Why Blog? About us...

Welcome to the world of networked intelligence!

How Ms Lees' Classes began blogging....

It started with reflections in Hum 8 and my experimentation / sharing of my English 9 literary blogging with the classes in the fall of 2011.   Research has shown that students who become more conscious of the skills or concepts they are learning in lessons, through identifying and articulating them in the form of reflections and connections,  retain more of their learning.  They also become better at understanding what is important in individual lessons.  We began these reflections on paper at the beginning of the year feedback offered orally to individual students and the whole class.   

This year, upon advice and reflections of students and teacher last year, we began adapting our learning logs to Learning bLogs.  These metacognitive skills are developed together as posts first before students prepare portfolio selections later in the year.

Where do we go from here?  
We will use group blogs for varied purposes throughout the year including creative writing, current events, project work,.... They will evolve with our class needs.

Using our blogs, rather than your own social media networks, allows me to see your critical thinking, collaborative and problem solving skills. It also allows us to learn how to become responsible active digital citizens in an increasingly connected world.

More and more students, public school, post-secondaries, and businesses are using blogs, web pages and other online communications in the real world with many benefits and concerns.  I hoped by starting conversations, modelling and actively using blogs, I could help my students become more aware of their public voice and using online communications for more professional purposes and to enhance their learning.  So, I started blogging with my 3 classes in 2011 for the first time with varied success.  Each year and each group of students are unique and we continue to learn together. 

Each of my classes have had a slightly different focus for their class blogs with me setting up a "Home Base" Blog, like this one,  for each class.  All of my class blogs are linked under My Blog List if you are interested in seeing what is going on in my other classes.

Learning Intentions or  skills being developed on our blogs include ….

English   -Developing literary writing skills that incorporate...

•  making connections between varied texts (poems, novels, movies,...) and lessons
• responding to "Big Picture" questions with references to literature
• writing skills - in particular, multi-paragraph writing
• reading / responding  other students' writings and offering specific constructive criticism
• being mindful of writing for a "public" audience (more authentic to real world applications than writing only for a teacher)
• To be able to see / have an online record their writing skills developing throughout the semester
• to share with a wider audience, including parents
• to work on collaboration skills - similar to a literature circle format for class group discussions, but in writing
• developing digital literacy skills 

Humanities 8 - Most of the above still applies but the subject of our writings have been in the form of Learning Blogs described under Blog Expectations.  Later we will be varying our reading, writing and
groups for different purposes.  For example these may include:  creative writing, current events responses, blogging with classes around Surrey and beyond.

Law 12: 

• Same as above for writing expectations, but the expectations are higher given the students are seniors
• Responding to legal and ethical cases / issues in the news
• Responding to class discussions
• Making connections between lessons, discussions and the news

These were some of our learning intentions behind our blogs.  Later I will share our reflections:  did we meet? exceed? or uncover more learning intentions / questions?