Friday, July 19, 2013

Jaime's Thoughts on NZ School

The Russell Street School is very intriguing.  There were many aspects I really liked about the school blog.  Not only does the school have a constant blog building, but each teacher blogs and many of the classes also has student blogs.  What a great way for a school to show what is going on within it!  I love that any community member can easily go to this blog and see what is going on.  I think most schools do not have a way to showcase the amazing things that takes place on a regular basis.   Allowing the community to see how students are learning and the positive, interactive, 21 century learning taking place would help the community have a desire to support the school system.  Too often, at least where we live, we hear about the negative things that give schools a bad name.  If we would highlight our hard working students, the community would want to support the great things taking place.
Having blogging as a part of the curriculum at the school puts more emphasis into a good quality work ethic.  The students know other people will be looking at their blogs. They don't want to be the weakest link!  At least I wouldn't want to be.  Students have the ability to have drafts, finish a blog, and if need be go back and edit it if it isn't up to par.  I love that each students page is unique and shows off who each person is.  Some create avatars, have pets, buddies, and other links.  They've taken the time to create a spot of their own on the net.  How cool is it to see the growth of each student throughout the years?!
This school has a good privacy policy on it to keep the students safe, a great interaction with parents and the community, and is supportive to its staff.  I noticed what they do to help the staff interact with each other, create a team atmosphere, and in-service to help the staff improve on their skills.  A supportive staff system is so important.
What a great school!  I know it is a leading school throughout the world in applying technology and in teaching 21st century skills.  Thanks for sharing.

5 comments:

  1. Jaime,
    I, too, was impressed by the level of commitment from the the school teachers and admin. This type of endeavor can't be pulled off successfully without the buy-in of the teachers and staff. I really enjoyed seeing how each teacher added unique information that revealed their own and their classroom's personality and learning.

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  2. Jamie, you began your response with "There were many aspects I really liked about the school blog." I was wondering if there were any things you didn't like?

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  3. Jaime,

    I agree with you that communities and parents really can't know how many wonderful things are going on inside a school without an effort like this. The opposite is true, I am sure there are some schools or classes where good things are not happening, but unless you go into the school and watch you don't know. What a great PR campaign if nothing else. For the kids, I know how much my kids love showing me what they have done, now grandma and anyone else who wants to see can.

    Jeremy

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  4. Jaime,
    I agree with the ideas you have for a blog to allow a school to boast all the great ways our students are learning. I think giving publicity to all the good things happening in out schools would be well received by the community and I think that kind of partnership could benefit everyone.

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  5. Jaime, I liked your comment about how this blog would support quality work from students. Having a bigger audience is often a wonderful motivator for students, and this school has offered up the audience of the world!

    I appreciated your thoughts about showcasing students' work and how the school is generating a positive school perception beyond its walls through their school blog.

    Thanks for your insights.

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