Class Projects

I have looked at some of the projects undertaken by the speakers and moderators, and I find myself extremely grateful because they have opened my eyes to some real possibilities.

Early on in this weblogging session I had come to the realization that I could do literature circles this way, and I was happy to discover that Anne Davis has already tried it. Her site gave me lots of ideas about what I might want to do and how I could maybe do it. I learned a lot from the student reflections. I can definitely see using blogs in my classes this way. I love literature circles!

I also really appreciated the opportunity to look at Anne's Teachers and Technology blog. Becuase she set it up so nicely to guide her students through the process of doing her assignments, it serves as an excellent tutorial for anyone reading it. I especially liked the way she set up having the students respond to professional readings. In my experience, the time we take to set tasks like this up and the more we guide students through them the first time, the better the results and the faster everyone gets on the same page.

I have been using Nicenet to publish my students' work to members of the class, but I can see that a blog or an e-portfolio would give them the ownership that they don't have with Nicenet. Also, it gives them a larger audience. This semester I only have beginning students and we have started with Nicenet, so I think I will wait until the fall to try this, but I definitely want to do it.

I am anxious to start setting up a class project but really don't know if I can right now. I have plenty iof ideas on how to do it with my advanced students, but I don't have any. I have started gathering the links and stuff for an advanced writing class on a new blog I have entitled Level 3 Writing. It is just an experiment right now. I want to get it set up as I would for the class. Since I am not in a rush, it will probably be slow to develop, but maybe I will get inspired and work on it a lot here one of these days!

So I am thinking about class projects, but I am not actually ready to start one yet. Soon, though... I hope!