January 2007 Update

January 2007 Update:

Over the course of the Learning Community, I have been focusing my learning on the Writing Room to better student writing. However, after that great technology conference on January 19th, I was compelled to take a closer look at my main objective for my field study and try to re-evaluate its relevance in my classroom. Throughout my study, I have found that this writing medium has slowed my students' writing and creative output as their typing capabilities are simply not up to par. And so, I have been stuck in neutral for a couple of months, that is until the tech conference jump started my focus for my field study.

As Gary's Podcasting information began coming down the pike, I have been growing more and more interested in its capabilities to instill student motivation in writing. During the conference, it was refreshing for me to hear Sharon Jeroski's comments on making your field study meaningful so that you enjoy what it is that you are doing, and not growing to hate it. I think that was the final nudge for me to sit down and really make this project 'real' for me. While looking at my initial goal of improving student writing in the Writing Room, I asked myself, what is it that I hope to achieve out of all of this? This goal was unrealistic as it was not authentically representing my class. For starters, my expectations were too high. The initial goal implied that my students' would become better writers by using the Writing Room, but not taking into fact that other writing and technical structures had to be in place first. As a result, my students were taking longer to produce written and typed work as time began encroaching on my other subject units and lessons. Secondly, after all of that work, we did not have any feedback responses from other students in the Writing Room and so my students gradually stopped checking the conference folder.

Soon after this thought process, I wrote down my initial goal and was surprised at how fast my changes began to take shape. I first wrote: "My focus is to improve student writing by using the Writing Room." Hmmm. OK. In order for my students, and ultimately myself, to be fired up about a subject, we need to be first of all motivated. Therefore, my job would require motivating and inspiring my students to spend more time and attention on their writing. Well isn't that what teachers already do? Furthermore, what is it that would motivate my students to work hard and be passionate about what it is that they are doing in the Writing Room? The answer was clear, so I have observed. I noticed that students like an Audience. Some like quiet recognition, while others crave the Lime light. Students enjoy feedback, especially from other people in addition to their teacher. I have noticed these key motivators inspire students to persevere through rough drafts to a good reflection of their best work. So by changing the first word "improve" to "inspire," I immediately came up with this: "My focus is to inspire student writing by introducing each child to wider audiences for feedback on their work coupled with the use of additional mediums of technology (Abbynet e-mail penpal & Podcasting)."

With Podcasting becoming the latest rage, I thought that I would get on board with this exciting 'current' technology. At first, I set up a short podcast on my classroom website of a student dictating the weekly spelling words for students to listen and practice at home. I will be taking this up a notch by working closely with my principal to set up a Podcasting link on our school web site welcoming visitors to our school community, providing important information and the latest school news. This will also be translated into Punjab and Korean to help reach our entire community by breaking the language barrier. In addition, I would like to have my students record their own podcasts of their writing samples (poems, stories, readers theatre) that will be posted on our sites as well. Hopefully, we will be able to provide a link to the podcasts in our Writing Room samples as well to broaden our audience.

In closing, I will be including Podcasting into my field study and observing its effects on my students' language output. By including Podcasting to the mix, not only will I be covering the reading and writing strands in Language Arts, but including the listening and speaking strands as well.