So I started this post earlier this week and now my blogging app says it doesn’t exist. Love technology, right? Anyway last week I wrote a post about my #2 take away from #iste12 but i got distracted at the beach and haven’t finished reflecting on #1.
Through each of the keynotes and sessions I attended, one thing kept standing out to me – student voice. Maybe it wasn’t worded that way but it was an idea that stayed with me.
Maybe it stuck with me because at the end of the school year I had to fill out a PLP (professional learning plan) that said I was going to focus on best practices of student reflection, which to me equates blogging. My kids have blogged in the past but I’m not sure if the reflection (and opinion) part shined. My goal next year is to take it to the next level and really go beyond posting a post for a grade and never looking back. I’m on the hunt for ideas and methods which is silly. Students just want to be heard, just like us the teachers.
Someone said (no comment on who) that one of the keynotes was pointless because kids have been writing letters to others since the 70s. That’s great but you see, I wasn’t even born in the 70s. And in the state of Alabama most teachers who were teaching in the 70s have since retired because we have a pretty good retirement program here. So for the rest of us it was we need reminders and examples of how powerful student voice can be.
I have a lot of opportunities available to me because some how I have found a voice here on this blog and even through Twitter. (Have I mentioned I’m going to NASA?!?!!!) I’m surprised everyday that people actually care about my crazy ramblings. If little ol’ me from Alabama (bless my heart) can have a voice, so can my students who have been told their entire lives that they don’t have a voice and to be quiet. No matter what they come from or what they go home to, they have a voice. This voice can open doors or even give confidence. Confidence that may have never been their in the past – or confidence that has been squashed by teachers whose focus has been on grades and tests. My goal next year is to help them find that voice while mixing in a lot of science, of course, right?
Blogging is a great tool for student voice. Whilst many students may have been writing letters in the 70’s (I would have been one of them!) the difference is that that letter would have been read by one other person, whereas blogging gives students a whole new audience. It is so much more powerful to have an extended global audience than just one reader and a good opportunity for students to have people respond who may actually question them and cause them to reflect on their opinions and ideas.
Nice post! I got a little teary-eyed! The
days of children being seen and not heard
are long gone, this post is a great reminder
of that, thanks.