Room 132

I am setting up a blog for students to submit writing here at room132.com. It is just beginning so there isn’t much to see, but I have high expectations! I’ve been a blogger for years and I’m really looking forward to setting this up for students to share their writing with the world.

In order to sign up they need to login here and choose a name and password that they will use to upload their work. After all the students have signed up, I’ll be closing online registration.

They will be writing under pen names and there will not be pictures of them on the site for security reasons. Make sure your child lets you know what their pen name is so that you can read their work!

This is our current writing workflow:
-Roughdraft in pencil in journal.
-1st typed draft gets feedback and edits from at least two people with a focus on correcting technical errors, asking questions of the writer and asking the writer for more information if needed.
-The 2nd draft will be posted to the room132.com blog.
-Students provide feedback to their team members by posting comments.
-Revision and polishing based on feedback.

The students are currently working on suspense stories that have a plot, 5 setting elements, two kinds of foreshadowing, and two misleading details. The first typed draft is due Monday for peer review.

When these stories are completed and polished, I’m hoping to record them as read-aloud podcasts with creepy sound effects and to publish them by the end of October. I’m a mac guy in a room full of pcs and so if you know about recording audio into a pc, drop me a line so that my students and I can learn from you. I may also be able to have a friend come in and show us how to hack ipods into digital recorders, which would work just as well for recording these suspenseful podcasts.

My goal is for students to publish their work in a public context that makes it easy to get feedback and support to improve their writing. With the help of my two teaching assistants, Lucas and Alex, I’m hoping to also produce a weekly video that you’ll be able to watch on the site that will review what we have learned during the week.

If you don’t have a computer or an internet connection, don’t worry, all the work will be archived so that you can catch up on what’s been happening whenever you can log on to a computer at the library or friends house. We also have a new family center here at Eckstein complete with a computer that you can come in and use to check up on our work.

I teach one Language Arts class and I’m enjoying getting to know these students better. Each one of them holds vast potential for creating literature!

Thanks for your cooperation. Feel free to send me an email or call me at the school number 252-5010 with any questions or concerns.

Mr. Pettis