Listen to the words of Al Upton's students

Thanks to my friend in Australia, Graham Wegner, for pointing out the student comments on Al Upton's blog post. (See my earlier post about Black Monday.) I literally almost cried as I read these comments from the fifth graders.

"hi Al I was almost in tears when i heard my blog was shut-down.i was so sad and dissenpointed. i realy enjoyed bloging. i absoulutly loved my cluster-map. i somtimes might say all that work for nothing. The vokis are cool. i start thinking that we wouldent be able to talk to our mentors. it uset to be fun cheers mini17"

".Hi al iwas abit sad when I heard that the blogs were closed.
Blogs are good becase you can couminicate with people in the world."

"I would be safe if mr apton is in charg.

It is fun to have a blog."

"When I first herd my blog was shut down I felt sad,upset and woryed about my blog and what would happen to my blog.How I cant look at my comment’s and how I cant look at ather people’s blog’s.And how I cant see my cluster map.The best is the comunicating with people I dont know.I get freind’s. You can put on pictuer’s and poster’s. I learn faster on the computer’s and blog’s.Our new form is called Article 13. I love bloging."

"When I found out that our blogs were closing down, I felt confused, sad and angry. I felt really sad because I felt that all Al had taught us had gone to waste. We had a vote on a name for our new forum. The new name for our forum is Article 13. It means Rights for the Child.I felt better with my blog in many ways.
>Writing and reciving comments.
>Cammunicating with other people.
and lots of other reasons. By mini22"

"

When i found out my blog was shutdown.

I loved my blog.
I was disopointed because i put so mutch work into it.
I realy like having a clustermap.
I like comiticating with people i do no and people i dont no.
I like my fake on my blog.
I realy wont my blog back.
It is fun to go on my blog.
I like it when i get red dots on my clustermap.
My blog was cool because i could comiticate with people."

I believe that in the near future we will hear more about this. And remember that this can happen to any of us and all of us. Parents who sign permission forms could change their minds. They could say they didn't understand what you were going to do. They could decide they don't like you. They could just not like the grade you gave their child.

Now all of this is conjecture and I DO NOT know the circumstances of Al's situation... I'm just saying things that we as teachers know. As airtight as we make it, when you're blazing the trail, issues like this arise. Many people will have Al to thank as he sets a precedent for how to handle this situation.

As teacher's, we've seen it all. From what I've seen, Al is going about handling this the right way.

As my Mom always says "Keep your chins up!"

And I say, "We're watching. Let us know how you work it out and teach us."

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