Kids want to tell their story...

I recently attended an eLearning conference session on Literacy for a Digital Culture. The presenter was the one and only Kristin Ziemke http://www.kristinziemke.com/, a presenter that I have been eager to see and hear in person for a couple years now! Kristin is a teacher in Chicago who has been teaching other teachers how to use technology in their classrooms as part of their instructional repertoire. If you don’t know of her, check her out NOW! As she talked to us about working with students in a Digital Culture, it became apparent that we have to continue to focus on the students. Kristin said, “Kids want to tell their story.” I wondered how often we actually foster environments in our classrooms that provide kids with this opportunity. How do we structure learning around the needs and interests of our students and not solely what is expected to be taught. When you are reading your twitter feed, are you reading for what your boss tells you or are you reading for what sparks your interest? We should think of how we function as we structure the learning in our classrooms for our students that also are driven by their own interests. In today’s classroom, children have different ranges of social emotional needs. As part of teaching with a digital culture in mind, we can embrace their needs and use our digital resources to meet the variety of needs. Kristin talks about a class that set up blogs with their parents. This outlet provided kids with an opportunity to have an outlet to their parents, but more importantly for parents to provide feedback and support to their children in a way that can be more immediate and relevant. Teachers in a neighboring district to me set up blogs with students in their classes. This outlet provided students with a less intimidating way to share information with their teachers. This can be a benefit in many ways. Today as educators, we struggle to get to know our students as much as we would like as individuals. A student/teacher blog can help us learn about our students on a more individual basis about the background they bring to our classroom as well as the needs they have for learning. If we let kids tell their story, chances are we will develop stronger working relationships that will enhance the teaching and learning in our classroom.