The 100 Word Challenge

This week I tried the 100WC with my students for the first time.
If you have never heard of the 100 Word Challenge, then you can find out more about how to enter on their website: 100wc.net
Basically, once a week, some amazingly committed and enthusiastic educator posts a writing prompt and then children from all over the world write 100 words inspired by the prompt and posts it to a class or student blog.
The great thing about the 100WC is that the students can become part of a global community of young writers who are all working together to get better at their craft.
A team of dedicated parents and teachers (known as Team 100WC) volunteer to read and comment on the students' work. Students who enter are also encouraged to read other entries and to comment on other people's work.
At the end of the week a select few entries are chosen to be the "showcase entries" for the week. This gives students something to aim for, but also an easy way to identify some entries that are good examples of writing.
It was only our first round, but I was so excited by the way that my class were so motivated to write, read, reflect, write, read and write as they posted their own work and commented on their classmates and read the comments they received.
We did have some discussion about comments the week before.
I used the T.H.I.N.K. acronym to introduce a discussion about what might be appropriate or inappropriate in an online discussion. Since some of my kids have appeared to have confused blog comments with "chat", we really discussed the "helpful" and "necessary" components. I added to our blog expectations that the comments needed to be on topic, as opposed to random chit-chat.

We also watched one of my good-ole-favrits: Mrs Yollis' Guide to Writing Quality Comments.

This week as part of our focus on the qualities of a good learner, we looked at the role of feedback in helping us to reflect on our work so that we can improve.
I can never get sick of the video about Austin's Butterfly on the effectiveness of good feedback, and any student or teacher I have watched it with has enjoyed it as much as I have. It really helps students to visualise how learning can improve when they receive and reflect on good feedback.

After discussing the role of feedback and watching this video, the students were excited about the prospect of getting feedback on their own writing, and the quality of the feedback they gave to each other was much better than the usual "Good job" or "Nice story" because they had an understanding of what good feedback might look like.
I would like to get the students to read the feedback they received from me, their peers, parents and other readers from around the globe to set themselves a personal goal for their writing that they can work on for the rest of this term.
If you would like to give them some more feedback, I am sure they would love for you to read and comment on their work. Our 100 Word Challenges can be found at: http://mrsbathamsclass.edublogs.org/
We will continue to work on writing comments and feedback throughout the year.
Yesterday I found another good website that also promotes writing using peer feedback: http://www.writeabout.com/
I particularly like their guides to writing comments and self and peer review.
They have a great little poster that I might add to my growing collection of "tech help" on my back wall:

WriteAbout have also produced a short, student and parent friendly guide to writing comments which elaborates on the messages in this poster.

It is early days yet with our writing, but if we can maintain our enthusiasm, the 100 Word Challenge seems to be a very useful resource for improving student writing!

Parent Communication

Lorraine, from Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies, is hosting a link party about Parent Communication and I thought I would join up, even though it is Friday night and just reading other people's run downs on all the amazing things they do is making me exhausted!

I totally agree with Lorraine's concerns about the possibilities of e-mail communication being misinterpreted. I am super conscious of this every time I type an email. I always worry that someone is going to take offence at something that was never intended to be offensive!
Having said that though, email remains my absolute favourite way of communicating with parents.
Since I got an iPhone two years ago, checking my emails on the run has become a habit. E-mail with most of my parents is reasonably quick and reliable, and since I have a good relationship with most of them, they will respond quickly if they are not sure about what I meant in a short message.
It is a problem for some parents that I like to communicate this way. I avoid paper copies because I am trying not to photocopy too much and I get frustrated by the number of notes left lying around the bag rack that will never make it home, despite the fact that each child has a special satchel in which to put notes and I always ask them to put their notes in there.
I e-mail the parents as a group at least once a week. I email the homework out on Fridays so that they have the weekend to do it if needed, and then it is due the following Friday. And I usually do an email about something we have been learning about in class, perhaps with some hints about follow up they might like to do with their own child if they think it is necessary.
The parents at my school are very dedicated to their children and are usually very busy, whether or not they work outside of the home or not. Between ballet lessons, rugby training and piano lessons, they and the students lead busy lives so a quick email is usually a good way to keep in touch.
Besides email, I have my class blog which chronicles our learning experiences and is a great way for parents to see what we are doing.
Each child also has a Reading Record book so the parents can record home reading, but I also use this book to keep their spelling and math test results in so parents can see these if they want.
I do occasionally make phone calls to parents, but I find that I am busy all day at school and then once I get home I am busy then too. Trying to find a quiet place to make a call can be a challenge!
I also get the chance to chat with many of the parents at drop off or pick up since many of them have little ones and they come into the school in the mornings or the afternoons.
So there you have it - not as formal and comprehensive as some of the amazing posts that I have read, but it works for me!

Feedback Please!

I have created a blog for my class this year. I have picked pretty colours and created some pages but there is not much content there yet because I haven't started the year.
Please take a look at my class blog and let me know what else I might need or how to make it simpler for my students and parents to navigate.
This is the third time I have attempted this so I want it to be a success this year.
Constructive feedback very welcome...

The blog is called "A Year in Year 2".

Third time lucky

I have decided to try a class blog this year - again.
I have tried this before using different platforms but had little success.
The first time was in 2007 when I was teaching Year 1. It started off with good intentions but I ran into a few hiccups and it fell by the wayside. Looking back, one of my issues was a concern about student privacy which meant that I put so many restrictions on the posts and comments that it became hard work and not engaging for the students. We also had technical issues. We use Macs at school (and I do at home now) and at the time the kids could not post comments from a Mac for some reason. I had parents who would come in to assist me with helping the children to post and comment but most of the time we couldn't get the computers to even log on to the blog to read it. Very frustrating. This was coupled with a lack of access to digital cameras and no way of uploading the pictures simply. So it died a death. A good experiment, but it failed.
The second time I tried a blog was 2010. I used a blog site that was super protected - to the point that the blog had no audience. With no audience, it had no purpose. It fizzled quickly.
So now I am trying again. Third time lucky.
I think the real reason that my first two class blogs failed is becoming clearer. I can try to pass the blame on to lack of technology or restrictive use policies, but the real reason these blogs failed is because I didn't really understand why I wanted my students to blog.
I had heard of blogs and I knew other people were doing it but I didn't really get it.
I have spent some time reading about class blogs lately and I am certainly inspired.
I am part way through a series on Learning About Blogs FOR Your Students.
This lead me to discover this wonderful class blog by Linda Yollis. Linda Yollis also has a fantastic site which explains the whys and hows of class blogging. It is very inspiring.

So now with only a few days till school commences for the year, I feel excited about the journey that I am about to begin with my new class. It will be so much fun learning together!