This is the first year that I have incorporated a student blogging assignment into my curriculum. I can honestly say that it is one of the best teaching and learning practices that I have ever utilized. My students constantly blow me away with their blog postings both on their personal blogs and their comments to peer blogs. I am so proud!
The idea of conversation being one of the greatest "teachers" is one that I have long held near and dear to my heart (hence my constant incorporation of discussion into class activities). And this is why I think the blogging is working so well. Will Richardson mirrors this sentiment when arguing for the use of the web in education:
"By publishing content to a wide audience, we say 'these are my ideas, my understandings of the world.' That in itself is empowering, and with it comes an expectation that our voices will be heard. On their own, our students are learning that their voices matter, that people are listening and responding, and that their ideas count."
But this is just the tip of the ice berg when arguing the merits of blogging. Not only have my students learned that their voices count, but they have also been able to reflect upon their ideas through comments from readers. This reflection process is unmatched in the education sphere. Yes, teachers give feedback on essays or ask for student responses during class discussions, but these experiences rarely have the same effect as an impassioned discussion amongst readers from all over the world.
My brave bloggers, I implore you to continue to share your ideas. Never forget that great ideas never end, they evolve, and it is through conversation that this evolution takes place. So please, pass along your blog URL to friends and family and ask them to keep the chain going and continue to pass your URL to their friends and their families. The conversations this will start will provide you with some of the best education out there.
17 comments:
Lately, I've had many conversations about different topics for my blog with friends and family. During my conquest for new ideas, the conversations would get so intense, it turns into a debate and tends to stray away from the original topic (which is music) into other things such as history or science. Personally, I really enjoy these debates and though I am not much of a talker just listening to what people have to say about past experiences or facts really interests me and without noticing, I have something to write for a new blog and my opinions about it are written on the web for the world to see.
I enjoy completing my blog every week. However, I hate that I don't have a lot of time to sit, relax, and posts new blogs, or comment on many of my peers, but the short moment I have, I use it wisely. These blogs are all interesting, and they bring out many topics of discussions.
Another reason why I love blogging is because they have information that we use in our everyday life, they are not like " a question in class asked to a student", where the answer will normally stay inside the classroom.
Blogging is a great class activity. I get to talk about the things i like and also learn about the things i like from other people. I thought that this will be boring and i will only be doing it for the grade but i started to like it. I will probably be still blogging when our class is over with.
Coincidently, today I spoke with a group of friends about my blogging experience and how they should acquire that sense of freedom by expressing their ideas and opinions through such technological advances, as is the blogger website and many others. As you stated previously, blogging allows one to say what they desire, get feedback on it and let you reflect on your opinion opening controversy in your small head expanding your knowledge. This method of communicating and sharing between peers and people all around the world also teaches you how to argue your point of view in a simple yet complex manner, a factor that is what decides greatly what grade you receive on the essay section of the SAT. This system serves as a huge Padiea, something we often do in class to express our viewpoints on a subject of interest.
I can honestly say out of all of my school assignments this is one of my favorite ones. I love to share my ideas with other people and hear their feedback on them. This assignment is appealing to me because I get to share knowledge of cars, research for my car, and get helpful responses on certain things that I would like to do to my car, as well as just get comments in general helping with a problem on my car. Blogging has sparked up so many conversations amongst my friends. Whenever I tell them that I do this for a class assignment, they get jealous because they want to join blogger as well.
I actually like this blogging idea, and I think that it is a great way to pass on ideas, or form new ones. Posting up blogs and responding to others make me realize things that I hav'nt before. Setting aside time each week to just reflect has been so benificial.
I have to admit the blogging hasn't been the most fun part of the week, but it has proven to be my favorite homework assignment. I definitely like to post blogs as I can talk about stuff that I know and events that I have a passion for. I can talk about sports for hours and it is one of my favorite pastimes. Blogging has been a fun assignment and even when it is over I will probably continue to post new postings. I have already given my friends my blog addresse and hopefully they will make one too.
I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every moment of this blogging assignment. It has been a new experience for me, and I have to say I find to be extremely helpful and immensely educative, mostly because it is an activity in which we have the ability to express our opinion on ANYTHING we wish. Be it sex, music, dreams, photography, philosophy, movies, or whatever it is you enjoy, this is an amazing tool to help you get to know about others' opinions on the matter, especially from those who dedicate their lives to whatever it is you wish to talk about.
One of the things I think has been most helpful for me when it comes to finding new topics of conversation for my blog is discussing with friends and family about my blog and about whatever might come up that is related to the theme of the blog.
I really have to thank you for this assignment Mrs. Stoklosa.
At first, I was a little worried about blogging since I am not really good with computers. However, after a few weeks of this blog activity, I am very pleased. It has become a habit for me to look at other people's blogs and see different topics that I did not know anything about. I really enjoy seeing what others have to say about topics and it makes me feel like how other people have some thoughts in common with me. I am really enjoying this blogging activity. My dad is even thinking of starting a blog. (:
I agree with Colin's statement, this blog assignment is not only categorized as a school assignment, but I believe that it is a information stream for our English classes. It has opened my eyes for many different aspects of the world in which I had never planned on exploring. I would highly suggest continuing this project next year, as I know I will be continually updating and posting on my Blog for years to come.
I can honestly say second hour English 3 honors is a class that I look forward to everyday. I have always thought that English classes have taught me most about life and perspectives on it, and this year has proved that to me. The blogging assignment that we have every week has opened my eyes to many views and subjects that many should be aware of and the best part is, I am learning this through peers not elders. From Daniel’s perspectives on images to Marianna’s healthy tips I have learned more then I have in most classes.
To be honest, when we started this activity I wasn't happy at all. I disliked the idea to sit in front of my computer every week to complete the assignment. However, as the activity started it evolved to be very interesting instead. I didn't have this idea of blogging before and now I know what makes it so innovative. To be able to express ourselves in our own way and talk about whatever we want makes it the best way to learn from other people. That's how you truly express what you think instead of inventing something just for a grade. It really is a great way to understand the point of view of other people and I'm glad we are doing it.
I believe blogging has been one of the best assignments I have ever had; it is so great that I have even been able to incorporate it into my life outside of school. I have had friends from Colombia read my blog and comment on it. Although I have a pretty busy schedule due to soccer, gym, my many hours of calculus homework, I try as hard as I can to at least check my blog. You become addicted to find out what is going on with others and you can find blogs that contain what most interests you. For example, every time I log in, I check my friends blog, Lens View of the World, because I love photography and he has some extraordinary points and by reading it I learn things that I can later apply. Through blogs you have very interesting conversations, which like you said, are the best teachers.
I can say that my blog is not the best one out there and doesn't enjoy of the popularity that other people’s blogs enjoy of. I also can say that these blog-assignments have been helpful to instigate many passions, inspirations, and curiosity among all my fellow classmates. I am astonished of all the information and knowledge that my partners have to share with the rest of us. The classroom ambiance focus on several subjects, but it never would be able to cover as many subjects as this project have done. As you mentioned in your post that this is probably the best project you've done, I must feel fortunate to be able to experience it. It's really hard to explain the ineffable experience it has been for me, although I haven't been able to gain a lot of information on the posts I have put (by the way I invite you all to respond to it. I am eager to read all of your opinions). I Feel an overwhelming emotion when I think about interacting with people from all over the world. I mean, what's better than to receive an opinion or create a discussion with people from other countries and cultures. In the past, you had to travel to get to interact with other cultures, and we have been granted the opportunity to do it from any computer. For that, I must show my gratitude to you, Mrs. Stoklosa.
This is definitely one of the best activities I've ever had to do for school. Its a lot of fun being able to share my opinions with everyone instead of just my close friends. Its true that I'm not the most talkative person when it comes to discussion in your class, which I should definitely fix, but I do enjoy expressing my opinions. The point of my blog is to expose my readers to a genre of music that doesn't get much attention and this is a great way to accomplish that. I'm definitely glad you added blogging into the class.
Incorporating conversation in your class and allowing us to create blogs has been a great way to get students more involved. It takes a different approach that most teachers wouldn’t even attempt. I really like the concept because not only does is allow us to get our points across and argue our stance on different topics, but it also puts other opinions out there too. It gives us the chance to look at things in more than one perspective and take other aspects into consideration. I strongly agree that by expanding our range of conversation and encouraging us to discuss things out in the open and with each other, it truly gives up the opportunity to learn much more.
I definitely have never had an assignment like this one. I like it because it gives me a chance to write about something I actually enjoy instead of something I have no interest in. This is going to be very beneficial to us later in life because it is allowing us to write about real things that we are passionate about and give us a real idea of how we can write.
I usually don't have much time to do things just for fun, but since we have to do this, it allows me to relax and just write. I almost forces me to do something I want. We get to learn about other topics through research of our own or commenting on other students' blogs.
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