Monday, October 5, 2015

21st Century Reflection

Students are taking chances and deeply reflecting at Gene Pike Middle School. In Mrs. Fitzgerald's class, her students were given one task: start a blog on Blogger and share about something you find interesting. Since all NISD students have Blogger accounts through their Google account, Mrs. Fitzgerald had them utilize this platform to ease them into the reflective world of blogging. From that simple direction, students took the initiative to begin a web-based chronological log of their thoughts outside of class. They began blogging  about everything from a project they did for a class to collections of music from their favorite video games. The students began writing, creating videos and embedding them into their blog.  Mrs. Fitzgerald is the librarian at Pike and her class is open to all 8th grade students.  This assignment was able to meet each student at their own level. They have all taken ownership over their blogs and have begun curating in numerous ways.

One of the students, Carlos, decided that he wanted to make his blog about how to defeat different levels of various video games.  He knew that his audience would enjoy learning how to get through the levels.  Since this is a blog, it is still a work in progress and you can check back later to learn even more from Carlos.

As their blogs began to take shape, students participated in a feedback session with classmates and their teacher. Students were encouraging each other to explore topics that they can blog about.  The students are currently working on a way to embed their blogger page into their ePortfolio.

To extend the depth of their learning Mrs. Fitzgerald has encouraged the students to customize their ePortfolios as well. Alexa has begun this process. She is also one of our NISD Advocates at GPMS.  She has taken her ePortfolio and used it to help students and parents learn how to navigate through Google Sites. She is using this platform to reflect on herself as a learner and to give insight into who she is as a member of a thriving community.


Students at Gene Pike Middle School are blogging into their future!

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