On Your Mark

We've lined up at the starting gate. The sixth grade math classes received their Classblogmeister user names and passwords. We had enough time to let everyone choose the template for their page and select a title and description.

I had hoped that I'd get to introduce the to the first topic, but that will have to hold until next week. I'm looking forward to their answers. I am curious how many of them have taken advantage of using the Schoolnotes homework list, the wiki for the class, or the podcasts I've created. I've had the Schoolnotes account for years and the wiki for the class used to be a web page. I've never taken the time to ask who used those accounts. I can see Schoolnotes is used by the way the counter rises. When the wiki was a web page, it was just too cumbersome to update too often, so I'm sure that wasn't too useful.

The podcast is brand new. I only learned how to make them this month. My first stumbling block there was finding out that I really should publish an audio only files as well as a view podcast. In addition to the podcast, I also ended up publishing slideshows to support the audio. For me, the screen on the iPod is just too small to view. Maybe it's my "old" eyes.

Anyway, I ended up "locking up" the student's files with a password. I'll keep the student's work private until I really see how it goes along. My work is public, though. I continue to look forward to how the whole thing fleshes out over the year.

Tired but happy

I just spent the last two hours, give or take, reviewing two classes of wiki updates. The seventh grade especially liked the Fair(y) Use Tale explanation of copyright and fair use. The eighth grade was not as taken with it. For the most part, it seems like the students all took away at least one new idea about copyright and fair use. It's a hard topic for me to wrap my mind around.

They can't wait to see who their partners are from the other classes. Next week, we'll upload the avatars and let them guess, then I'll tell them who their partners are. I'm just too tired to look for photos for the blog these days.

Tomorrow, I'm finally getting the sixth grade going on Classblogmeister. I'm looking forward to getting that project off the ground as well.

The plans of the summer are starting to click! I'll be teaching the fifth graders Classblogmeister sometime this year and I'll save time off of next year's start up. Life is good!