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Zuma and the K-9 Reporters

Meet the Reporters

by Education Department

05/15/2008

Zuma's Paw Prints Takes on a New Look

This year, Zuma's Paw Prints took on a new look, a 'blog style' environment, inviting three new K-9 reporters to be part of the team working with Zuma to bring information about the race and Alaska to classrooms around the world.  Thousands of classrooms discovered that along with the traditional way of contacting Zuma via email, that they could leave comments and ask questions at Zuma's Paw Prints.

The K-9 team recognized that not all students read and write on the same level.  So, Libby, wrote about 'little d'tails' for the lower readers while Sanka wrote to provide more in depth coverage and information for the higher level reader.  Zuma and Gypsy wrote articles geared for the middle readers.  Teachers began to discover that they could choose the K-9 reporter who best met the student's needs or they could share all of the articles with students, depending on the classroom situation and time available.

Although Zuma and the K-9 reporters can still be emailed, classrooms have discovered that it is more fun to leave comments and ask questions for the reporters as well as send poetry to share with the world.  The fun of comment boards is that not only does the reader gain information from the article written by the reporter, but the comments left at the end of the article provide additional reading and information for everyone. It is important for the teacher to encourage students to read the comments that follow articles. This will help students develop higher level thinking and reasoning skills as well as help them learn to ask better questions and seek more information because they are building their level of knowledge.

Often, comments and questions that have been left for the reporters become the topic for an article by one of the K-9 reporters, making Zuma's Paw Prints, a reading source that has interesting articles with topics that come directly from our readers.  We'd like to encourage classrooms to generate topics and ideas for our reporters.  What do you want to read about?  Let us know!

This being our first  year with the blog did provide us with some challenges. 

First, a few schools have filter systems in place that block blogs, making it difficult for students to access Zuma's Paw Prints as well as Jon Little's blog.  We discovered however, that most schools were able to get these sections of our website 'unblocked' by making a request to their school's technology department.  We recommend that teachers work with their schools in the fall, to address issues concerning the blogs.  Remember, if you can read Zuma but you can't write to Zuma in the comment section due to your school's filter, you can still email Zuma.

Second, some students had difficulty finding where they left their comments.  With time, students will easily learn to remember which article they left their comment at and to look back at the article for their comment and possible response from reporters.  Not every comment gets responses because sometimes, they are just comments requiring no answer or no further information.  Sometimes, the comment question is already answered in a previous comment from a student or classroom.  With time, we'll all get better at finding our comments and writing even better comments and questions.

Each comment made at the blog is held for approval before it posts.  Remind students to be patient and wait for their comment to be posted before posting the same comment again.

Students should also remember to follow safety rules.  They should be reminded to never give out their first and last name or give out their address.  We can't post comments that provide personal information about students. 

We won't post comments that have inappropriate statements, gibberish, or bad language.  We want the readers to understand the comments and questions that students submit, so please encourage best writing skills and provide students with guidance so they learn to be good communicators.

Thousands of classrooms followed Zuma this year!  It was exciting for the K-9 reporters to begin to introduce themselves to our readers! The comments and email that we got was inspirational and encouraging! We are so glad that you had fun and that you enjoyed the articles that the reporters wrote!  We are off to a fantastic start with our Zuma's Blog.  Thanks, readers!

As the next school year begins, introduce Zuma's Paw Prints to your classrooms in the fall.  Zuma's Paw Prints will become a year round source of information for you and your students.  We'll also provide some helpful hints for you as an educator, so that your students gain from this reading and writing experience.

We know that our new format took a few schools by surprise and that it isn't always easy to change.  As we grow and we attempt to do our job better, we thank you for your patience and your understanding.  We know that as time goes on, you'll find this section of the site as rewarding as ever and an important part of your classroom routine.  Zuma and the K-9 reporters are YOUR reporters and they are dedicated to sharing Iditarod with you.

We also hope you'll leave comments at Zuma's Blog to help us do our job even better.  We'd like to hear your story ideas.  We'd like to hear how you and your students use Zuma's Paw Prints.  We'd also like to hear how you and your students help make a difference in the world through any service learning projects that you may do.

As a matter of fact, next year, Zuma and the K-9 reporters will be putting forth a challenge to classrooms around the world to help make the world a better place by getting involved in community projects.  Examples include: helping out to raise funds for animal shelters, helping create safe places for pets and humans to interact, cleaning up the environment, and helping communities take better care of each other.  We'd like to hear your ideas about these projects.  Share what you do now and ideas you may have that will help us encourage classrooms around the world to get involved in service learning projects.

Be a part of Zuma's team!  We'd enjoy hearing from you and we look forward to next school year.

Visit Zuma's Paw Prints by clicking here!