Impressions of the Russell Street School

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.

Comments

  1. 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 relates his day, or forget entirely to tell me of important happenings. I've learned of field days and special events this way, and I enjoy seeing the pictures. On the other hand, it is definitely a privacy concern. I know that everyone gets the opportunity to opt in or out of sharing their child's images on social media, but when I see a bunch of posts with dozens of student pictures, I wonder if someone actually took the time to check that all of the kids had parental permission to share the images.

    Another thing that comes to mind is the amount of time that this would take for each classroom. It could be a valuable use of time, but it's just one more thing. At my school, we have a media class that spends a significant chunk of time filming the school's daily announcements, sharing them with the staff, and posting them to Facebook for the community. A teacher has an off period (an hour a day) to make updates to the school's website, including pictures and events. In my classroom, I spend a chunk of each day updating Google Classroom, uploading assignments, and making sure that all of the students are able to access and understand the work. I occasionally use Remind to communicate, and I could use it more to share pictures and updates. But if I were to blog about classroom activities, and include pictures from each class, I would spend two or three times that amount of time. It's vital to communicate with parents and the community, but there just isn't enough time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At my school I updated our website. I asked to do this (without extra time given to me) because I felt communication is so critical. When I would post photos-I never shared students names. I also had knowledge as to who could not be photographed(very few). This was a time consuming job but I'll admit I really enjoy taking care of it! I'm also responsible for our daily news broadcast. This is somewhat built in to my schedule but time I spend completing this task is not reflected in the overall schedule. I agree with you communication is vital yet time is sparse!

      Delete
    2. That sounds awesome, Geri! Good for you for keeping everyone (and everything) updated! It's definitely time-consuming, but it sounds as if you find it rewarding.

      Delete
    3. Melissa, this was supposed to be posted as its own entry on this blog (and not as a comment to the prompt).

      Delete
  2. My 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 to post student information online. We have a digital disclaimer form that parents can sign if they are okay with students being pictured, but I have always been told not to post front, facial photographs of students. And, of course, if parents do not want their children’s photo posted online, we do not.

    Timeliness - As I perused the blogs, many of the entries were dated. Some of the blogging areas were not kept current or there was little or no interaction.

    Constraints - As a teacher, my concern would be how much time would be appropriate to spend on blogging. Students would need to be trained on digital citizenship and the art of blogging. Depending on the experience of the students using online digital tools and software, there might need to be instruction on downloading videos and pictures to the blog.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Philomena, this was supposed to be posted as its own entry on this blog (and not as a comment to the prompt).

      Delete
    2. Dr. Barbour,
      I apologize for posting this incorrectly. Could you point me in the direction of creating the post properly? I am not sure what to do.
      Thank you,
      Philomena :)

      Delete
    3. Last week you would have received an invitation to join this blog. Once you join, you can look at the Blogger content item in Moodle to see the instructions to post a blog entry.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scaffolding Blogging

Russell Street School Blog Review