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.