I have just launched my first edublogging project. It all started on Tuesday with one of my Juvenile groups. It´s a Juv 6, 18 students between 12 and 14 years old. They took their first test last week, so Tuesday was test-feedabck day, and then we would start the new unit. The grammar point is present perfect, talking about experiences such as "Have you ever been to NY?", or "Who´s the best teacher you´ve ever had?"... So I figured this could be a good hook to get them started, I mean, they can talk about their experiences and comment on each other´s... Well, it all began with my having  an informal conversation with them about the Internet, how often, why and how they use it. Then I asked them what they thought about blogs, whether they had ever blogged, and if they would like to give it a try. I also told them it would be something kind of extra class, no grades involved, no obligations attached. It would be something they would do freely, expressing their ideas and thoughts in order to improve their writing skills and also to build stronger connections with their classmates. As for their mistakes in writing, I would give them private feedback so they wouldn´t be exposed. Then I asked them to think it over and that we would talk about it the following class, that is, today. We would go to the MALL, our computer lab - Multimedia Access to Language Learning - in order to check the blog and the post I would write as a starter, and then they would begin blogging by posting their first comments. However, today I realized that they needed more than that, they needed to actually get the feeling of what blogging could be. So why not show them my Posterous? Since there is a laptop, a projector and free Wi-Fi access in my classroom, it was easy to do so. I started by showing them the video posted here, "10 Top Reason´s to Use a Blog in the Classroom". I paused it after every reason explained in the video by students and a teacher, and encouraged them to report what they had just heard. As the video went by, they became more and more interested and willing to ask questions, make comments and suggestions. Some of them even suggested that I post our class agenda such as pages studied, homework and stuff... Once the video was over, I showed them my Posterous title, its description, and explained what this blog is being used for, which they considered rather interesting. Next, I scrolled the blog down, showing all the posts; clicking on comments so they could visualize the interaction; and showing them the comic strips, the videos, and the pictures posted so that they could see lots of things that had been said in the video, as well as realize there really are different ways to express and/or illustrate thoughts and ideas. BTW, they had a lot of fun with the Baby Blue strips posted especially the "Oh Gosh". In fact, it took a while for the image to appear, and they were very curious to know what the post title, "Oh Gosh", was about! The look on their faces was so different at this point, they looked genuinely curious and interested! Then I showed them my other blog "Edu Tasks", which is the blog we´ll be using, and they watched "Blogs in Plain English", which was posted when I created my blogger blog . Needless to say that we spent the entire first half of the class, 50 minutes,  talking about this new learning path, this different approach in their studies, this new world of possibilities being used for pleasure and for learning! And most  importantly, they seemed really willing to give it a try.

So thank you Carla, for your willingness to share and guide us through this new world.

Thank you my friends and colleagues  for your support and comments.

However,  my very special thanks go to my dear friend and colleague Dennis, who, through very pertinent, thought-provoking, and humorous comments made me overcome my reservations regarding blogging. Moreover, he helped me realize  how fun, meaningful, useful, and educational (not to mention addictive, in a positive way, of course, lol ) blogging can be.

Hope to have more good news soon.

xoxo

Well, Dennis, freedom to write, but to a certain extent, right? lol...

xoxo

Everytime I saw that RSS orange symbol, I wondered what that could be. In fact, I had never heard "RSS" before! What a great surprise! Even though I haven´t been very active these days for personal reasons, the little I could do so far has been great. Moreover, It allowed me to discover the usefulness of Google News. I´m a very busy persom, usually have my fingers in a lot of pies, and RSS is a kind of a life-saver, for it really helps me save time, and this is exactly what I need for the time being...

xoxo

Well, well, well, this is so much bigger than I thought... At first I was only using Diigo as a bookmarker with one of my groups, my Pre-test TOEFL. As I said in one of my previous posts, Carla helped me create a Ning page for this group a few months ago, and that´s when I first heard of Diigo. Then she showed me how it would be practical in order to create a Bookmark List and use Diigo to send the links that could be useful and helpful for this group with a click of the mouse... I downloaded the toolbar, and started using it to add  whatever I considered pertinent for this particular group to our Ning page. But now, come on, this was just the beginning... I have created a Diigo page, found and added friends, and more importantly, SHARED  bookmarks, found awesome sites I might not have on my own through that sharing, and have been managing to organize myself... I was always kind of lost when it came to organizing my favorite links, in fact, I didn´t know how to do that. I would simply write the site in folders... Not anymore! LOL... I have found many interesting resources, and will add two of them here. By the way, I have added the first one to my Pre-Test TOEFL Bookmarks List.
http://agendaweb.org/
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/