Russell School Street and Seesaw

It is great to observe young students develop an interest for blogging as this can serve as a valuable tool to aggregate their work over a period of time and show an accurate picture of academic and personal growth. I found it interesting that each class had a unique name that showcased the ongoing work throughout the school year. Like others have indicated, privacy is definitely a concern, especially since they are minors. I am not privileged to the minor privacy laws in New Zealand, but in my experience, to publish student information, parents need to waive privacy rights of their child. Typically, in my 1200 student school, approximately 75 students do not waive their privacy rights and therefore cannot have their picture or work or name published. They can choose to have one or two or three of the before mentioned criteria, so it does become complicated. 

Regarding the Seesaw app, this is a great tool for documenting classroom announcements and student work and is currently being used by several of my colleagues. I use Class Dojo because it has a behavior component as well as student blogging capabilities. One thing I noticed on the Seesaw blogs at the Russell Street School is a potential accessibility issue. The blogs are using an inline frame which I haven’t seen in the last 7 years in my web design experience, and text doesn’t appear in full screen, at least on my Mac. This can become a frustrating visual experience because the box moves leaving a small window. The Seesaw app does not have these same visual obstructions, and the design is flawless. Concluding, using Seesaw is a great tool for students and classrooms to showcase their work and class assignments. I would though exercise caution in the area of privacy. This begins by having an acceptable use and privacy policy in place at the school which has been agreed upon by all the stakeholders involved (parents, administration, students). 

Thoughts on Russel Street - Learning on display

To me, the idea is about learning on display, feedback and communication. There are some really great examples of engaged classrooms that have lots of content and are regularly updated. There are also rooms where it seems that the conversation is a bit one sided and still others that have not been updated for quite some time. 

But the overarching goal of what they are doing, is really putting their students learning on display for the world and opening up a communication loop and feedback tool with their parents and others. Yes, I do think that seesaw is a good tool and can do some amazing things. Next year we may (actually we will) have other tools that do similar things or automate some process. But in the end it is really not about the technology but the content that matters. 

It is tough to blog, it is tough to keep up once started and yes, privacy issues do get in the way, but isn't it cool to see a school just put it out there. I give them a lot of credit for getting as far as they have have and embracing the technology in a positive way. There will be learning curves, stumbling blocks and even some failures, but aren't those the types of things that we want our students to experience as well?

I look at it as a jump into the internet pool. They are making a bit of splash and the ripples will also settle out in the end, but engaging their students with a broader world and showcasing there accomplishments, and some struggles along the way I think in the end will make their students much better learners and much better prepared for the larger world that they are a part of. 

Russell Street School: Impressions

As I look over the blog posts of the Russell Street School and look at the activities of the different classrooms, it seems that the purpose of their blogging seems to be substantively different than the way that we are using our blogging. To a certain degree, this seems incredibly obvious since we are in a graduate program and they are elementary students. However, I mean there seems to be a more fundamental difference.

In our class, the blog is a primary driver of learning. We learn by creating a post and discussing that post with peers. The learning takes place via the blogging.

In their classes, it seems that the blog serves the purpose of advertising learning that has taken place in another context and allowing people to give encouragement. I looked through several classes of varying ages, and didn't see anything that seemed to approach a critical discussion, even one fitting for the age group. Instead I saw things like, "Very interesting facts girls!," and "Good reading people I know you are one of those."

This difference between being the primary driver of learning and being a report of learning made for encouragement was interesting to me. As I teach adults, I am more used to thinking about blogging as a primary source of discussion, but the way Russell Street School uses it makes a lot of sense for the age group and I can see a lot of utility in it. I would be interested to know if schools for older children in this area continue the students active involvement using web tools in learning and, if so, how they apply it.

Russell Street School = Blogging Geniuses!

The Russell Street School blog provides a wealth of information for the world about their latest and greatest happenings. Teachers, students, and administrators post pertinent information to the school's blog, which is relevant and up-to-date. Static, obsolete info doesn't seem a reality here (although I did notice a few of the pages that are connected to this blog aren't all updated - the library's last post was in 2015, but I bet that'll change in no time), which gives the sense that the entire staff is on board, working together for the common good. What a statement to the world!

The RSS feeds (which include links to various classes in the school, among other things) are valuable resources for teachers, students, and families, so they have insight into what's going on in each classroom and can view what their students are up to. I noticed quite a few of the classroom pages were set up by students themselves, which provides a "portfolio" feel to the class, giving the reader a sense that the students are actively involved in their educations.

The updates from various clubs, departments, and the school itself are also helpful in keeping in-tune with important notifications, important meetings, and key dates. In an age where parents are busier than ever and tend to use tech devices to manage their daily lives, I can see how subscribing to this feed (via email updates or the RSS phone app, for instance) would be of great benefit.

As a teacher who leads an exchange trip and advises a club or two, I appreciate how everything can be found on one single page. And thinking about just how many more departments, clubs, exchanges, sports, etc. are offered at my school, I think establishing a similar blog would be awesome to keep parents up-to-date with all that is going on. I do believe our "constituents" would appreciate it as well. However, I think we'd almost need a curator of the blog - someone to prompt teachers to keep their pages up to date, as even with something like SeeSaw, ensuring teachers keep up would be a hard sell. I also am not sure our district tech department would be sold on it, unless it'd be under their supervision, which would add to their workload, as then every school in the district would need to have a blog to ensure equity (which equals a lot of schools).

Another note, as has been mentioned many times: Privacy might be a concern, as faces and names of students are published. I'm betting there's a disclaimer sent out to all the families for legal purposes, though. I know my high school sends something like that out, and if the parents/guardians choose not to sign, their student's picture cannot be published online.

Russell Street School...A Leader In Educational Blogging!

I am in awe with Russell Street School (RSS) and how they use blogs (Here is their Google Sites Page).

The first page is dedicated to all of the stakeholders for the school...parents/guardians and the community as a whole. I love how they included a Community Newsletter. It's not a jumble load of information and it is easy to follow. I know this is an important aspect especially for those that are less computer literate.

The specialty of this blog is how it showcases the different classes and students individually. As a teacher, I love how each class can showcase what is being done in the class and what the students are able to create. I have never used (or heard of till now) SeeSaw. I would like to learn more about and maybe find a way to utilize it myself! But I find it inspiring how all of the students have "a voice" in the digital realm and are learning how to use it at an early age.

My only concern, as others have mentioned, is the privacy issues. I guess because it has been ingrained in me since undergrad, "do not share private information with others, including student's names without permission,, And even then do it sparingly." I was little uncomfortable about the actual names with pictures in several of the posts. If I were to do something like this I would like for use a system that was less identifiable of my students to the outside community.

Overall, I am highly impressed and have actually bookmarked the site so I can look at it more in depth and see what I could do for my future classrooms!

Russell Street School Impressions

The Russell Street School administrative team has an innovative vision for their school and are supporting that vision with written and visual evidence from each of the classrooms. The summary of their recent professional development seminar on play-based learning which is posted on their blog reflects a desire to stay current with trends and issues in education to ensure their students are receiving a holistic education. The faculty profiles reflect teachers who not only love their students but also their school which makes for a positive perception of a kind, caring, and professional environment. Each of the class SeeSaw live feeds provide examples of students making their thinking visible through words and images. I appreciated that parents had the option to respond to their child’s posts to comment on progress throughout the day which in turn would carry the learning home in the evening. The theme I gathered from their blog was that at Russell Street School, learning is joyful and holistic.

The major issues that I had while viewing the various class blogs concerned privacy for these elementary students. While the SeeSaw Live Feed is a great window into each classroom, I think those live feeds should be only for RSS parents with a password. Several classroom blogs contained photographs with students holding up their work with either their first names showing or first and last. Even if parents signed a consent form to have their child’s image published on the school blog, the choice to publish student names along with their photographs was troubling due to any number of potential safety issues. Additionally, I think parent comments to their children should only be seen by the parents of that class or at most, the school community, versus the public at large. While student work and images are strong marketing tools for the school, more care should be taken to ensure the protection of their young learners while also highlighting the great work which is happening in each classroom.

Russell Street School: Epitome of Digital Presence

After looking through the Russell Street School's website, I was impressed with the strong digital presence of the school. The school itself has its own page with general information, but each individual classroom has their own page as well. These individual pages have posts created by the teacher and each page has its own 'feel'.

• Some are updated frequently with videos and images while others are updated infrequently. 
• Some tag specific students while others just tag everyone. 
• Some show students while other show student work. 

Overall, I love the openness of the school and the individuality of the classrooms. It's a fantastic way to communicate with students' families as well as the rest of the world. It's a nice alternative to ClassDojo messaging or Remind, but those also have the added benefit of addressing parent one-on-one.

As I looked through these classrooms, I couldn't help but think about how this could be applied to a high school. From my perspective, I feel that older students should have more control over what is being shared since many of them are already sharing content online. In my classroom, students have blogs that they update a few times a week and I encourage them to update their Professional Sites, Google Sites designed by students to display their work. Yet, this does not seem as effective or as public compared to what Russell Street School is doing. I definitely need to start considering ways to make my students' learning more public for the world.

Thank you for the inspiration, Russell Street School!

Amazing! Everything I love about technology integration is on display!!

 Russell Street School is nailing it in my opinion.  The are leveraging the blogging experience in a way that showcases the strength and power of students sharing our their learning to an authentic audience. I had a smile on my face as a scrolled through each class.

I see that they are using Seesaw.  I integrated Seesaw into my classroom 3 years ago and immediately fell in love with it. The interface on both the children and teacher's side is simple and easy to use.  It seriously took my classroom learning to another level.

For those who are unfamiliar, here is a quick tutorial on what SeeSaw is...

I used Seesaw as a digital portfolio and parent communication tool.  Parents connect to their child's learning journal in a few easy steps and then they are notified via text or email when their child adds something new.  They can then like and comment on their child's work which my student's loved. Parents only see their own child's folder. 

My student's also loved commenting on each other's work.  Much like Russell Street School, we were using Seesaw to share out our learning in multiple subjects.  Each week, we would have a sharing party where kids would go on our class feed in Seesaw and comment on each other's work.  We did a lot of work on digital citizenship and ways to ask good questions and give helpful comments and praise. Below is an example from my class...

You can see how authentic this student's audience was! Their story was liked and commented on by their parent and they also received feedback from their peers. My student's became very invested in sharing out their learning and the "buy in" to this tool was so high.  

What I love about Russell Street School is how they are using the blogging feature of Seesaw, which was new last year, I think.  If the student or teacher wants to share their item in Seesaw to an audience outside the classroom, they simple hit the blog button and that item appears on the class blog, much like you see on their websites.  This a super easy way to have kids blogging and the kids love the idea of their digital artifacts being shared with people all over the world.  

Seesaw also allows students to create QR codes as a way to share.  Recently as I was working as an K-1 technology resource teacher in Hawaii,  and each class was using Seesaw. At the beginning of the school year,  I had each class do an "all about me"  writing project that they then put on Seesaw. Then each teacher printed QR codes and put them up in their classroom window.  One afternoon, all the students on the K-1 campus went around scanning their friends QR codes which led them to the "all about me" video.  It was so awesome to see the students so proud of their work as they shared with their peers from around the school. 

I was so happy to browse through Russell Street School's websites and blogs.  When I think of schools powerfully integrating technology tools, I envision schools like the Russell Street School. Technology is being used a tool to document and share rather than replace the learning experience. Students are engaged as they share out with an authentic audience.  If you haven't checked out Seesaw, please do!  It is a great tool and the Russell Street School is now a model school you can follow to learn how to integrate this tool to the max! 

Rebecca Davis RSS Post

My impressions of the Russell Street School Page:

• Overall, the page was visually appealing and seemed to be full of information. I explored several areas out of curiosity before digging into the student blogs. I liked the staff profiles and the information available to parents was neatly organized and easy to access.
• Looking at the blogs:
• The first two I looked at were fun, but I noticed that they had not been posted on since 2016. Digging a little deeper, it appeared that they were blogs of primary grade level classrooms (maybe K or 1). I looked at several others and it seemed as the ages of the students went up the frequency of posts went up as well. I don't think that is a coincidence.
• The upper grade blogs were full of student comments, videos, and thoughts. What a great way to document learning not only for parents, but for themselves to look back on. I would think that there could be some great opportunity for self/class reflection as the school year (term) goes on.
• As a classroom teacher (5th grade) I have a class blog that I write on. I use ClassDojo which has a photo sharing function. I try my best to keep it all up to date, but if you look at my history you will undoubtedly notice that there seem to be a lot more posts in September and October than the rest of the year. I have offered up the opportunity for kids to write on the blog, but the logistics of it have not quite worked out. This page inspired me to begin my year with a new mindset where the students and I are equally responsible for documenting our learning.  

Observations of the RSS Blog

I'm very impressed with the quality and frequency of communication of the Russell Street School. It's nice to see a well-functioning blog in action. The RSS is doing a lot of things right; everything from the tone of the blog (personal and friendly, yet professional) to the frequency of communication. I was paying attention to the dates as I scrolled their TNB page where they make weekly announcements, individual class pages, calendar of events, and online assemblies. In many instances, posts are made weekly if not daily. There were a few class blogs who haven't posted yet this year but for the most part, they are very current.

Observing this school's' blog helped me realize that a blog doesn't have to be perfect to be effective. As I was reviewing their site I couldn't help but compare it to my personal style. I would never dream of posting a video where one of the pictures isn't oriented correctly so that a book appears sideways. If a picture didn't have great clarity or was pixelated, I would deem it unusable. Yet I saw both of these things on the RSS blog. Did it make this blog unappealing? Did it make parents not want to visit the blog? No. The importance is placed on greater concerns. When I perused the blog it looks like both teachers and students are really enjoying their educational experience. That is what the blog conveys.

I also found myself comparing the RSS website to that of our own school. Each teacher is required to keep a class blog at my school and we are encouraged to update it weekly, which most teachers do. Our blogs are very formal, however. I don't see as much variety and flavor as with the RSS blog. I'd like to see us be more personable and friendly, including student work, class projects or pictures and videos of musical concerts on our blogs. These things definitely occur at our school but we don't share them as well as the RSS does.

RSS Embodies Communication

The Russell Street School really does understand the need for communication with its stakeholders. IN fact, they’ve even gone beyond this local need and have shared with the world.

 I love that not only does the school share important news and events on the main pages of the blog, but it also features a blog for each class. I quite enjoyed watching the kiddos perform their haka play presentation.  I couldn’t help but wish I had access to something similar for my daughters’ school. Now don’t get me wrong, they do communicate, but it is more easily accessible to a larger crowd when all parties involved are utilizing the same platform. In this case, the RSS uses a Google site.

 Though Google is the base camp for the blogs, I noticed that several classrooms have also incorporated Seesaw within their pages. I have a Seesaw parent account for my kids, and as a teacher who cannot always leave school,  I love how I have been able to view classroom moments, activities, and presentations through this application. The RSS teachers and staff are an example of school unity in communicating with its community and supporters. It’s a one stop show for parents and other interested parties, which brings me to my only concern...child privacy.

 OK, so maybe it’s a cultural difference, but I was amazed that so many teacher pages with Seesaw gave access to student names, given all of the video and visuals. I have used Seesaw and loved its capabilities, but I am not sure how I would feel about the world being able to view the workings of the classroom and be able to identify my child by name. Is this not a safety issue? (Or is America just more sensitive to predators?) Within our app, each child is numbered, and parents who are approved to join see names. It is not accessible elsewhere. So, while I love the RSS blog and its openness in featuring the good of its school and classes, I would also be concerned about the exposure of my child to all.

Impressions of RSS

I found the use of blogging at the Russell Street School to be both appealing informative. The use of class blogs is an excellent way for both students and parents to be caught up on what has gone in in class that day. Utilizing blogging as a student-based activity gives them both ownership and acknowledgement of their work. I know many teachers that use a class blog and find tremendous success with it. I think presenting school information as a blog allows for parents to be more up-to-date on information the school has to share.

I have considered beginning a classroom blog for this coming school year, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for the first portion of the year. I think I feel most comfortable trying a classroom blog will be my forensics class. Recently, I have learned more about incorporating more student choice based off of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. Teachers in my district have had success with its implementation, so I am thinking of using the the blog for verbal/linguistic choices.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the RSS blog, and I consider it an exemplar as to what a school or classroom blog should be like. It should be both informative for the students and the parents, and it has the potential to supplement a variety of lessons in the classroom.

Darrington - Impressions of Russell Street School

What a great way to showcase your school! The Russell Street School's blog and Google Site is a great way to keep parents and community members informed of what is happening at the school. It is easy to see what is going on school wide, but even more amazing, you can see the learning that is happening in each individual classroom. I imagine students would feel empowered and proud that their work is being put on display for others to see. As a parent, I would love to be able to add these blogs to an RSS reader and stay informed of what is going on at my child's school and in his or her classroom so easily.

I would love to do something like this at my own school, but I do have a couple questions. First of all, I am curious as to why the school chooses to use both a blog and a Google site. It seems that they both have most of the same information, so I am not sure I see the need for both. Second, I would be a little concerned about student's privacy and safety. There are many pictures of students throughout the different blogs, which would make me a little nervous as a teacher. It is so sad that we live in a world where such things have to be concerning, but the reality is we do. So my question is how do we make sure our students are protected when creating something like this?

I am not trying to discredit what this school has done in anyway because I really do think it is amazing and a great way to encourage learning and keep parents informed. I am just truly curious about some of the logistics to make it work.

Ryann Waldman - Russell Street School

They are using their blog similarly to how I would want to use my blog next year. First off, I noticed that they do have a Cyber Safety Policy that helps to keep their students safe online. I thought this was amazing and so great for both the students and the parents to be aware of. Second, I love how each room has their own blog so they are able to write about unique things to each class. The creativity of the names are also adorable! I also really enjoy how it is a place for the teacher to share the amazing work that the students are doing. It's giving me the idea to include a couple photos in each of my Friday blog posts I plan to be posting during the school year. The class list on the right side of the blog is also really cool. It is a quick and easy way for parents or students to be able to find the exact person they are looking for. I am not sure I would be able to accomplish this in my classes since I will have around 160 students but it could be fun to put a little caption under each photo I post so other people at least know who the people are. I also find it interesting why some of the blogs allow comments and other don't. I haven't decided yet if I will allow comments on my blog or not, but the ones I have seen here are pretty cute and fun. I like what they are doing and how they are using their blogs and how people can subscribe to their RSS feeds.

Impressions of Russell Street School

At first glance the Russell Street School's website appeared similar to other school websites I typically come across, however as I browsed around I quickly noticed a few interesting differences.  The Russell Street School uses a blogging platform as its main website which, in my opinion, has some advantages over a "standard" website.

Using a blogging platform as a school website allows parents and community members to follow what is happening in the school through the use of RSS.  Effective communication between a school and its community is beneficial on many levels and RSS can be a tremendous tool to keep everyone informed.  The blog is set up neatly and the posts are in chronological order which makes announcements very easy to find.

In my opinion, the greatest feature of Russell Street School's website was the individual class sites.  Using a blog as a classroom or individual portfolio has amazing potential, especially as technology continues to improve.  For example, the "Little Einsteins" page is dedicated to the classroom activities of 5 year old students.  Parents are able to actually see the activities that their children participated in during the day and have those important conversations about learning in the home.  I was impressed with the 6S classroom as their page was clean and neatly organized into different subject areas.  Not only were the lessons and activities available to view, but each individual child had their own page with recorded activities.

The Russell Street School seems to be setting a good example of how blogs can be used to showcase what goes on inside the classroom.  I could absolutely see blogs being used as portfolios for seniors in high school for their graduation projects!

Reaction to the Russell Street School Website

Boy, why couldn't I have gone to a school like this?  That was my first reaction to looking at all of the introductory material on the school.  These kids have access to 3D printing, coding, and robotics.  We don't even have access to that kind of technology at the college where I work.

Before looking at the blogs, I checked out the eLearning page.  I particularly liked how they included a technology help guide for parents.  This is an extremely helpful resource for parents who may be a little less comfortable with technology.  I also noticed that they added a help guide for making blogging comments for parents.  Encouraging parents to make comments on the class blogs gives them an easy forum for getting involved in their child's learning.  The blogging format makes it easy for the information to be shared with friends, family, and anyone else who may be interested in the progress that each student is making.  Additionally, this help guide included guidelines for what should be included in the comments.  This helps the parents who may be feeling lost or may not know how to support their child's learning experience.  It gives them a general rule of thumb for what a post should look like as well as ideas about what they should comment on.  The guide also encourages parents to include positive comments.  This advice is important for those students who may be struggling.  Comments of a negative tone may make the students feel even less confident.

The blogs themselves are really neat.  Blogging gives the kids a chance to comment about a lesson while it is fresh in their mind.  It also gives them a chance to relate a lesson to something they have seen or heard about before.  For example, I particularly liked the little girl who took a picture of her lunch and asked her parents not to send her so much plastic with her lunch.  This was in response to a lesson that they had at school about the problems of using too much plastic.  Additionally, the teachers were able to use the blog to reiterate what the class homework was for the night.  This could be really helpful for kids who are struggling or for those who are just trying to get out of doing it. 

The one thing that I noticed was that there didn't seem to be that many comments.  I wonder if this is related to how much time a parent with a full-time job and other children has to keep up with the blog.  Additionally, there were way more site visits then there were comments.  We read an article earlier in the course about students who just lurk on blogs.  They read the blog, but chose not to comment.  Most of them considered this participation in the course.  These parents are choosing to read, but not comment.  At least they are still learning about what their child is doing even if they are not specifically commenting on the activities in the classroom.

Kendal Cramer's Comments of Russell Street School

The Russell Street School website offers parents and students information regarding the school and classrooms, in a central location.  One of my favorite parts is outside media is connected to the website, calendar and school updates.  This makes the website easy to navigate and also easier to find information.  One thing I do not like about my own school's website is that there are multiple different websites, we have a  different website for the calendar, teacher pages and twitter pages. Trying to remember each website and then having to relay that information to parents can be time consuming.

I also like that each teacher has their own blog or website.  I really enjoyed sites where the teachers used their pages as an opportunity to share student work, have students write on the page and provide resources to families, such as ways to practice academic skills at home.  After looking at some of the teachers pages, I noticed many used a program called Seesaw.  I had never heard of Seesaw up until now.  It looks like it would work best for younger grades.  I will need to do more research on this program, but it seems to be a great way for students to share work, thoughts and ideas and get responses from classmates.

One thing I did notice was the differences in the amount of activity on each teacher's page.  There were many that had a new entry at least once a week and students were interacting with that particular entry.  I also found some pages that have not had a new post since October of 2016 and 2015.  If a teacher is going to create a website or a blog, there needs to be regular posts.  This way it is relevant to your current classroom students and families.

Russell Street School - A Blogging Exemplar

The Russell Street School utilizes blogging in an excellent way. As a parent of two elementary school students, I would love both the communication and information available from the blogs but even more than that I would love my boys to have the opportunity to blog. They are both reluctant writers and I think this could be a great tool.

I have loved the opportunity that blogging has provided me this term. It is fun to reflect and write about the things that are on my mind. I think my students will feel the same way. I imagine that there will be bumps along the way as I implement blogging into the curriculum. The way that the teachers at the Russell Street School utilize blogs is an excellent example. I would love to see this model for an older group of students.

I love the ideas of this school and am eager to implement them!

-Christine

Russell Street School in Palmerson North, NZ, offers parents, students, visitors or anyone involved in the school a one stop spot where they can access any information they need and stay up to date with what students are working on. They have one big Google Site where you can find the school calendar,  community newsletter, ads from community partners, school reports, posts from the principal, any news or announcements that parents should be aware of, etc. From that same site, anyone can access the class blogs for any grade. It makes it easier for parents and guardians who have several kids in the school to only have to go to one place and check on what new announcements and posts have been made. Although they could always subscribe to the blogs, this offers an easy start.

It was wonderful to see that all rooms (or most rooms) have a blog that they post to regularly (some rooms more than others, but in general pretty balanced). There is even a blog for the Gifted and Talented room. Teachers at Russell Street have been using the blogs to post important announcements, quick last minute updates, showcase student work, share what they are learning about, and extra resources or home extensions for parents to use at home to reinforce learning. It seemed like there was not a blog for the Resource Room but I think that that would be very empowering for those students.

I love that there are lots and lots of pictures of student work or classroom happenings. However, I observed that there wasn't much teacher-parent, parent-student or teacher-student conversations or discussions. I expected to see more dialogue. I personally love Seesaw so I was happy to see that the majority of the blogs are using Seesaw Blog. It made me feel reassured that it is a good tool since so many are using it successfully. Another thing I noticed that I liked a lot was that not only parents commented on student work, teachers did too! Several teachers left positive comments to encourage students to keep working hard.

It was my impression that some blogs seemed to have more teacher control and others are more student-centered, where it seems like students can post anything they would like about their learning versus the teacher making most of the posts and giving the authors credit for it. Finally, I observed that teachers gave students the opportunity to create something completely digitally OR physically and then taking a picture. It felt like this gave students some choice on their creations while not defeating the purpose of sharing it with bigger audiences.

Todd Koenig -- Comments on Russell St. School

Now that I've seen this, I literally want to create a Seesaw for all of my classes. And then tell all of my friends they need to, too. These blogs seem to me like a news outlet, community bulletin board, and artist portfolio all rolled into one.

The main page posts content that's useful to everyone connected to the school, be that school news, photos, calendars, etc. I can imagine teachers, parents, and students visiting this page (also mirrored in a Google site) regularly to see what's new or what happened at the weekend spelling bee. This is an extremely efficient way to disseminate information and one that has a much more personal feel to it than a typical school's website. With RSS readers, keeping track is incredibly convenient.

Next is the individual class "room" blogs. This blog showcases all of the students' work and what an incredible variety of work there is. In just one class alone, I saw posters, notebook pages, voice-recorded responses to art and other projects, photos of outside work, and so much more, all as evidence of or in response to working with an assigned topic. Students and their teacher leave comments of reassurance and congratulations.

As if that weren't enough, posts can be filtered down to the author (with selected avatars of a cute nature) by choosing the child's name from a list in the right sidebar. This is extremely well done by the developer and it makes it feel as though the child has their own personal bulletin board. Again, with plenty of comments from the other class members.

All classes aren't posting all the time but, collectively, the frequency is remarkable considering the age of these primary school students. They seem to take pride in their posts and you can hear the enthusiasm in their voices when they record a description of their animal drawings.

Ladies and gentleman, this is a model of what putting tech into a classroom could be like. Blogging, multimedia, perhaps some augmented reality... I'm so impressed. Learner-centered classrooms are the means to deeper, more immersive learning and the creativity these students show here while demonstrating their knowledge is theory put into action.

Maybe these guys are famous for what they do, and rightly so. We should all be aiming this high!

~Todd Koenig

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, 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?

You should post your response to this prompt as a unique entry on this blog. Please accept the invitation that you received to join this blog and then post your response.