TTT #290 - NYCWP Teachers Fostering Youth Voices with Jim Nordlinger, Amal Aboulhosn, Carla Cherry, and Valerie Burton - 3.28.12

Post-Show description: 

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we have a conversation with three teachers from the New York City Writing Project who are part of a study group that has been sponsored by the NYCWP to foster and reflect on the use of Youth Voices by these teachers. Paul Allison, Chris Sloan, Monika Hardy host a conversation with Jim Nordlinger, Amal Aboulhosn, and Carla Cherry from the NYCWP along with our colleagues Valerie Burton, and Fred Mindlin.
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As an introduction to this conversation, we offer these reflections posted by one of our listeners on her blog, "Short Quips: thinking in (hyper)text" (Check out here blog, to see this teacher's complete response, and view her About Me.):
Tonight I participated in my first live educational conference online through EdTechTalk. The conference is called “Teachers Teaching Teachers” and takes place every Wednesday night. I did not join the group via video, but rather just watched/listened to the other participants and participated through a live chat feature....

It took me a while to catch up to what was being discussed. Participants were throwing around the term “Youth Voices” and I thought at first that it was just a cool catch phrase for high school kids who were blogging. It wasn’t until i joined the live chat that I got a better idea of what Youth Voices is. Youth Voices, it turns out, is a huge site where the main purpose is to offer a space for youth to participate in discussion. It is a place where youth can post their thoughts and comment on other youth’s thoughts....

One of the discussions among the video participants revolved around how teachers should/are assessing their student’s contributions on Youth Voices. One educator shared how she is setting guidelines for how much/what her students need to contribute to Youth Voices within a specific time frame. For example, she will stipulate that her students need to write one post and make one comment within a week, and if they do both they get the marks for it. This particular educator works at a school in the Bronx and has found that participating in Youth Voices has empowered her students to have their voices heard. She noted how much time and effort can be put into a short comment, because the students are very aware of their online presence and ensuring they present themselves appropriately.

... It was an interesting experience to view it. I think the biggest thing I got out of the experience was that I was also able to network with educators from far and wide- always a positive when you are working on developing your professional learning network.

... I would love to come back to join in a conversation in the future, especially if I am looking for information specifically related to the topic being discussed. I am curious to know whether there are any live educator chats/conferences specifically for Early Childhood Educators. If you know of one, pass it on!

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

07:57 Paul Allison: Teachers Teaching Teachers will start in about 50 min.
07:57 Paul Allison: http://goo.gl/jSLH8
08:28 Paul Allison: http:// youthvoicess.net
08:28 Paul Allison: http://p2pu.org/en/groups/connected-learning-with-youth-voices/
08:59 guest-0: Hi everyone
09:00 guest-0: sounds great!
09:03 guest-0: what great stories! :-)
09:03 guest-0: can we get the link to his documentary on homeless students?
09:04 guest-0: is it for sale?
09:05 guest-0: sounds powerful!!
09:06 guest-0: she's very humble! and very interesting! :-)
09:08 guest-0: hearing Fred great
09:08 guest-0: Fred has a lag I think
09:08 guest-3518: Howdy
09:09 guest-0: Hi Chris--just me here talking to myself :-) but hearing great
09:10 guest-3518: So to be more specific, Hi Peggy
09:10 guest-0: someone needs to turn their mic off (doing dishes???)
09:13 guest-0: can someone in the hangout ask people to mute their mics when they're not talking? lots of background noise
09:14 guest-3518: Got it.
09:14 guest-0: thanks
09:15 guest-0: http://www.angelamaiers.com/category/you-matter-2
09:15 guest-0: thanks Chris
09:18 guest-0: listen to these 3rd graders tell you how to post a quality comment on a blog post--they get it!! (listen later) http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/learning-how-to-comment.html
09:20 guest-0: great teacher response... "I guess" :-)
09:21 guest-3518: Thanks for that link Peggy. Reminds me of "Everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten."
09:22 guest-0: exactly! Linda Yollis was our Featured Teacher on Classroom 2.0 LIVE last Sat and the whole focus was on blogging
09:22 guest-3518: Cool. I'll have to listen to that one
09:22 guest-0: she said she thought commenting was even more valuable than posting the original blog post for extending learning
09:23 guest-0: she shared some great examples and even though they were from 3rd graders they are easily adaptable
09:26 guest-0: what a great idea to create a wikipedia entry for detox used this way
09:27 guest-3518: I'll have to find out where that is on wikipedia
09:29 guest-3433: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VJIWyiLyBpQ
09:29 guest-3433: dave cormier's video on rhizomatic learning
09:29 guest-0: thanks
09:29 guest-3433: it's excellent
09:30 guest-0: video just froze up for me-did it for you?
09:30 guest-3518: Can you share that link to the wikipedia article on detox Monika?
09:32 guest-0: lost video and audio on Livestream
09:32 guest-3518: no problems in hangout though
09:32 guest-0: ok thanks
09:33 guest-0: will it all still be in the recording?
09:33 guest-3518: It should. I'll ask Paul to check it
09:34 guest-0: ok-just came back
09:36 guest-3518: http://sloanspace.blogspot.com/2012/03/students-as-teachers-part-one.html
09:37 guest-0: thanks a lot Chris! I appreciate your keeping me connected to the hangout here!
09:38 guest-0: that's a great approach and kicks it up a notch :-)
09:39 HChev: Hi there, been listening in (new to this).
09:39 HChev: Chris, what age are your students?
09:39 guest-0: welcome HChev
09:39 guest-3518: 11th & 12th graders
09:40 HChev: Very neat : )
09:43 guest-3518: @HChev, are you an educator
09:44 HChev: Is this what everyone is speaking to (http://youthvoices.net/about) or am I totally off?
09:44 HChev: Hi, yes, well very close to being an educator. I'm in my final semester of school going after a combined degree in Early elementary education and English
09:44 guest-3518: Paul was talking about the Missions page: http://youthvoices.net/issue/archives
09:45 guest-3518: Congrats HChev
09:45 guest-0: which mission is yours Chris--the one Paul mentioned
09:46 guest-3518: http://youthvoices.net/node/36755
09:46 guest-0: thanks!
09:46 HChev: thank you : ) Its exciting and nerve wracking at the same time!
09:47 guest-0: self-reflection may be the best form of assessment :-)
09:48 HChev: Sorry, still trying to get caught up on the topic. Is youthvoices a huge blog of sorts for youth? Or is it more like a forum?
09:49 guest-0: I really treasure the transparency of this kind of sharing! It's so helpful to hear teachers thinking out loud.
09:49 guest-3518: discussions
09:50 guest-0: but contained on the youthvoices site--not public like Facebook posts
09:51 guest-0: school based social network
09:52 HChev: Can you clarify Peggy, what do you mean that the posts aren't public? I think I'm able to view them here:http://youthvoices.net/posts
09:52 guest-0: that sounds like a really interesting end-of-year project Chris
09:54 guest-0: makes the site richer Chris
09:55 guest-3518: yes, everything of my students on YV is public
09:55 HChev: So there is the choice of having your student's work public or private?
09:55 guest-0: is there a way to track missions to specific teachers on YV?
09:56 guest-3518: I tell them that they're rounding out their digital portfolio
09:56 guest-3518: I don't give them a choice. it's public writing, write what you want to be public
09:56 guest-0: that's a great angle!
09:57 guest-3518: there's a place in my class for private writing too
09:57 guest-0: :-)
09:58 guest-0: yes! that's exactly what I was wanting to know. If there is a school page it would organize the work from each school
09:58 HChev: Thanks for clarifying : ) Sorry to ask so many silly questions! I need to blog on my experience in this chat room for an Ed computers class. Feel free to check out my blog at some point http://shortquip.wordpress.com/
09:59 guest-0: your questions are great HChev!
09:59 HChev: :)
09:59 guest-3518: here's my school page: http://youthvoices.net/judge
10:00 guest-0: I'll be very interested to see what you blog about after your experience tonight @JChev :-)
10:01 HChev: great to connect with you both. And yes! feel free to check out my reflection. Is there a way to find these educators' (from the videos) sites/blogs to see what they are doing and using?
10:02 guest-0: the Guides are really helpful! You might want to check these out HChev. http://youthvoices.net/guide/archives
10:02 guest-0: go to the different school sites on youthvoices
10:02 guest-0: thank you all for sharing tonight!
10:02 guest-0: good night
10:02 HChev: perfect, thank you. Cheers!
10:02 guest-3518: like the blog Hchev
10:03 HChev: : ) its a work in progress.
10:04 HChev: I'm off to do some homework, thanks again. I'll find you on twitter so we can continue to connect