THE ADVENTUROUS BRAINSTORMERS BLOG: A PLAN

THE ADVENTUROUS BRAINSTORMERS BLOG: A PLAN

As school librarians, we facilitate a space; a space to roam information, make discoveries, develop ideas, and share

those ideas. In the time we are in now, there is no reason why that space should stop at the building. By extending our library to the virtual realm using a student-run blog, we can better personalize learning. Students can make their own choices, pursue their interests, and express themselves in the way that excites them most. A blog is an outlet which our students can use to understand and develop their unique literate identities. This independence that is garnered will lead students to envelope what is known as "agency."

Entitled 'The Adventurous Brainstormers,' the blog I am interested in facilitating allows students to feel safe in their explorations. My goals for

students become the goals I have for myself because I will need to be supportive of each stage in order for this program to be successful. My first goal is that students are able to recognize the moment they have an inquiry. Some students may have trouble identifying this because they have long been guided to think solely about what they need to know to complete a specific task for a grade. The blog's purpose will be to open that limitation back up. There are no grades on the blog, and it will rely solely on internal motivation. My plan for this is to foster the student's unique personal interests. My second goal is that they develop the desire and skills to do more reading, listening, or watching before settling on a single answer to an inquiry. I will need to help them practice the quest for further information in various forms of media. My last goal is that they discover their favorite method to express themselves. I will need to present the various forms of expression that are possible on the blog.

My goal for myself as the librarian is that I am able to listen to my students in order to really hear their visions so that I am capable of supporting

or awakening their drive to create. My goal for our teachers is that when they see a spark within a student, that their inclination becomes making the suggestion to work on a blogpost outside of class time. My goal for parents is that they will see the value in pursuing inquiries that go beyond the classroom. My goal for the school as a whole is that this leads to a world of opportunities. Written posts can lead to photograph posts, to video posts, to extracurricular clubs, field trips, long-term projects, creations, ideas, new equipment, areas of expertise, student-held jobs, and so on. Meanwhile, we want our teachers to feel valued throughout the program. I don't want them to feel this takes away from the students' academic studies, but rather adds to it. We can do this by always guiding our students to find how they can make a connection between their interests and an academic subject as the theme for their posts.

For example, say there is a student who is highly interested in sailboats, and he watches the America's Cup every year with his parents. His

teacher says, "He is so excited about these sailboat races, but he just has nowhere to put all his knowledge about it. He really needs a space to share, but we don't have any projects coming up that have anything to do with sailboats." This would be the perfect opportunity for a student to blog. I would guide him to organize his thoughts by filling out a graphic organizer especially made for blog posts. We would put together some materials to read through, listen to, or watch. We would also add in some of his favorite pictures, or a video of a race. This is a great opportunity to learn how to place a photo and video into a post, and also site his sources. We would then lead our student to categorize the blog post with a school subject as the theme of the post. In our example, what does the student believe relates to his post? Is it math? Is it science? Is it engineering? Is it all of those things? By deciding on the theme, students will develop a habit of higher level thinking.

This is just one example of the endless ways a blog can immerse students in their inquiries. By creating blog posts, students can connect with not

only their own interests, but also the community and beyond. Could we blog about our opportunities for community outreach? Could we take a field trip to the animal rescue shelter and blog the photographs of the animals that need adopting? Could we blog about creative ways to "upcycle" on Earth Day? Could we blog about a peaceful demonstration to protest a policy we disagree with? Soon, our students may discover their place in the world. The blog posts that students create can serve as a portfolio to present to teachers, college applications, professors, potential employers, and more. They can also serve as a portfolio for the school to show parents, administrators, community members, local business owners, local colleges, etcetera, the overall value and impact that the school has on its' community.

There is no cost to create a blog on Wix or similar sites, so we do not need funds to start this program. As ideas develop, this could change, but

to keep it simple, the start-up is completely free. The gateway to 'Adventurous Brainstormers' is located here: https://laurenmichelestevens.wixsite.com/idea/student-blog. To establish the blog, I have set up the page to be clean, simple, uncluttered, and accessible. The look of the blog is modern and is geared to look appealing to students. The icons are designed so that students can quickly associate them with the page they lead to. Upon entering the blog, posts are categorized by academic subject or theme to best support making valuable connections as well as finding out the common interests they may have with their peers.

Once our blog's accessibility is tested and modified according to tests and surveys done by faculty, we would introduce the what, why, and how

of a blog to our students. They may have never even heard of a blog before. We may first want to launch the blog to one grade to implement it for the first time, and move to younger grades eventually. Limiting the program at first will allow us to test-run the blog to find any technical issues as well as gauge what students' abilities and needs are. Let's say we pick sixth graders. We would begin with a collaboration project working with the sixth grade teachers to create the very first blog posts.

Our collaboration project will be teaching the students how to write a blog post on a connection they find between a book of their choice

and a school subject or theme. We begin by having each student in the sixth grade choose a book in the library. Next, we explain that this is a little bit of a competition to see who can make some really great connections because I will only be choosing five connections to use for the project so that we can work in groups. I will first give them a graphic organizer where they consider the following questions:

• List three aspects, or three things, you enjoyed about this book.

• What school subject(s) did you see as a theme in this book? (List examples.)

• How does what you enjoyed about the book relate, or connect, to the theme? What does the book talk about?

• How could you best show your classmates how your interests connected to the theme? (List media options.)

I would have an example to show them for the book I have chosen, which is 'The Wild Robot' by Peter Brown. I would say this book has facts about science around every corner. I will have filled out my own graphic organizer and go through my answers with the students. I would then have them work on their graphic organizers for the remainder of class and then for an additional class.

Next, I would independently read over the students' graphic organizers to see which students made some valuable connections. After choosing

my five students, we would pull popsicles to find out which student goes in which group, and also which designated job each student would have. We would have a day of instruction going step-by-step on how and when each job is accomplished. The person whose connection was chosen will be the writer of the blog. Another student would help find a picture or a video to best represent the post. Another student would be in charge of coming up with an exciting title that encapsulates the post. And lastly, one student would be the editor of the post. They would all sit together and add their elements together so everyone can see how each job is done.

After the students learn how to create posts, I will create a bulletin board promoting the blog. The bulletin board will contain inspirational ideas,

instruction sheets, graphic organizers, and anything else we find we need. Eventually, I will print out and feature blog posts that students created themselves on the bulletin board. Students will be reminded and encouraged to grab a graphic organizer out of the folder each day they come to the library. Students can type up what they've written in their graphic organizer during free time, at home on their own, or with the help of their parents. They would send it to me using the submission area of the blog. I will review the submissions once per day. I will either make suggestions for edits or further research, or will work with the students to find or create pictures and videos to accompany what they've written. Perhaps they don't want to write at all but would like to express themselves solely in a video. I would be the one to oversee all of this.

I will evaluate the success of the program based on the interest and enthusiasm I sense from students, teachers, parents, and administration. I

would also assess how many issues we face and whether we are able to overcome those issues with solutions such as further time, practice, or collaboration. If students begin pushing the envelope beyond the concept we originated with, then I will feel I am making an impact on student agency.

At the end of the year, we could have 'The Adventurous Bloggy Awards.' Together, each class could come up with categories that they could win

an award in such as 'Most Creative,' 'Most Funny,' 'Most Helpful,' 'Most Researched,' or 'Most Involved in the Community.' Next, we could all nominate people and hold an online vote on the blog. We could then have a ceremony for the winners and hand out prizes. I think the act of celebrating this program and the students who have worked so hard to make it a success would instill the confidence and the agency we strive for in our students for years to come.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. (2013, March 13). 5 Reasons Your Students Should Blog. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3721

Godwin, P. (2009). Information literacy meets Library 2.0. London: Facet Pub.

Raisdana, J. (n.d.). Blogs from the Mouths of Babes. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://www.jabizraisdana.com/blog/blogs-from-the-

mouths-of-babes/

Shekhter, H. (2015, May 30). Why Teachers and Students Should Blog. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://www.edudemic.com/how-

and-why-teachers-should-blog/

Student Agency. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2018, from http://www.redesignu.org/design-lab/mastery-learning/resource-bank/student-

agency