Russell Street School Impressions

The way the Russell Street School communicates within their community is pretty impressive and inspiring. They clearly put a lot of thought into how to best use blogs to fit their needs as a school. The concept of a whole school site, with teacher blogs listed, is great for communication with parents. I was really interested to see how individual teachers and classrooms used blogs to communicate what their students were doing and learning in school. A few great items that really caught my attention from the class blogs were the following:
Room 14

• Students posted pictures of the planning they completed in their notebooks, as well as final projects created with technology. This would be great to showcase their design journals when creating solutions to problems in class.
• Home learning guide.
• Students posted the big idea for projects, feedback, and self-evaluations.

Room 9

• Google slides for math problems practice.
• Additional pages on the blogsite for resources on other skills and subjects.

Room 10

• Twitter feeds for the class also posted on the class blog.

Looking through the class blogs at the Russell Street School has given me great ideas on how I want my class blog/website to look and what it's purpose will be. I love the idea of listing the students blogs on the site as an easy way for parents to see the work their kids are creating. The logistical problem of how to organize and manage 6 classes of students (~120 kiddos) is still a concern for me. 

Russell Street School

Wow! I checked out the students blogs in Room 9.  It is so amazing how much the students are blogging, and at such a young age! I teach second grade, so seeing this really showed me what I can do with my students.
I absolutely love how the students are blogging about their goals and success strategies to reach their goals.  They are keeping track of their own progress for those goals.  This is also showing parents what they are doing in class and how they are being successful.
I also love how all of the rooms have their own names.  Dream Team! How cool is that?  It makes me want to come up for a name for my classroom.
Looking at this authentic setting for blogging has truly inspired me.  I know that I want my students blogging, but this showed me how much more I can do with my students.  Students can also use the blog to catch up on lessons that they missed.  They can watch videos and demonstrations posted by other students.  I can't wait to get my class blog set up!

Russell Street School - A Parent's Perspective

I recently had the honor of serving for two years as the President for the CHCCS PTA Council - the organizing and advocacy body for all of the PTAs in our district. I also had the chance to serve on the board and several committees for our state PTA as well.

In my capacity as a parent leader I have had countless conversations with parents about their schools - about what they love and about what they would change.

There are two themes that have consistently emerged from all of those conversations. The first is that parents deeply care about their schools and the professionals that work with their children. Parents love to know what is happening so they can celebrate the small victories and carry shared burdens with the school community. The second theme is that parents crave practical and actionable information about how they can better support their schools, teachers and the learning of their children.

One of the things that I really liked about the Russell Street blog was that it provided the information parents are looking for. The "community newsletter" was full of helpful information and several entries gave insight into the specific things happening at the school. The article on how to support math education at home was the kind of specific, actionable information that parents crave.

Blogging can serve as a community building practice that helps brings everyone together - parents, students and staff. Russell Street seems to be doing a great job of this. I think it is a challenge more schools should take on.

Russell Street School Impressions

After looking around the various students and classroom blogs I was struck with a couple of big impressions.
First, I was so impressed with the student blogs and how the students collaborate with their peers and teacher to set goals. It is visible to parents if their children think they are off target, near target, or on target. Parents can see examples of student work and personalized comments from the teacher. This really blew me away! Students also use their blogs to track their own data and progress as they work towards specific goals.
Second, I was impressed with how the teacher posts objectives and suggestions for each area of study. There are websites to further support student learning and problems that would guide students through the learning objectives.
I think that the Russell Street School blogs have a great set up. I would love to see how something like this would work in my school. My biggest takeaway from this was the way that students had control of their learning and were tracking their learning and growth. I also would like to have a platform to communicate more with students and give feedback.

Inspriation from Russell Street School

After spending some time checking out the Russell Street School's blog, I am inspired!  Overall, I was impressed with how fully the entire school has embraced the culture of blogging and made it an integral part of the school structure. I enjoyed checking out various room's pages and was excited to see how they are set up differently and take different formats.  Being able to compare the way the primary grades use blogs vs. the way the upper grades uses blogs gave me so many great ideas to share with my colleagues!  I often find myself overly focused on how I can use various tools (blogs included) with my middle-school aged students that I forget to stop and think about how I can adapt the same tools to meet the needs of older and younger students.  I loved having this real-life model for inspiration!
I tried using blogs in my classroom last year and it didn't work out according to plan.  I've been trying to formulate a plan for blogging with my students that will be more successful this year and I think, after seeing these examples (especially the Room 12-14 site), I have a much more clear plan.  I love the idea of having one main class blog that either I can post to or students can post to, but having a blogroll of independent student blogs or portfolios linked on it.  I really like the idea of students having their own individual blogs; I think it's important for them to display their work to the real world; it encourages them to put their best face forward, so to speak, knowing that people other than just teachers and parents will not only see it, but may comment as well.  Thanks, Russell Street School, for the inspiration!

Impressions of the Russel Street School

I was so excited after I looked at this blog.  I was amazed at how in depth the blog was.  It was so well organized and developed.  I loved how easily accessible it was to each class blog as well as students blogs through their classroom blog.  This school blog gave me so many ideas that I would love to incorporate into my blogging as well as engaging my students into bloggers as well.  I would love it if my school district had something like this.  I like that it is all centralized in one location.  I think it would be amazing if my whole district had one and then each school had blog links that lead to teachers blogs and then student blogs if they had them.  

Blogging allows students to take pride and ownership of their work.  It also allows parents to see what is going on in the classroom as well as what the student is learning and how they are doing.  For teachers it is a way to let the students be creative.  

One thing I noticed on the student blogs was labeling.  I had not thought about this before, but what a great idea to organize work into specific categories.  This would be great for studying material, etc.  

I love that the room 9 blog focused on so many different things.  Student of the week, awards, recognition's, what is going on in the classroom, daily quotes and so much more.  This teacher did a great job setting up her blog to appeal to the students as well as parents.  I also like that she has the different subject areas as tabs on the top of the blog for links.  

Overall, I was very pleased with how this was all set up.  After viewing many different classroom and student blogs, I am excited to get my students blogging.  I have not decided completely how I want to tackle this task, but I am very excited to do so.  

I think this would be a great thing to do as a school.  My school does edcamps for PD every other week.  I would love to bring up the idea of blogging for a topic to discuss with my staff during this time.

Making Student Work Public

I think the Russell Street School is doing a great thing with the public student blogs.  I think, overall, students value knowing that they've created something out in the world, not just a paper test you recycle as soon as you get your grade.  And, they get to show their work in a blog, which is a format they see elsewhere in their life.  Their parents might read food blogs or political blogs; their siblings might read fashion blogs...and now they've created a blog themselves!  (chances are, their parents and siblings don't ready essays at 12-point font on 8.5x11 paper very often).

In addition to student pride, it just helps bring transparency.  It's great for a parent to be able to check out a kid's blog, and importantly, see it in the context of other student blogs.  (if all the other student blogs are super well-designed, you could talk to your kid about layout....or if they're all crazy colors with comic sans, you can say oh yeah, they're 3rd graders, I guess that's ok)

Now I know that if you get an F on a math test, you have the right to keep that a secret, and that's fair.  But I think that model is too far of stretch to apply the same standards to a blog, and say that it somehow violates a student's right to privacy.  Some students may have reservations, but I think the public displays of student work are 98% a good thing.  I think a blog is a good "in progress" type of documentation, while a more static website may be better suited to show off a finished body of work, like a portfolio.

-Nick Boyce

Russell Street School Impressions

I had a really great time looking through the different student blogs on the Russell Street School blog. I think that it is such a great idea to have all classes and all students connected through one central blog, and then they can still each have their own page. I think that it is a great way to keep students organized (it works as almost a notebook) and also let them express themselves and their own individuality within their blog. It was interesting to see both the similarities and the differences between the different students' blogs.
I think that having blogs organized like this is a great idea for a school. You can see that most students are proud of their work and their posts within their own blog and that is a really awesome thing to see. It allows them to be both part of a group, and individuals, simultaneously.
I am not a parent, but I can imagine that if I was a parent I would love to have access to my child's blog like this. It is a way to keep up with what they are working on most days and it would be fun to be able to see their thoughts and some of the actual work that they have created.
Overall, I think keeping the blogs organized like this is a great idea. I have been brainstorming how I want to run my blog during the school year next year and I was worrying about having it just be daily posts and if it would make enough sense to students. Now that I looked through this blog, I think that posting daily activities is a good idea and it is easy enough to scroll through them. I may even consider having students blog and link it to my blog like this school has done.

Russell Street Response

I am totally blown away and extremely excited after looking through the children's blogs. They have so much pride in their pages and it shows. I really enjoyed learning about their school activities, and what they enjoy doing. This was one of my favorites: http://serenaa2013.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/kapa-haka.html
It's really inspirational that these young students use blogs appropriately, creatively and seem to take pride in their digital footprint. As a parent I would really enjoy seeing my child's writing and projects they create online. It's accessible and fun to look at.

As I start to brainstorm what I would like my blog to look like next year, these students begin to spark new ideas. I'm not sure I can manage every student having their own account and blog right away, but having the "Star Student" of the week post on our class blog could be a manageable option. That way every student would have an option to participate in the blog, but I wouldn't have to manage 20+ accounts each week. Slow and steady!

I can foresee districts having a school-wide blog, much like Russell Street and then requiring teachers to have their own. Our school district has changed their tune on websites, blogs, Wikisites to have access to parents but it changes far too often. Teachers aren't able to get the training they need, and parents have given up on a district wide communication tool. I'm looking forward to taking this idea to my administration and possibly starting a school-wide blog.

Russell Street School (NZ) Gets Blogging!

The use of blogging at the Russell Street School is individualized, yet systematic. and inspiring. Here are some examples which highlight these elements:

Individualized:

• Each teacher adapts the name of the class and themes to his or her class Maori names, such as “Poutama”, sometimes are used to highlight cultural focus, and others use their own names, such as the “Dream Team”.
• Students design their own blogs and add personal elements. Some do the minimum, whereas  others do more digital work.
• Students have a wide variety of assignments for which proficiency is modelled uniquely.

Systematic:

• Academic language like: Big Idea, Feedback (from another student/peer review), Evaluation (student self-reflection) appears on most assignments
• Posts are made on all subjects, but seem to  have similar structures and requirements.
• Peer and self-reflection are an ongoing part of the learning process.
• While there are consistent posts (about every two weeks), this does not seem to be a daily activity. The blogs appear to serve as a partial portfolio, demonstrating progress toward Maths, writing, or artistic goals.

Inspiring:

• Students are blogging! There is no angst about privacy, control, or protection behind digital walls.
• Administrators and teachers model blogging for students, so are active participants.
• The topic of bullying is addressed on a newsletter posted on the front page of the school website. It appears this is not the first time the topic has been addressed
• Blogs start as young as preschool with the developmentally appropriate “Jump Start” blog.
• Parents are also involved in blogging as well!

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 for Room 9 or Room 14, 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?

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