Running Head: Student Blogging in the Classroom 1

Hahira Middle School Student Blogging in the Classroom

Laila Taylor

November 8, 2015

Dr. Vega

Spring 2015

Student Blogging

Setting/Context

Hahira Middle School is located in Lowndes County, GA. Lowndes County is one of

the southernmost counties in the state of Georgia. Hahira Middle School has roughly 800

students with the largest (75%) demographic group being white middle class students,

16% of the school population is African American, 2% Asian and 2% Hispanic. Hahira

Middle School is a Title I School. Hahira Middle School has an extremely low turnover rate

for teachers at basically 0% and the average number of service years for teachers at the

school is 18+ years. Hahira Middle School is one of three middle schools in the Lowndes

County Board of Education System. The school is consistently recognized as a Lighthouse

Schools to watch. 80% of all students have met or exceeded the state standards on the

CRCT. The school has an average growth rate of 73% which is above the State Standards. I

obtained permission from my principal and academic coach to incorporate a student blog

into the classroom and complete this capstone project.

Capstone Problem and Rationale

This project came from increasing pressure to get students thinking on a deeper

level. In order for students to have more growth we need to prepare them to think

critically and on a depth of knowledge level 4 or more, where they are creating and

analyzing material. During class time, discussions either ran out of time or only a few

students participated. I wanted to create a way for all students to be able to participate and

think critically about the content that we were covering at the time. A class blog or class

discussion board has provided the platform to meet these goals (Hemphill & Hemphill,

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Evaluating the impact of guest speaker postings in online discussions, 2007). According to

Morgan (2015), “blogs encourage reflective learning and a deeper understanding of

content” (pg.28). The goal of this project is to incorporate student blogging and discussion

boards into 6th grade science classes in order to increase student’s critical thinking skills

and depth of knowledge (Sloan, 2015). The students will create through blogging a

learning community beyond their own class to all sixth grade students, parents, and virtual

guest speakers/field experts. As a part of this project it is the goal to train students and

teachers how to blog, how to set up a blog, and how to encourage each other to think

critically about the science content.

Objectives

Teach students what a blog and discussion board are and how to respond to each

other using critical thinking

Improve understanding of digital citizenship for students and teachers

Help students create a learning community with their peers, parents, and outside

field experts

Provide a professional learning session for 6th grade teachers to help them set up

class blogs either using weebly or blogger

Help students make cross curricular connections using the blogging community

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Deliverables

Give students and teachers a quick tutorial of the weebly class website in order to

provide an example of a class blog (Appendix A).

Create a google slides presentation as a tutorial for students and teachers to learn

how to blog and how to set up a blog wither using weebly or blogger

Create a form for teachers to answer before they attend the professional learning

session over introduction to class blogs (Appendix B)

Create surveys to use throughout the process of implementation to get quick input

from the students and teachers (Appendix C, Appendix D, and Appendix E).

Create a rubric for students to use when completing the student blog

PSC Standards

Standard 1: Visionary Leadership: Coach demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and

dispositions to inspire and lead the development and implementation of a shared vision

for the effective use of technology to promote excellence and support transformational

change throughout Lake Oconee Academy.

o Element 1.2: Coach facilitates the design, development, implementation,

communication, and evaluation of technology-infused strategic plans.

o Element 1.4: Coach researches, recommends, and implements strategies for

initiating and sustaining technology innovations for managing the change process

in schools.

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Standard 2: Teaching, Learning, and Assessment: Coach assists teachers in using

technology effectively for assessing student learning, differentiation instruction, and

providing rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning experiences for all students.

o Element 2.1: Coach teachers in modeling and facilitating the design and

implementation of technology-enhanced learning experiences aligned with

student content standards and student technology standards

o Element 2.2 Coach teaches by modeling and facilitating the use of research-

based, learner-centered strategies addressing the diversity of all students.

o Element 2.3: Coach models and facilitates the use of digital tools and resources

to engage students in authentic learning experiences.

o Element 2.4: Coach models and facilitates the effective use of digital tools and

resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills, processes, and

mental habits of mind.

o Element 2.6: Coach models and facilitates the effective use of research-based

best practices in instructional design when designing and developing digital tools,

resources, and technology enhanced learning experiences.

Standard 3: Digital Learning Environment: Coach demonstrates the knowledge skills

and dispositions to create, support, and manage effective digital learning environments.

o Element 3.1: Coach models and facilitates effective classroom managements and

collaborative learning strategies to maximize teacher and student use of digital

tools and resources.

o Element 3.2: Coach effectively manages digital tools and resources within the

context of student learning experiences.

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o Element 3.3 Coach develops, models, and facilitates the use of online and

blended learning, digital content, and learning networks to support and extend

student learning and expand opportunities and choices for professional learning

for teachers and administrators.

o Element 3.6: Coach collaborates with teachers and administrators to select and

evaluate digital tools and resources for accuracy, suitability, and compatibility

with the school technology infrastructure.

Standard 4: Digital Citizenship & Responsibility: Coach demonstrates the knowledge,

skills, and dispositions to model and promote digital citizenship and responsibility.

o Element 4.1: Coach models and promotes strategies for achieving equitable

access to digital tools and resources and technology-related best practices for all

students and teachers.

o Element 4.2: Coach models and facilitates the safe, healthy, legal, and ethical

uses of digital information and technologies.

Standard 5: Coach demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to conduct

needs assessments, develop technology-based professional learning programs, and design

and implement regular and rigorous program evaluations to assess effectiveness and

impact on student learning.

o Element 5.1: Coach conducts need assessments to determine school-wide,

faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the

content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.

o Element 5.2: Coach develops and implements technology-based professional

learning that aligns to state and national professional learning standards,

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integrates technology to support face-to-face and online components, models

principles of adult learning, and promotes best practices in teaching, learning and

assessment.

o Element 5.3: Coach Designs and implements program evaluations to determine

the overall effectiveness of professional learning on deepening teacher content

knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skill and/or increasing student

learning.

Standard 6: Coach demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to engage in

continuous learning, reflect on professional practice, and engage in appropriate field

experiences.

o Element 6.1: Coach demonstrates continual growth in knowledge and skills of

current and emerging technologies and apply them to improve personal

productivity and professional practice.

o Element 6.2: Coach regularly evaluates and reflects on his/her professional

practice and dispositions to improve and strengthen their ability to effectively

model and facilitate technology-enhances learning experiences.

o Element 6.3: Coach engages in appropriate field experiences to synthesize and

apply the content and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified

in these standards.

Project Description

A. Narrative

In this project I have introduced students to the concept of blogging and class discussion

boards. The students are encouraged to create thoughtful unique responses to the extended

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thinking questions over the content. My goal is to have students reach higher levels of thinking

by collaborating with their peers, parents, and outside experts. I plan on doing this by first with

a lesson on how to get to the class weebly website and navigate to the class blog, see Appendix

A. We will then participate in a practice class discussion board during class time. I will use this

time to talk about appropriate responses to their peers and how their answers should be detailed

and thoughtful. During the first nine weeks students will participate in two class blogs over the

content we are covering at the time, plate tectonics, rocks, and minerals. During the second nine

weeks I have made arrangements with the Academic Coach at Hahira Middle School to provide

a professional development class over the how- to’s of creating a class blog. Before the teachers

attend I will send them a google form to gain a perspective to the teacher’s interest level and

willingness to incorporate a class blog into their own classes, see Appendix B. With the

information gained from the survey I will create a lesson using my weebly site as an example

and show them how logistical easy it is to set up the blog. I will also show the teachers how they

can monitor student responses and invite guest experts to comment along with the students.

After the session, I will ask for those who would like to create a cross curricular blog in which

the students could participate in. Throughout, the year I will send out three satisfaction surveys

to the teachers and students participating in the blog, see Appendix C. I will also assess the

student’s blog post using the rubric as a formative assessment, see Appendix D.

B. Timeline

Date Task Time

September

2015

Class lesson on using the class blog 75 minute

class time

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(I have already began working with the students in my class using a class

blog)

October 2015 Student’s participate and are assessed over the first two blogs Students were given four weeks to complete the first two blogs

January 2016 Create google slides presentation for teacher training 5 hours

January 2016 Work with Teachers during the professional development lesson, grade level planning

2 hours whole group4 hours one on one

February

2016

Create cross curricular blog for students to participate in 5 hours

February

2016

Create a google form survey to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the blog

2 hours

March – April

2016

Give post-assessments and final surveys to students and teachers. Study results and draw conclusions. Meet with teachers in grade level groups to discuss results. Reflect on results and decide on changes that need to be made for the following year.

10 hours

C. Resources

Resource How it will be secured

1. Weebly website Education weebly is free and has already been created.

2. Computers and Internet access In order to maintain digital equitability for all students, an extended due date of a week is

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established for each post. Students have access to computers during class time in order to post their blog response.

3. Surveys Surveys will be created with Google Documents.

4. Handouts Word or Google Documents will be used to create the handouts.

5. Permission Permission has been granted by the Principal and Academic Coach of Hahira Middle School.

Evaluation Plan

Formative and summative evaluation will be ongoing throughout the implementation.

The results of surveys and assessments will drive future trainings on class blogs. Teachers and

students will be monitored throughout the process through surveys and student learning data. At

the conclusion of the year, final assessments will be compared to the beginning assessments, to

note areas of growth, and any areas of continued weaknesses. Teachers will meet to see if class

blogs helped students build a learning community and encourage them to think critically (Knight,

2007).

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References

ReferencesHemphill, L., & Hemphill, H. H. (2007). Evaluating the impact of guest speaker postings in

online discussions. British Journal of Educational Technology, 287-293.Knight, J. (2007). Instructional Coaching. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.Morgan, H. (2013). Creating a Class blog: A strategy that can promote collaboration,

motivation, and improvement in Literacy. An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 27-31.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web toos for classrooms. Thousand Ocaks: Corwin Press.

Sloan, C. (2015). The Relationship of High School Student Motivation and Comments in Online Discussion Forums. Journal of Educational Computing, 114-135.

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Appendix A

Weebly website class blog examples used

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Appendix B Beginning of the Year Survey – Teacher

s

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