The number of posts on my personal inquiry blog has been pretty minimal so far this year. I still have a couple of reflections to post about my experience during the lockdown levels and its impact on teaching and learning experiences for students at our school. However, when I make comparisons between how much I am blogging and how much my own children (both in Year 6) are blogging, I am put to shame.
Recently my children (boy/girl twins) reached a milestone of 200 posts each on their blogs. 200 posts!!! As a mum and teacher I was blown away by this. I noticed that a huge number of posts took place during the months of May and June. My daughter (Julianna) has been quite consistent with blogging during the year. However my son (Kristopher) somehow managed to post 230 times in the space of two months!
Something had changed for my children and I wondered why. I guess that with the changes forced upon teachers during lockdown, they had to do things differently and students had to adapt to the change.
For the first time students connected with their teachers from home via Google Meets. Students were forced to become more independent and lessons were modified and adapted to suit the interests and needs of the students. I noticed that a high level of multi-modal learning opportunities were consistently provided. Then when the students returned to school, this new style of learning and the expectation to post evidence of learning on their blogs (minus the Google Meets) continued.
Another factor for the high level of engagement that I witnessed was that my children became more competitive. They soon realised that their teachers, parents and friends were beginning to take more notice of their posts which encouraged them to post even more. They’ve even decided to challenge one another to see who can do the most blog posts. I’m looking forward to seeing how many posts they will end up with at the end of the year. I’m so proud of them. In the meantime, I need to up my game and put up a few more posts of my own.
Dear Sandy,
ReplyDeleteI'm a Manaiakalani Facilitator in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne, as well as a mum of three kids aged 15 years to 21 years.
What a fabulous reflection on the power of blogging! I so enjoyed your enthusiasm in regards to your children blogging and wow, what an incredible position you're in, as both a mother of twins and a teacher, to be able to see the power of blogging! What an exceptional achievement for your children too. Isn't blogging amazing for engagement? My eldest daughter is 21 and currently undertaking a Communication degree with a major in Journalism and I just know she would have loved blogging as a child. I'm so excited for you that you get to witness their journey and celebrate with them. It's wonderful to hear there were a number of multimodal opportunities provided. Was this just for their learning component, or were they creating many multimodal digital learning objects themselves as well? How has your blogging been going?
I look forward to reading more!
Amie Williams
Manaiakalani Outreach Facilitator
Tairāwhiti
Hi Amie
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my blog. Yes it has been quite exciting to be able to witness my children's blogging journey and achievements. It is wonderful to hear that your daughter is undertaking a Communication degree! The multimodal opportunities provided was part of the learning components posted on the class sites. There was also an expectation that the students would create multimodal DLOs themselves. Once again, thank you for your kind comments and support.
Kind regards
Sandy Lagitupu