It's all Greek to me!

There was more to hear in four years of conferences than I could manage, so I concentrated on 2008. The keynote speaker spoke slowly and gently, as if we should all use our jammies to go to sleep, but made some interesting, general points about the world our school aged children are growing up in. It’s a non-specific approach, so there’s not much to say to it.

The next two pieces I chose were from the “Prove It!” portion of the conference, as I am someone who needs the importance of web 2.0 in elementary school to be proven to me. Both dealt with student blogs. I understand and agree with the idea that students will approach their writing in a different way when it has a purpose and an audience. I was dismayed at how much focus went to technical aspects of writing (punctuation, spelling, . . .) and how little went to ideas.  (We like our blogging buddies) I wonder if that is because typing is typing and it just does not resemble the beautiful, awkward, giant, barely controlled writing of a young child, so readers tend to focus on obvious corrections.  Even with my fourth graders, I would prefer that they think first about what they are writing and how they express themselves and what kinds of images best portray their feelings, etc. and to correct their spelling and punctuation at the end.

I love the chance to listen to a conference in my pajamas and hope to go back and hear more sections from time to time. I also love the idea of getting blogging pals for my class. I had not previously thought of getting buddies from a teacher prep class. That could be an idea I would try.