The End of an Era

After nearly 220,000 hits, readers in every country on the planet, mentions in global media, nominations for awards and recognition from  teachers and students worldwide… 6SS@NIST is shutting down. The reasons behind this are to do with every class in the school having blogs that look the same and every class in the school having blogs with similar URL addresses. The 6SS blog can now be found here:
http://blogs.nist.ac.th/6ss/
.

This blog has had an amazing effect on my teaching over the past three years and it has led to some amazing experiences for my students and I:

• the students telling us about the fires, explosions, riots and general violence surrounding their homes two years ago:
  http://6ssatnist.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/what-has-your-day-been-like/
  
• the amazing philosophical thinking in the Sponge vs. Stone postings:
  http://6ssatnist.wordpress.com/?s=sponge+stone
  
• the “essays” that students wrote as comments in response to Angela Maier’s article about Mallory Fundora ( and Mallory’s comments herself)
  http://6ssatnist.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/homework-read-think-share/
  
  
• The students reactions to Robyn Treyvaud’s presentation about online safety and then Robyn’s reaction to their comments:
  http://6ssatnist.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/reacting-to-robyn-treyvaud/#comments
  
• The advice that 6SS students gave to students at Mt. Scopus Memorial College as they prepared for their first PYP Exhibition:
  http://6ssatnist.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/advice-for-other-year-6grade-5-students/
  

Blogging has helped my students and I by:

• Giving us a place to react to and think about things at any time, and from anywhere
• Allowing us to express ourselves without being interrupted or told we’re wrong
• Allowing us to develop our thinking in a way that was not really possible before
• Giving us a place to share our interests, our creativity and our ideas
• Giving us an audience of real people who would read and respond to our writing
• Connecting us with other people
• Giving us a way to make homework more fun and more connection to what we do in class
• Giving us the possibility to do “online learning” when it was not possible to come to school
• Helping us to stay in touch during holidays

What effect did 6SS@NIST have on you?