The Quest2Matter

Solving the world’s problems requires contributions from every individual.

Students represent one group whose potential contributions are underestimated.

This is unfortunate, because I believe:

• Students are willing to be the change we need, and indeed to lead the change.
• They want to express their passions in meaningful ways.
• In spite of their years, students are a force to reckon with.

The Quest2Matter invites students to the table. It asks to hear their ideas, respects their perspective, and believes they matter and can make a difference in the world.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate the genius of youth on a world stage, and inspire other students to follow suit. It will also give their ideas a chance to be noticed and mentored by our partners in the business community.

How do I get started?

1. Students decide on a Quest to solve a problem that breaks their hearts, and then begin to solve it.
2. Once a Quest is completed, students tell their story on a post on Kidblog. The story can be told in writing or through a video or pictures.
3. Students are also welcome to submit previously completed projects.
4. All qualifying posts should be part of a “public” class created by the teacher, and the title should include the term “Quest2Matter”.
5. If the teacher has an existing Kidblog class account that is not public, he or she may create a new, public class specifically for the purpose of posting student Quests.

What happens once a student enters a Quest?

• We’ll evaluate all submitted Quests and spotlight the most inspiring ones.
• We’ll be writing about many of the Quests on our partner websites.
• One student, or group of students, will be presented with the first-ever Bammy! Award for Special Achievement by a Student at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in September 2013.
• One student, or group of students, will be honored at the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF #9 Summit in Providence, RI in September 2013.
• To be eligible for recognition at these ceremonies, Quests must be submitted by June 7.
• However, Quests may be submitted after that date, and we will add new ways to honor Quests in the future.

We can’t wait to see what genius projects your students create!

More information on the Quest2Matter

About Angela Maiers

Angela is an alumnus of The University of Iowa and has her masters degrees in educational supervision and reading from the University of Iowa and has spent 22 years working in Elementary, Middle and University settings as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, coach, special programs facilitator, and University Professor.

Today, Angela is at the forefront of New Literacy and Web 2.0 technologies. An active blogger and social media evangelist, she deeply committed to helping learners of all ages understand the transformational power and potential of technology as a vehicle and platform for their success in school and beyond.

Angela’s intimate knowledge of teaching and learning, down-to-earth style, and powerful message of literacy as change have made her a highly sought after keynote speaker and a vibrant courageous voice in both the business and education space. Her latest books, The Habitudes and The Passion Driven Classroom have inspired readers everywhere with lessons and ideas necessary to find their way on the social web and this newly flattened world.

As owner and lead consultant at Maiers Educational Services, using her passion for literacy and technology to discover creative ways to assist schools and organizations in meeting their learning and productivity goals.

Blog – http://www.angelamaiers.com

Twitter – http://twitter.com/angelamaiers 


The Kidblog team is fresh off our Saturday at Minnebar 8. This (un)conference represents the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship and is rumored to be the largest BarCamp in North America.  Our team has been growing steadily over the past 6 months and we brought everyone into Minneapolis for the weekend to attend this awesome event.

BarCamps are also the model for EdCamps, many of which Kidblog has recently sponsored: EdCamp SFBay, EdCamp Madison, Husky EdCamp (NE), EdCamp Howard-Winn (IA), Edcamp Omaha, EdCamp Houston, EdCamp Detroit, EdCamp Seacoast (NH), EdCamp KC, EdCamp CentralNebraska, and of course, EdCamp MSP.

Most of us were first-time Minnebar attendees. Nic McPhee, professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota, Morris and and world-renowned expert in evolutionary computation, brought a team of undergrads to the event – making a day trip with a 3-hour drive each way!  Matt Ronge, iOS ninja and all-around great guy, continued making friends with everyone he met, just like he did at the pre-party the night before. Ryan Peterson, AngularJS superhero, flew in from Pennsylvania for the week and made friends with some Rails developers. Brant Day, visual designer and UXpert, attended any and every user experience talk, and wants to do his own next year. Josh Broton, UI rockstar and micro-brew connoisseur, came to town from Sioux Falls and will add Minnebar to his already-lengthy list of events at which to present his world famous responsive design talk. Ted Cushman, long-locked Adonis and JVM/dev-ops/architect, quietly absorbed even more knowledge into his burgeoning brain.

For co-founders Matt Hardy and Dan Flies, this was our fourth event. Minnebar 5 in 2010 holds a special place in company lore as the place where Kidblog made its presence known to the Minneapolis tech scene. Just over 3 years and 3 million users later, Kidblog continues to set the standard for the fusion of technology and pedagogy.

Minnebar is a chance to connect with makers, doers, thinkers, and innovators from Silicon Valley to Silicon Prairie. We were proud to bring our own cadre of talented attendees into the mix.

As a final note, Kidblog is undergoing some BIG feature upgrades over the coming months. Stay tuned for pure awesomeness later this spring…

-The (Whole!) Kidblog Team

This school year, Kidblog has grown to become the largest education blogging platform in the world.  It’s our mission to provide teachers and students with the best possible user experience. So we’ve invested in the infrastructure to ensure even more reliable service.

In the interest of transparency for you data nerds,  here’s a server performance snapshot of the last 7 days.

Spikes in the graph represent longer page load times. Red bars represent brief periods of downtime. As you can see, we’ve flattened those peaks and had 100% availability since the upgrade. Pages now load 500% faster during peak times of day.

We wish you and your students experience continued blogging success!

-The Kidblog Team

Welcome Back! It is time for the final interview videos with 6th grade teacher Russ Goerend of Waukee Iowa.  If you missed the first blog post featuring the beginning of the interview watch that here!

In this segment, Russ and Matt continue to talk about how blogging has been a big success with the writing process in his classroom. Thanks for watching, we hope you enjoy and gather some nice takeaways and inspiration.

Welcome, Kidblog fans, to another installment of our inspiring interview series! Kidblog’s Matt Hardy has been hosting candid Q&As with teachers across the country to learn more about how they’re incorporating technology in their everyday classroom curriculum. This week, Matt had a chat with 6th grade Language Arts teacher Russ Goerend from Waukee Middle School in Iowa.

During the interview, Russ shared a bit on how he is collaborating with other teachers to make the writing process more effective for teachers and students, and how blogs are a big part of that success.

Russ had a ton of awesome stuff to share, so we split his interview up into 5 parts you can watch at your leisure. Enjoy videos 1 through 3 today– the remaining segments will be available later this week!

You can find Russ on Twitter at @russgoerend or check out his website.

Welcome back! You’ve seen part one. You’ve seen part two. Now it’s time for the much anticipated final installment of Kidblog’s interview with 6th grade teacher William Chamberlain from Noel, Missouri! Kidblog’s own Matt Hardy continues this interview, during which William’s has shared his role in the blogging space, particularly as it relates to students and student comments. Click below to watch the final takeaways from William!

Stay tuned for more inspiring blog posts, interviews, photos and video clips from our community of teachers around the world using Kidblog in their own classrooms!

Hello! Last week, we took a look at part one of a video interview with William Chamberlain who teaches sixth grade at Noel Elementary School in Noel, Missouri. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy part two of this 3-part series, as Kidblog’s own Matt Hardy continues the  interview with William.

In this clip, William shares more specifics on how he uses Kidblog in the classroom with his students!

William Chamberlain teaches sixth grade at Noel Elementary School in Noel, Missouri. Below, you can watch the first of three video interviews during which Kidblog’s own Matt Hardy chats with William (thanks to the awesome power of Google+ Hangouts!). They discuss William’s role in the blogging space, particularly as it relates to students and student comments. One of the coolest contributions William’s made to the social education space the #comments4kids hashtag he helped create and promote around the Twittersphere.

We hope you enjoy! Stayed tuned for video part 2 of 3 to be released soon.

The following is the second in a series of guest posts written by real teachers across America who embrace Kidblog in their classrooms. We’re excited to showcase their stories of dedication and success right here for you readers at home. 

About 15 months ago I became a connected learner when I joined Twitter and met incredible educators from around the world.  I followed the links they posted and read and commented on their blogs. True friendships formed through these comments and conversations.

Becoming a connected learner has completely changed me as professional. While I have always been passionate about what I do, my passion for teaching has increased immensely after meeting like-minded individuals.  These people push my thinking by showing me new ways to look at old problems. They show me that there are many things I can do with my grade one students that I would otherwise thought to be impossible. And in turn they give me the strength to adapt ideas and create my own innovative lessons.

Professional blogging has played a huge roll in all of this for me, as it is a platform to share my thoughts and ideas with others.  It has made me really think about what I do and why. Many global connections have started on my professional blog.  But it goes beyond that for me because I want my students to be connected learners too.  We tweet as a class.  We have a class blog where we share our learning with the world.  In addition my students have their own individual Kidblogs.  We read and leave comments on other class blogs.  We make authentic connections and we are constantly reminded that the earth is a small place, and as much as we are all different we are still very much the same.

Being connected, and collaborating with others from around the world is an incredible way to learn.  Kidblog has given my students their own voice. No longer am I the only one reading their writing because now it’s open to the world.  In addition it has made them curious to see what other students are learning and writing.

Recently one of my students has struck up a conversation with a student across the country. The dialogue continues, as they are curious to learn more about one another.  It is exciting to see them connecting. Being a connected learner and educator has changed my outlook, my teaching practices, and me.  I want the same for my students.

—

Video exclusive!
Kidblog Co-Founder Matt Hardy talks with Karen Lirenman to discuss her role as a “connected educator” and how she brings the benefits of a global learning community to her first-grade classroom in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Her students use Kidblog, but her insights apply to teachers using any blogging service with their students.

If you’re looking for us, we can be found at the following places:

Twitter:

• @klirenman (me)
• @MsLsClass (my class)

Blog:

• http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.ca (my professional blog)
• http://mslirenmansroom.blogspot.ca (our class blog)
• http://kidblog.org/MsLirenmansClass2012 (my students’ blogs)

The following is the first in a series of guest posts written by real teachers across America who embrace Kidblog in their classrooms. We’re excited to showcase their stories of dedication and success right here for you readers at home. 

Give Students A Voice: How Blogging Changes Education
Written by Mrs. Pernille Ripp – Fifth grade teacher at West Middleton Elementary, Wisconsin

“Do you really mean it Mrs. Ripp, you want the truth?”

The student is hesitating, eyes are cast downward and they are waiting for the inevitable, the answer that most teachers will give, but it doesn’t come.  Instead I tell them, “Yes, don’t hold back, tell me how you really feel about being a student in this classroom.  My feelings won’t get hurt, I promise…”

The spring is back in the student’s step and they bounce over to the computer, log on to our Kidblog classroom blog and happily answer this week’s blogging challenge.  And just like that, with that little question and one website, I have given my students a voice.

I didn’t use to want to hear how my students felt about their role in the classroom or our school.  I didn’t use to care about what my students thought about their education, about their feelings or desires.  I certainly never asked them to tell me what I could do better, or solicited advice.  Yet, here I am, two years into a student blogging journey, and that is exactly the types of posts that I love the most.  Those where the students bare their thoughts and really tell it like it is.

For too long, education has been done to students.  We graduate with our teaching degrees thinking we know best. We know the research, we know what students need, and we know that we know.  So we enter our classrooms as experts on education and students.  We plan and create the lessons that students have to soak in whether they want to or not.  We take just enough time to build a relationship and to listen to students but we often don’t ask the questions that students want to be asked.

How often do we take the time to ask them what they think of what we are doing?  How often do we genuinely care about how they feel about us, how they feel about their part in the classroom?  How often do we ask them to please be honest, don’t hold back, and then don’t hold a grudge when they follow our directions.  It is hard to be told that students are bored but a necessary step for us to become better teachers.  Yet it takes time, students won’t be honest from the moment you meet them, we have trained them too well to be “rude” like that.

So I start with blogging challenges that speak to their creativity like, “What is the color of fifth grade?”  Then I ask them to change just one rule at our school, just one, and we inch in unknown territory.  Students are always hesitant at first, after all, teachers don’t usually ask them to take ownership of their classroom.  They are waiting to get used by you or for your relationship to sour.  It never does, I am thankful instead and I communicate that to them.

I have tried to start out having these conversations, but it was too much too soon.  Blogging provided us with a venue in which students feel in control.  They can record their thoughts, edit them, mull them over and then hit publish when they feel ready to do so.  They have time to think of the question and of their response.  I acknowledge that I am asking them to open up and at first it is frightening for them, but then, when they see that I change according to feedback.

When they see that their words hold power in a positive way, then they find their voice.  They don’t hold back and offer up topics for discussion.  What they write on their blog, how they share, translates directly into our classroom.  The trust grows, the discussions get livelier, and students become more invested.

Blogging allows us to take it to the next level; international discussion.  Now students are not just telling me how they really feel but the world but anyone who will read it.  Blogging allows us to start discussions, to compare our school situations to those around the world.

To realize that we can change the world when we discuss the every day.  School stops being done to students and instead becomes something they also have some control over, they also have an active part in learning, because we have provided them with a mouthpiece and a captive audience.

Finally, students know that they do matters, what they think matters, and what they say matters.  So when they see assignments change because of their feedback, when they see the role of the teacher change because of what they told me, that’s when they know that their voice matters.  Students run to their blogs to tell me their thought of their prior week, they use their blogs to invite others to debate the merit of homework, tests, and grades.  They write directly to our principal asking for longer lunches, extra recess, or perhaps just a little of his time.

No longer needing an adult to pass on their message, they have found a way to share it with the world.  All through the power of a blog.