The Newman Experience

Jonathon,

Nice, reflective post that shows how much you are absorbing in this course, how much you are thinking about possibilities, and also how you are quite appropriately questioning what changes when we are so connected, so informed, and yet the time in a day stays the same.

Here are some resources that may be helpful to you, and also I sense a need to spend some time this summer–when you are ready–helping you map out what you want to do in the fall and making sure you have the tools and support you need.

First, RSS IS the only way to go to keep up with student blogs…and the comments on them. You can subscribe to post feeds and comment feeds on blogs, and it makes a tremendous difference. At their highest and best, blogs invite conversation, sharing of resources, depth and breadth learning. I set up all the teacher/student blogs with RSS in the MS this year, and it was the only thing that made reading 75 blogs/teacher manageable.

Second, there are a number of English teachers out there–specifically high school English teachers–you will resonate with and learn alongside. (You have much to offer the conversation!) Here are some of my favorites:

1. Christian Long–Masters from Harvard, stint doing school design (led the firm), now back in a private school classroom in TX teaching US English Literature. He’s a friend of mine, and he’s very aware of web 2.0/school 2.0, but he is just beginning to flesh out what that looks like in his classroom. He clearly focuses on what makes for great teaching, and he doesn’t want technology to just be the cool new tool. He blogs at thinklab.typepad.com/thinklab–his blog is one of the top 50 educational blogs.

2. Clay Burell–Clay is the teacher/mentor for the Student 2.0 blog. He is part of my Twitter network, and he is challenging, out of the box, a great thinker and writer. He blogs at beyond-school.org

3. Following and reading Will Richardson’s blog is also something I recommend. He used to teach, and in fact he did a cool project with his students using blogs and invited Sue Monk Kidd, author of Secret Life of Bees, to join the conversation. She did, and that blog from 5 years ago is still (last i looked) at the top of the Google search for the book. Will’s blog is at weblogg-ed.com

4. Reading-Does reading change in the 21st century? Big topic, great conversation, evolving understanding. The process of reading on line is quite different than the “intimate encounter” of reading a book (Updike). Arguments are surfacing that say the brain is indeed flexible and by nature of all the reading and writing being done on line, our ability to sit with a novel and stay with it and do deep thinking and reading is dropping—significantly. I had a head of school write me last year questioning all this technology given the tragic drop in critical reading skills he observed in his students. The question is, do we reverse this trend, do we accept that “the book” is all but a dinosaur (another web site : futureofthebook.org).
I would argue that we need to grow both literacies–and in fact there are multiple literacies evolving that our students (and us) need to master. I do think using blogs in classrooms can effectively engage students in better critical reading, thinking and writing–of books for example–because they offer a platform for 24/7 dynamic engagement around the book and quite sophisticated forms of communicating one’s ideas. for example. students can use hyperlinks, video, and images to convey their understanding–on a blog in a reflection, or as stand-alone pieces that can be published to the world. For kids in this increasingly social and interconnected world, having more eyes on his “paper” than just his teachers “ROCKS.” And they write more, they develop ideas further, and they come up with all kinds of ways to express themselves.

If you are interested in the conversation about reading, go join in on Will’s recent blog post. I’ve shared it with several school heads here in Atlanta, and of course Billy and Randy. The Atlantic Monthly article he links to is crucial to read. I’d love to see you blog in response, with a trackback to Will’s post.

weblogg-ed.com/2008/required-reading-on-reading/