Week 8 - A break

Week 8 - Somewhat of a break

This week our school administered the PSAT to all of our 10th grade students during our 20 Percent Day.  No one consulted me about how it might conflict with my schedule, but that's how life goes.  I did not have my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th periods yesterday so I just wrote it off as a break for the students.  I was thinking about a break as well, but I wanted to keep my weekly habit going.  I also worked on grading the blogs.  The requirements were 150 words per week with a picture.

It's really neat to read their blogs and to comment on them.  I'm trying to leave encouraging remarks while moving them towards progress.  I must admit that this is quite a task to go in and comment on every students blog.  And when you leave a comment, you have to put in those dreaded, "Please prove you're not a robot" words and number combination.


One of the biggest problems that I've encountered with this project is having the kids blogging about what they are doing on a weekly basis.  I understand that some students don't have Internet access, but we've had computers in class weekly as well as accessing their blogs form the mobile app on their phones.  If they really wanted to do it, they could have done it.

About half of the kids have setup their blogs and are putting in good efforts. So students had a week from Wednesday to Wednesday to do a blog post to show their progress, but what do you when you don't meet on that day?  Some students are behind, and so what do they do?  Some students have not even started blogging, when they finally begin, where will they begin?

I think that I'll just give students the number of the blog they are on, on the Google Calendar I have on my website.  I'll just tell them so that I can grade the blog based on the week they do it, rather than when they do it.  For example, a student that sets up and begins his blog during this week 3 will not write "Blog Week 1" rather they will just write, "Blog Week 3."

I think I'll have my TAs grade that they are posting, and I'll go through and comment a class a week perhaps, maybe two if I can get to it.  It's too bad that viewing other people's blogs on Blogger is blocked, because I think that it would be neat for the kids to comment on each other's blog and develop a real audience.

I'm going to have to figure out how to get people to start commenting on the students' blogs so that they can take pride in writing the posts and the satisfaction of seeing that their project is of interest to someone out there on the World Wide Web.

Week 7 - Gaining Momentum

As we continue to work on our 20 Percent Projects, I see many students and groups working autonomously.  What a beautiful thing to see.

Because the students were working so well today, I spent the majority of my time taking students outside to film them talking about their projects.  I simply had them introduce themselves and say what they are doing their projects on.  After a few students were filmed, I noticed that many of the students were not comfortable talking into a camera.  I encouraged them to speak with confidence and look right into the camera.

In the video below, one of the groups had a bit of fun with it and did a great job.

  

This group is working on recreating the hit "Hot dogs or legs" pictures that were sort of big this summer.  I've included a link to one of the student's blog for this assignment.  Please feel free to visit his blog and leave him a comment if you have the time.  I'm sure he'd appreciate it. 

Jeikob's Hot Dog or Legs Blog

Since we are nearing the end of the first quarter, I'm thinking about an assignment or presentation in the second quarter when students come up, maybe two or three per week where students will come up and share the progress they are making.  I am thinking ahead because I'm anticipating that some students will need that motivation to produce something otherwise they may wait until the last minute and will have wasted all these Wednesdays.

Until next time.

Week 6 - A glooming peace this morning brings...

Today I had the laptops out and ready to go so that students can work on their 20 Percent Project.  Students seemed to be working.  In a somewhat unstructured time, students were working quietly.  There wasn't a lot of chit chat.  They had their heads buried in computer screens, they were talking about their projects, they were really working.  On the most part, I just stayed out of their way.

Last week students had their first blog post due and one of the neat things about students blogging is that they get to interact with the world.  One student said that a person from South Korea looked at his blog.  That's pretty cool.  Other students are excited about getting 30 page views.

Just to create a spirit of competition, I told them I had over 700 views at the time he was in class and now you can see that I have over 800.  I told the students that I would have a prize for the student that had the most blog views.  When students turned in their blog urls on a Google Form, I had them choose what they wanted their blog listed as.  A lot of students chose to just use their name and blog, for example, Cindy's 20 Percent Project.  Based on title alone, I think the most intriguing blogs are "Teaching a White Boy to Dance" and the other side of the project, "A White Boy Learning to Dance."

One problem we are facing is that our district has blocked urls that have "blogspot.com."  However, they can log on to Blogger and create their blogs and update their posts.  This makes it difficult for kids to comment on someone else's post when connected to the school's wifi, but I may have to leave that out as part of their grade.

From now on, I'm going to highlight one student's blog on my posts.  Ivan is an 11th grader and his project is to create a website for our district where art students can share their art with him and he'll post it to the website.  He's creating a virtual gallery where the audience of exceptional art will go beyond whatever classroom that piece was created in.  It's in the infant stage, but a very promising project.

Ivan's AUHSD Art Blog

Week 5 - Growing Pains

Week 5

Five weeks into working on the projects, we have students at different stages of work.  Most students have their proposals submitted on Google Docs and I have been emphasizing making their proposals very detailed so they can use it as a blueprint for their project.  My mantra has been, "Plan your work and work your plan."

This was the first week that I required students to start blogging.  I am compiling all the students' blogs on my site under "Student Blog" on the right column of my site.  Initially I had students email me their name, period, and the URL of their blogs.  That was a bad idea.  I quickly changed my method to collect the students' URL by creating a Google Form on my website.

On Blogger, like most publishing sites, you have the option of what text you want displayed on a hyperlink so I included a field for URL and a field for "What is the name of your blog?" so that the link to student blogs wouldn't be a nondescript url.

This made it a lot easier for me/my TA to add them to the Blogger page.

I also did a brief lesson on Internet safety.  The main point was not to allow creepers to post on your blog, nor to communicate with them.  Once all of my students have their blogs setup, I'll walk them through changing the settings on their blogs so that they can moderate their comments before they get posted.  This will allow students to review comments and they can allow or disallow the comment to be on their blog.

Students are excited to peek in on others' projects and I think they're excited to get comments from their peers.  The beauty of blogging is that it is outside and not inside.  If a student turns in a paper on what they've been doing on their project, I will most likely be the only person to see it.

If some students' blogs begin to get recognized, their blogging will become a conversation with the world outside our school.  This is the type of authentic audience I think that our students need in order to get them to begin thinking about what they are producing and what quality it is.

Please peek in on a student's blog and leave a positive comment. I'm sure they would appreciate it a lot.

Starting next week, I'll highlight one person's blog on the main post to help them gain a larger audience.

Until next time.

Week 4 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 4

Today I reviewed the directions on how to write the project proposal.  I peeked into a number of shared proposals that students shared on Google Docs.  Most of them did not follow directions and wrote out a phrase or sentence rather than explicitly stating what they were going to do for their projects.

I spent a little bit of time showing how they can turn their project from, "We will be reviewing movies," to "We are going to create a website where we review movies for a teenage audience.  We're going to share a teenager's perspective on films rather than the ones done by professionals who are more than double our age..."  Below is a screen shot from the first section of one student's project description.

The examples I used last weekend to show how to write the proposal were quickly forgotten, as many students had no urgency to complete or begin the project last week, as it is due tonight by midnight.

The other agenda item was to show students how to setup up a Blogger account.  Since all of my students have Gmail, Docs, and Drive, they already have access to Blogger.  Blogger also has a mobile app and allows students to blog from their phones in case they don't have a computer at home.

Below are links that shows step-by-step how to setup a Blogger account, avoiding beginner's mistakes, and the top 25 bloggers and their blogs.  What I did in class however was invite a student up to create their Blogger account on the computer that is projected to the class so they could see the process for themselves.  I had students title their blogs "Joe Rebel's 20 Percent Project."  I recommended they use their names and SHS (Savanna High School) for their blogspot url, for example www.joerebelshs.blogspot.com.

I showed them how to create a post and publish.

Students have a week between Wednesday and Wednesday to create one blog entry set at 150 words (from Kevin Brookhouser) and a picture of what they accomplished or worked on this week.

As far as grades are concerned, since we're spending 20% of our class time working on the project, their work will be 20% of their grade.  I will only be grading three things, which are all writing based.  They will be graded on their proposal, blogs, and a comment on another student's blog.

I know that grading should not be a motivator, but I feel I have to keep kids accountable for their work.

Pretty soon I'll have links to all the student blogs on the right side of this page for you to peruse.  Starting next week students should be in full swing working on their projects.

Resources

http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog-on-Blogger
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Common-Beginner-Blogger-Mistakes
http://techland.time.com/2013/08/05/the-25-best-bloggers-2013-edition/slide/all/

Week 3 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 3

Today I shared with my students on how to write a project proposal (see resources below).  I want students to think about what they are going to do, how they will accomplish it, and how they are going to use their time.  Initially I made a handout on Google Docs that have the requirements, but I later added a document to my shared Google Drive folder for the 20 Percent Project called, "Proposal Template."

Now students can go click on the document, make a copy, and fill in the sections for their proposal.  I gave the students a naming convention, Period #-Proposal-Name, Name, Name.  Some of the students are familiar with Google Docs,  so once they rename the document, they can begin to work collaboratively on the proposal.

While some students began their proposals, others were still wrestling with what they were going to do for their projects.  I would classify the area of Anaheim in which Savanna is located as a working class neighborhood.  In our initial brainstorming sessions, many students wanted to do something related to sports like developing a training for soccer, baseball, or basketball since that is something they do, but now other more interesting and original ideas are surfacing.

One group, a Latino girl and a Caucasian boy, are going to take on teaching the Caucasian boy to learn Latin Dance routines by learning how to dance Batchata, Merengue, etc.

Another group is going to tackle learning and teaching Arabic.  Yet another will make bracelets for sick children for nearby CHOC.  One student was interesting in being a pen pal with a military serviceman, but I suggested she start a club on campus to recruit Savanna students to become pen pals as well.

One group is going to create a blog about color guard, giving advice, collecting memes, and a place for visitors to the blog to vent or share their experiences.  One girl in this group was so fired up that she was literally jumping up and down with some passionate fist pumps.

I don't know if I've seen this type of zeal in my students over regular projects.  So excited to see how Savanna students shine as they work towards beginning, fixing, improving, and finishing their projects.

Resources

20 Percent Project Requirements (Google Doc)
Project Proposal Template (Google Doc)

Week 2 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 2

Following what I thought was a great introduction to the 20 Percent Project,  I introduced the notion of blogging to my students (see short Presentation below) to give them a bit of forewarning before they'd start blogging about their project.  Not all, and in fact most, of the students haven't chosen a topic yet so I don't think they saw the value of blogging for today.

In addition, although we're teaching "Digital Natives" they're not necessarily adept at using technology or web tools.  I'm finding that I have to teach my students how to some very simple tasks, like writing in a subject for emails, how to create book marks on web browsers, and other things I find fairly simple.  In that vein, I'm anticipating that a fair number of students are not going to blog.  I'm making it mandatory, but for those truly without a smartphone or computer access at home, I guess I'll have to allow a physical journal of some type where they can document and reflect on what they're working on .

After showing the Presentation "Why Blog?" I gave them a homework assignment where they had to read and review a blog so they can familiarize themselves with what a blog might look like and what purpose it might serve.

Before moving into groups, I had students take an idea they had last week about what interests them and I had them turn them into a couple of ideas that could be a project.  This to me was the natural progression, taking an interest or passion and turning it into a project. I had each student share at least one possible idea they had so that students could join forces, borrow ideas, or discuss possible topics.

Finally, I gave the students about 30 minutes to move into groups or discuss possible topics.  I told the students that on 20 percent days, they could move around, eat, and have the freedom to let their creative juices flow--picture a poor man's Googleplex.  That was hard for me to release that time to the students.  Some of the classes had students working and researching and thinking, while others wasted time.  I guess that happens in every class, but it is something that I'm going to have to learn to deal with.  Below is a picture of some of my 11th graders working during that time.

Until next time.

Resources
Why Blog? (Google Presentation)