maintain their blogs? I know these teachers' curriculum is full of required material and the amount of grading they have already feels insurmountable. How much extra time does it take them to maintain their blog for their classroom? What is the time cost? Publishing permission. There are a lot of pictures of kids on Russell Street's blogs, which is so fun to view. However, my foster son, by the laws of my state, is not allowed to have his picture posted online. What happens in this situation at Russell Street? Wouldn&#

EDTECH 537 - Russell Street School Impressions This website is very engaging. It has a great deal of pictures and information. As I was going through the blogs, I enjoyed looking at all of the interesting things that are going on, but I did notice a few things that I could comment about: Communication - The avenue for communication in the blogs is wonderful! There were some blogs where parents made comments on their child’s work or things going on in the classroom blog. Additionally, the blogs contained requests posted by the teachers asking for contributions needed for the class. Some of the posts were about classroom activities and assignments completed in class by students, so it was very interesting to look at. Safety - I noticed some phone numbers and personal information posted. There were front facial pictures of small children. Names were listed on many occasions. There were videos posted with student names of the student speaking. In my school district, we are not allowed t

I was impressed how blogging was used as a means of communication for the school. As I was looking around on the sites, I noticed that they have switched to a different system. I could not tell if it was still technically a blog, but really it functioned the same way. I was impressed by how organized they appear to be. There is really no excuse for parents to not be in the loop when it comes to events at the school or in their child's classroom. The teachers all have their own feed where they post pictures and updates that should help the parents feel included in what is going on in the classroom. I loved that.  I felt like I could feel a sense of community at this school even though I am thousands of miles away from them and have never met a soul who works there. They have truly created an online community with their blogging. Everyone knows what is going on and can be involved . My own school has been trying to figure out a way to help the parents stay more connected with eve

I can tell that the Russell Street School put a lot of effort into their blog. Their dedication is evident. This school is busy doing good things. It was fun to see what they had been learning and doing. There were several things that I liked, but there were things that didn't float my boat either.  I liked that it the school was connected. All of the classes had a blog. Readers could find the link to every class. I liked that the posts incorporated a wide variety of post types. (List, Links, Multimedia, etc). The school was united in connecting the school to home. I liked how I could see the student work through not just pictures, but videos as well.  ' I didn't like several things about the blog. To me, it seemed chaotic, scattered, and too full of information. It's good to be connected to parents, but this seemed a bit much. I was overwhelmed with navigating to the class sites. I think it would be more beneficial if it were a simpler set-up. Most of the inform

After reviewing the Russell Street School's classroom blogs, I noticed the following: Frequency of posting - Some classrooms posted very frequently (over 100 posts) and some classrooms have less than 10 posts. I would be curious if teachers were given time during the school day or after school in order to maintain the blogs. It appears that some teachers incorporated the blogs into their daily lessons with students and allowed the students to write some posts so that's partly why there are so many posts. I would be curious to know if parents of children in the classrooms that have less than 10 posts complained about a lack of activity on the blog. Content - Content on the blogs ranged from pictures of student work, videos, photos of daily student activities, and class reminders/announcements. I personally would be nervous about posting photos with students' faces but maybe at Russel Street School, the parents have signed a photo release for students. It's a nice cha

Browsing through the Russell Street blogs, I was very impressed. As a parent, to be able to see what my kids are up to all day would be awesome. I also love that you can see what other classes are doing, so there is a sense of community. They have a good mix of written, video, and picture posts. Team 6s has one of the best blogs. On there’s you could really see so much of what was happening in the classroom. One of the posts had students (or the teacher for the students) commenting on Twitter in response to a book they were reading (I love Wonder! Such a great book!!!). I loved looking through each student’s blog and seeing how they were documenting their learning. It looks like they have a great sense of ownership. I was impressed that the students were even labeling each post with tags. It shows that they are learning more than just writing. Categorizing, technology and so much more can be approached with their blogs. I noticed the different levels of blogging. The younger cla

After visiting the Russell Street Schools website, I was very impressed with the level of innovation. Every grade has an updated and functioning blog that the frequently post to and comment on. I noticed looking through each grades blog that the level of involvement from the students gets greater as the students progress through school. I loved that in the younger grades the students used seesaw to incorporate their learning in class onto the blog through videos the student made themselves. In the older grades, I saw that they were posting in their blog almost daily about the daily activities they do. I did also wonder if this is something the school requires teachers to do with their class or if it is something all choose to do? I am also curious about how long this takes teachers to do every day or week? Do they have students post the blog in older grades or are teachers solely the one posting? I was also noticing that there are a lot of whole class pictures and pictures of stude

When looking through the Russell Street School blogs, it at first reminded of me of what our principal does with his blog. He calls it the Harter Happenings (our school is Harter Middle School) and he posts it every week on Friday. It has upcoming events, meetings, and information that we need to know as teachers. In addition, he also has shoutouts and awards based on teacher recommendations. The first page I looked at reminded me of this as it had different events and activities that were taking place in the school. So using a blog as a way to keep parents informed of events taking place in the community and school would be something to think about creating. One of the new things that I took away from looking at the different levels' blogs is to use it to have students showcase work they are proud of and why. Using it as a reflection tool is great and helps them get more engaged in the classroom. Quite a few of the blogs had either teacher or student posted pictures and videos o

Browsing the Russell Street School website I was very impressed by what I saw. There is a significant amount of information about their school for parents, students, and even us looky-loos. I really like the four key components that they list for their students; empowering, agency, innovation, and leadership. I have a few friends from New Zealand and I was delighted to watch the video of their Kapa Hala performance along with other cultural music. Where I really dug in was the Google Site and the blog postings for the various classrooms. In the earlier years, it appears that the blog posts for the classrooms came primarily from the teacher or teacher directed prompts. The posts are still valuable, especially from the standpoint of a parent, as it gives insight into the daily activities and a glimpse of what's going on at school. Most of the student activity appears to be in the form of comments on the items posted by the instructor. As I continued looking at the blogs of cla

I had mixed thoughts as I looked at the websites. They were very pretty, very professional in appearance, which is what you would expect to see from your school. It looks as if they have begun using other communication channels, though, and are no longer using these sites. The main page notes that they are moving to School Stream as of February, 2018. The blog pages do not appear to be updated, either. I could be wrong, but I got the feeling that the blogs were something that was required of the classes for a period of time, probably by administration, but either they were no longer required (the focus shifted, again) or they were using another channel to communicate this information. Perhaps they were given a training and everyone was motivated for a time! My school district uses Facebook to communicate with the community, and I have mixed feelings about that, too. I like seeing what the kids are doing at school. And my son, who just turned ten, is likely to mix things up when he rela

I browsed around on the Russell Street School website . I think that they did a good attempt to provide their target population with a platform where they post information about the school. However, the "People" was broken. I would think this is a key page to their website that should be working asap. It would be nice to see see students' work on the site. I do like how they offer the "Shop" link where parents can pay for fees that are associated with school.  I'm a little familiar with Google Sites. It seems like they have tried to gather various blogs from their school to one location in their schools Google Site . The calendar is very helpful to see at the top of the page. The blog post seem like they are  sporadic. It would be nice if there were more constant posts to keep the attention of their readers.  I also noticed that they have separate school apps that they promote for their school where there is additional communication. I have learned that

My impressions after viewing the Russell Street School blogs As a parent,  I would have loved to have had access to this living documentation of my child’s educational experience.  What a great way to stay connected to the happening of the school environment!  I could imagine sharing it with family members who are not geographically close.  Working parents who may not have the opportunity to participate in school activities could feel a part of the school community with such blogs.      I wondered about student safety.  Posting photos, names, and the location makes me nervous.  As internet safety is a huge part of my curriculum,  I was surprised by the blogs lack of security.  On one post I saw a child’s name and number.  Anyone can access it.  I was hopeful to see the school was moving towards School Stream possibly a more secure communication system.  I briefly browsed the new system and was able to read notifications however I did not see the vast amount of photos or student wo

When visiting the Russell Street School's site I noticed that as the students passed from grade to grade they became more involved in the daily blogging activities. I started off by looking at the activities from the youngest grade and found that they were all teacher-led or created. I then skipped around some of the other grades and found that as the students matured they were the ones more often publishing content. I can only imagine that the level of involvement at the higher grades was due to the mentoring and scaffolding at the lower grades. Here are my thoughts on some of those activities Little Einsteins- this is the youngest group at the school and they still have a blog! The teachers post photos with captions of the day's activities including mishaps and accomplishments on the playground. Parents then are able to see firsthand as well as comment on the activities in the classroom. Much of this has to do with good citizenship. Room 4- This is a group of 1st and 2

If you haven't taken the opportunity already, visit the website for the  Russell Street School  (also look at  their Google Site page ) in Palmerson North, New Zealand. Spend some time looking at the blogging activities of the students. Go to the sites, scroll down and click on some of the Student Blogs and see what the students have been up to. In looking through how this school - from teachers to students - use blogging as a part of their educational experience, what are your impressions of what you have seen? You should post your response to this prompt as a unique entry on this blog. Please accept the invitation that you received to join this blog and then post your response.