A project I did during my masters program at CSU Fullerton where I mentored a veteran teacher to help her introduce student blogging into her classroom, by Richard Styner

1. Tech Mentoring
Project
Richard Styner

2. My Mentee: Mary Murphy
● She has moderate experience in
using technology in her class.
● Mary is a veteran teacher who switched from high school
to middle school which places more emphasis on
interactive teaching techniques.
● She teaches 7th grade science and has a iPad cart for the
class. She is actively attempting to use the cart in class,
but has not received training from the school

3. My Mentee’s Previous Technology Experience
•
Regarding SAMR:
● This teacher’s past tech projects were
mostly replacing paper and pencil
assignments with little enhancement.
● This places her at the Substitution Phase,
with a little Augmentation.

4. Tech Experience(Cont.)
In conversations with my mentee we determined:
● Her Pedagogical Knowledge is very good, with 19
years experience, the first 4 in science, the next 14 in
Business and Entrepreneurship, and the most recent
in Science. It is her first year teaching middle school.
● Class control has been more difficult this year, making
individualized instruction challenging
● Her Content Knowledge of her current assignment
good, but “a little rusty”.
● Her Tech Knowledge is good, she has integrated
some tech into classes, but has not successfully done
so this year

5. The Focus: Edublogs
•My mentee’s goals were as follows:
●Increase the use of tech in her classroom.
●Encourage collaborative feedback and
discussion between students.
●Get students to be reflective of lessons.
●Make it easy for students to keep track of

6. Meetings with Mentee
•Feb 23 - Finding my
Mentee was difficult, and
our first meeting was not
until Feb 23. We
discussed needs and
List of class blogs, click to zoom

7. Meetings (Continued)
•March 22 - The
school’s spring break
was from March 13-24
(two weeks!). The unit
after break is on Blog Topics

8. Sample Blog and Responses
Sample Blog Post Sample Responses to post

9. Reflections
•Ms. Murphy was generally happy
with the results of this project.
There were some inappropriate
posts and usernames (e.g. Jason’s
pimp house) , but overall she felt it

10. Reflections on Continuing Mentoring
•The mentoring sessions went quite
well, and Ms. Murphy would like to
continue to expand her technology
bag of tricks. We have discussed
continuing to meet to enhance her

11. Final Reflections on The Mentoring Process
•Mentoring is a valuable form of professional
development. It leads to critical thinking and
reflection on practice, not just by the mentee,
but also by the mentor. While the primary
focus was to assist a fellow educator learn
new techniques in pedagogy, I found that it
also required me as the mentor to really

12. Literature Cited:
Alterman,richard, and Johann Ari Larusson (2013). "Participation and Common Knowledge in a Case Study of Student Blogging." International Journal of
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 8(2), 149-187.

Courts, Bari, and Jan Tucker (2012). "Using Technology to Create a Dynamic Classroom Experience." Journal of College Teaching & Learning (Online), 9(2),
121.

Evan, K., "Blogging in classroom – How to get started." Retrieved from https://startbloggingonline.com/get-started-classroom-blogging/, December 15,
2016.

Harlan-Haughey, Sarah, Taylor Cunningham, Katherine Lees, and Andrew Estrup (2016). "Blogging to Develop Honors Students' Writing." Journal of the
National Collegiate Honors Council, 17(1), 271-287.

Jacobs, G.E. (2008). People, purposes, and practices: Insights from cross-displinary research into instant messaging. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, &
D.J. Leu (Eds.), The handbook of research on new literacies (pp. 467-490). New York: Routledge.

Lacina, J., & Block, C.C. (2012). Progressive writing instruction: Empowering school leaders and teachers. Voices From the Middle, 19(3), 10-17.

Lenhart, A. (2008). Writing, technology and teens. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and the National Writing Commission. Retrieved March 20,2012, from
www.pewinternet .org/~/media//Files/Reports/2008/PIP_ Writing_Report_FINAL3. pdf.pdf

Lin, Ming Huei, and Lin (2015). "Learner-centered Blogging: A Preliminary Investigation of EFL Student Writers' Experience." Educational Technology &
Society, 18(4), 446.

Partnership for 21st-century Skills. (2009). Framework for 21st-century learning. Retrieved March 26,2017, from www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_
Framework.pdf

Sweeny, S. (2010). Writing for the instant messaging and text messaging generation: Using new literacies to support writing instruction. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(2), 121-130. doi:10.1598/ JAAL.54.2.4

Yang, C, and Y. ‐S Chang (2012). "Assessing the Effects of Interactive Blogging on Student Attitudes Towards Peer Interaction, Learning Motivation, and
Academic Achievements." Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(2), 126-135.