You ask "Have you read blogs before" well yes, I do read blogs but it's more for fun than professionally. I guess I'm behind times more than I should be. How does it feel to share your thoughts so publicly? On Facebook I keep things so friends and family can see and I don't just accept just anyone as a friend. It's a place I want to be able to let my hair down and have fun. What are your fears or concerns about blogging? My concerns are . . . it's time consuming. I don't feel I have that much free time and blogging is addicting. As far as me blogging professionally, I would if I had a group of teachers I could share ideas with. For example, I teach Web Design and I'd love to have fellow high school teachers who teach the same thing that I could bounce ideas off of. I love going to conferences so I can meet others teaching the same thing . . . we share ideas.
I do blog with students on a weekly basis. I usually have a topic posted on Monday and students have until Sunday to do the weekly blog. This week's assignment was a product review. Students had to pick a product they use or have use and write a review about it (things they like, don't like, value etc.). At first I required them to use proper English, punctuation, and grammar. I found this was too hard to keep up with on a regular basis. The main purpose of the blogging with them was to get them comfortable with blogging and learn how to do it. I'm not sure if I did the right thing or not but after a few weeks I dropped being a stickler on English and grammar . . . it wasn't working. Your thoughts, should I reverse my decision and demand proper English?
I just finished reading the article about reflecting. I must admit, when I go to conferences I feel like I don't get enough time to "play" with all the new things I've learned. That's one reason I like to go to summer conferences, I feel I have more time to just sit, play, explore and figure out how I can use things in the classroom.
I think we need to make our students comfortable with written expression. Certainly we want them to use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, but if all of these "rules" limits their creative juices, then I think we can relax a bit and let them write! Then we have to give them a reason for wanting to use all the "right stuff." Why is spelling important? Same thing for grammar, punctuation, and so forth.
ReplyDeleteLearning anything new takes time for "play" and reflecting on that play. It's just the nature of our brains. We somehow assimilate the new with the old and file it away for future recall. But if we don't give ourselves the necessary time to process what we've learned, it quickly goes away. For me at least, writing is a great way to synthesize my thoughts, and wouldn't it be great if we all had more time to do that? So that's why Jeff Utecht said to give yourself PERMISSION to reflect.. it's important!
This idea of taking time to reflect would be a good idea, maybe just not on a blog. I think we always decide at the end of a activity if it was worth it but maybe we need to spend more time on reflecting why or how can we change it.
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