Can Writing Communities Continue After the Class is Finished?

Once again we are coming to the end of a rich and productive semester on Reading Improvement Through Written Expression.  And once again I am wondering what will happen to these teacher-writers and teachers of writing/reading?   Will they continue to practice these habits of engaged (epistemic) reading and writing that they have developed and honed over the semester?   Will they continue to search out materials based on interest AND GENRE to read?   Will they continue to add to, revise, reshape, re-see their genre pieces?  their course blogs or their course portfolio?  Or will these works be truly finished because they will be abandoned....?

I wish there was some way to keep the writing community alive, even without the requirements of class.   Could students be "visitors" next semester?  Would they be willing to serve as part of our virtual community?   Responding to students' blogs?   Would the new group of students be willing to give access to these "618 graduates?"  Or would they also feel as at least one of the students this semester remarked "overly concerned about what they will feel free to write if they know their classmates are reading...."  

Oh dear, I just realized there is only five minutes left of class..  Why does time fly so when we are having such fun?

The Empowering Aspect of Digital Portfolios

I have to go respond to student emails for another class, but I had to take a moment to reflect on my level of interest and sense of efficacy as I have just created my first Google-site based digital portfolio.   I have created digital portfolios before, but I am just amazed at the ease in which this one could be created.  The advances in technology in the last 10-15 years are astounding.  


I had to create my first portfolio as a webpage.  A webpage that I created -- using html and writing the code for the page as well as adding the content to the page.   It is so delightful that I no longer have to know the code in order to develop the text.  


I also find it so interesting that programs such as Google-sites is FREE.   I wonder how long this will remain to be so?   

Testing the Flexibility of the Blog

I want this post to show up as a new post on my blog....will it?

Learning WITH My Students

Okay, students. So I want to spend some time reflecting-in-writing on my new understandings of what it means to be a teacher of teachers in the digital writing workshop. 
I find the "reflection-in-action" that is required is tremendous.  Actually, I wonder if being able to reflect/respond/redirect/remember/ immediately in the moment is one of the key attributes of this Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge.   Obviously, teachers have always needed to be 'ready' for the teachable moment, but it feels like there is a greater disposition needed of the teacher to be 'ready' to be TAUGHT as well as to facilitate the TEACHING in that same moment.  

I don't know if I am explaining this very well....For example, I am thinking about what happened tonight in class when I thought Diigo was a site that needed to be purchased in order to be used.  Even though I knew it was a useful social bookmarking site, I didn't have a lot of familiarity with how to ACTUALLY USE the program because I didn't think that was available.  However, when Melissa G. shared that she had downloaded a freeware version of the tool, but she wanted to know if she could highlight documents she had bookmarked, even if she wasn't using her home-base computer... I had to learn right along with my students and we had to teach each other....

I am curious to know more about the Diigo site now and whether or not it would be a better site to use than Google Reader?    I also am curious to know what blogs the students will find and use as a part of their Genre Pieces Project.   And now....I am wondering if I need to change the expectations that students primarily look for examples of children's literature and YA literature as their examples of the different genres or if I should give equal access to the other source material.

Oh, so here is another realizations I have come to when re-envisioning my classroom as a digital learning community.    It really ISN'T as simple as saying we now have a new assignment (blog versus printed journal).   The fact that the students' writing is PUBLIC/published right now gives me a greater sense of guilt when I don't read the students' posts each week.   I want them to know that I DO value their work, even if I cannot immediately read and respond to it.