Student Discourse using Weebly

I had the honor today to present a PD session about using Weebly to increase student discourse alongside two of my colleagues.  I must say that I learned so much from the process of getting ready for this session.  Our district is in the beginning stages of implementing the use of Weebly for student digital portfolios/blogs.  I had a few major take-aways from working on this process.

1.  It is essential that we provide authentic opportunities for our students to interact with each other and with the world around them. Once they know that someone is really going to read what they write, the motivation immediately increases, especially if they know that the audience includes their peers.  By using Weebly and providing opportunities to read the work of other students, our students will be able to reflect on their own writing and thinking in order to challenge themselves.

2.  We must make sure that we don't get caught up in all of the technical aspects of Weebly (or whatever web tool we are using).  There will always be things that we don't know as well as things that our students don't know.  The great thing about using a web tool is that we have immediate help via the help feature within the tool or google.  As we become comfortable admitting to our students that we don't know all of the answers, we create a true collaborative environment within our classroom.  The students drive the learning.  Ultimately, within a few months, the students will be doing the bulk of the work and will have awesome portfolios to show for it.

Here is the link to the presentation:





Our 3rd graders have had a great time setting up and starting to create their portfolios.  By the end of this week, our 4th and 5th graders will have theirs set up as well.   Here are a few shots of them working on their portfolios