Writing Clubs

Something exciting that has started to happen in my class recently is the formation of 'Writing Clubs'. The thing I find most exciting about this is that children who haven't been that excited about writing before are suddenly showing an interest and are motivated to get together with others to write. 

It all started when a group of boys decided to write a story called 'Manventure'. They created the Google document and shared it to each person in the group. They had meetings about it and discussions about when they would work on it at home. This was something totally student led and has encouraged other students to create writing clubs of their own. One child made a Google form and sent it out to the class asking who would be interested in working with him on a story he wanted to write. Students filled in the form stating what role they would like to take. Some students have put their names down to work in more than 1 club. 

This is just the beginning of the idea and I need to give it some room to grow and see where it takes us. Because we are currently working on narrative writing in Year 4, I have cleared the weeks writing schedule for children to work in their 'writing clubs'. I will keep you posted on their progress.

'Chatting' while Working

The most loved function of Google Docs in my class this year has definitely been chat. My students get so excited to open chat in their documents. Although chat can also become a distraction if not used in the correct way - the pro's far out way any con's. Students are able to ask others questions in real time while they are working - this could be to do with how to spell a word or what to do next in their work. They can also chat to me if they are not in the same room as I am. 

My students have also already learnt a lot of digital citizenship while using chat. At first when chat was just a novelty - children would often type 'hi' or insert a smiley face. Now however after many reflections and discussions we have refined what is acceptable chat behaviour. We have still got some work to do of course and this will continue as students get more capable and daring or learn new things.

Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is more important now than ever. It is relevant everyday in my class as we are busy using Google Apps for Education. 

NetSafe defines a New Zealand digital citizen as:

• being a confident and capable user of information and communication technology (ICT)
• using ICTs to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities
• using and developing critical thinking skills in cyberspace
• being literate in the language, symbols, and texts of ICTs
• being aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively
• using ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways
• demonstrating honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of ICTs
• respecting the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world
• contributing and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship
  
  
  

I found the following posters on http://thebookfairygoddess.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/digital-citizenship.html which I think are really valuable to use with the children. There are lots of other ones out there. I think it could also be a useful task to get children to create their own digital citizenship characters in order to teach other children around the school about how to be safe on-line and act responsibly.

A bit of background about my major goal this year:

OUR OBJECTIVE:
This year my colleague and I are trialling the use of Google Apps for Education (docs, forms, spreadsheets, presentations) as a platform for the delivery of on-line teaching and learning for the children in our classes during 2014 to enhance collaboration, engagement and achievement in literacy.

Why Google Apps for Education?:
As a school we have moved into using more of what Google has to offer in order to collaborate effectively and efficiently on planning, meeting minutes, daily notices, organisation, surveys etc and we know it will work well in the classroom as well. In addition Wakaaranga School takes a cooperative learning approach (Kagan) and we believe using Google Apps will work well alongside this.

We are also interested in exploring the ‘paperless classroom’ model which supports Wakaaranga Schools dedication to being a Green/Gold EnviroSchool. Dave Kinane has also been involved in preparing our school for this and we believe that to identify how this will work for the school it should be trialled first.

2014 Google Apps for Education Journey

I got sent an interesting article today called 'How to Ace Your Interview for a Teaching Position', and it got my colleague and I talking about how we document our professional journey as teachers - especially since he and I are trialling the use of Google Apps in our Year 4 and Year 6 classes this year. We have tried so many new things this year and had a lot of really important and rich conversations around what we are trying that it would be a real shame not to document it. We have made a lot of ground already but will be posting our thoughts on certain things now as we go through the year.