3/3/2008 2:55:00 PM A rat teaches students to blog
From Ratspeak: A blog for the truly exceptional rodent (and friends)
Written by Raston Rat
On having a blog:
Why a Raston Rat blog?
Can you give me one good reason why not?
I thought so.
On dealing with authors:
So this author, Lynne Jonell, she created me; and I'm supposed to be all grateful, right? Well, I am. I mean, the fact that I exist is so totally a good thing.
But what I can't believe is how long it took her to get around to finishing Emmy & the Incredible Shrinking Rat and getting it published.* Why did I have to wait all this time to get the publicity I deserve? Huh? Answer me that!
*Nine years, if you can believe it. I have but one word for this, and it starts with "L". Ends with "ame". Yeah, you got it.
On pets:
Okay, let's get one thing straight. The Rat is nobody's pet. The Rat is wild, uncaged, and free.
Furthermore, I don't do fuzzy and I don't do cute. I like a little hair gel but they need more products for the rodent market. I mean, I can use the stuff that's out there for humans, but seriously, rodents have a whole different thing going on with their hair. Fur. Whatever.
Somebody should do a study. Why has the rodent market been neglected all these years? Is it the influence of cats?
If you'd like to check out the rat blog yourself, head to: www.wayzata.k12.mn.us/ratspeak.
By Kelly Westhoff
Fifth graders at Wayzata's Greenwood Elementary School are participating in an unusual learning activity. They are blogging with a rat.
Confused?
Let's start over.
Lynn Jonell is a local children's author. Last August, she published a middle-grade novel titled "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat." It's a fanciful tale about a lonely girl who becomes friends with an obnoxious, talking rat.
The book is one of four finalists for the Minnesota Book Award in children's literature.
In it, the girl (Emmy) and the rat (Raston Rat) begin a series of magical adventures.
Several local teachers have brought the book into their classrooms this winter for read-aloud fun.
As author Jonell lives in the Lake Minnetonka area, it has been easy to invite her into their classrooms.
But starting in January, Jonell decided to take her author visits to another level - a virtual level. She started a blog - an online dairy - with her young readers in mind.
"My agent was brainstorming about publicity and promotion and threw out this idea of a rat blog," Jonell said. "It just captured my attention."
The character of Raston Rat is "snarky and sarcastic," Jonell explained. "I knew it would be easy to keep a blog in his voice as I could toss off the first thing that came to mind. You know, half of me is Raston. He lets me access my dark side. Writing as the rat is quick and easy because I feel like I have a mask to hide behind."
Jonell updates the blog, which is hosted by the Wayzata School District, every few days.
Sometimes Raston Rat writes about other characters from "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat."
Other times he writes about current events, like reality TV. He dreams of competing in American Idol and knows he would beat every single contestant on "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?"
Teachers take their students to the computer lab a couple times a week.
The kids access the Internet, locate the blog and spend 30 minutes reading new entries and posting comments.
Jonell has been surprised by the number of comments the students are posting. "There are 83 comments on the first entry!" she said. "I finally had to write that my little ratty paws couldn't scroll down the page anymore."
Yet she is also immeasurably pleased with the obvious effort the students are putting into participating with the blog. "This is really a new entry point into literature for the kids," Jonell said. "It's a reward for the good readers and it's something engaging for the reluctant readers."
Fifth-grade teacher Jamie Ruzicka agrees that the blog appeals to her students. "This rat, he has a personality all his own," she said with a smile. "The kids just get a kick out of him."
Ruzicka quickly calms any adult worries about the safety of letting fifth graders play around online. The students aren't allowed to use their last names and they must always log in with their teacher's e-mail address.
"This generation is all about computers," Ruzicka said. "If they are going to be on a computer, it might as well be educational. This gets them to practice their typing in a fun way." She pointed out that as her fifth graders grow toward high school, it will be expected they already have keyboard fluency.
"We also had to talk about the importance of grammar and spelling when posting a comment online," Ruzicka continued. "Once you post something on the Internet, you can't take it back so it better be correct. You can see the kids now. They get their neighbors to read their comments before they send them in."
"This has been a great learning experience for all of us. Now the kids are asking if they can keep a class blog," Ruzicka said, admitting she is toying with the idea of starting one. She'd like to keep one over the summer and encourage the kids to write about books they are reading.
But summer is a long way off and for now, fifth-grader Connor Czech is still enjoying reading "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat."
"It's a fun read. It's pretty exciting and tense. It's adventurous," he said.
He has also liked spending time in cyber space with Raston Rat.
"It's pretty cool to see the blog. It's fun to read all the stuff that other people write," he said.
"I thought it was easy," Czech said of learning to manipulate the blog. "My favorite posts have been the ones about American Idol, and I liked the Sad Rat Poem. And I like when he writes about playing pawball. It's a game kind of like soccer."
Allie Korin, another student in Ruzicka's class, has also enjoyed her time online with the rat. "At first I didn't know what to write, but now I always look for my comments and like to see if the rat wrote back," she said.
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Posted: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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