The Good of Blogs

"I am going to start writing more because people are actually looking at my blog. Haha. I will start to write about things interesting.. that are out of school. Not that school's not interesting or anything.."

"I was so excited yesterday because one of my blog posts was on the internet, on the website Cnet. Mr. Fisher says it is a geek website, but that's ok. I think all of my classmates and I are turning into geeks all of the sudden."

"oh wow Mr. Fisher, I was sooo happy and surprised to see that someone I don't even know commented my blog!! wow!!! ya. you're right. people do read these blogs. but hey, you're always right!! and I went to that link on your blog about 'C Net.' awesome. Its good that other people can see our blogs cause they can pass the word on and soon lots of people will have blogs!!!"

"Somebody forwarded to me the article about your blogging. Great Idea!! I read some of your posts and they are really interesting. This is what the web was invented for and it's great to see it happening. Good luck!"

I just had to post some of these. These are comments that have been left on my school blog over the last several days and excerpts from posts that my kids have written since I showed them the blogging article on CNet that was published yesterday. A number of negative comments have been posted on this article and when I shared them with my kids in class this morning, they were appalled. They could not understand at all how people could think them having blogs could possibly be a bad idea. They talked about wanting to write more because they knew they had an audience. They talked about being motivated to actually edit and read what they write to improve their work. They also talked about education having to change to meet the demands of society.

They were not impressed.

No they may not always be grammatically correct. No, they may not always be works of great literature. No they may not always even be interesting. But they are writing. They are thinking. They are reflecting and considering how to improve their work and what they are learning in class.

This is worth a lot to me as a teacher of middle years kids who are often unmotivated and unwilling to participate in society. Sure blogging is fun, but it can also be hard work for these kids. Through our blogs, our wiki, and this, my professional blog, my classroom practices are open for anyone to see.

Comments

[Fallen Angel]

After having read the above noted article on CNet, I admit that my initial thought was, "they're too young to have blogs", but as I read on I realized how it is an amazing idea! I was amazed as I read the details and went to the linked websites (including yours). What better way to make students interested in writing! It is so essential; it's a unique part of each and every one of us because no one has the exact same opinion or words their expresions the same. I think it is wonderful that you are doing this with your students and I applaud you for keeping it up even though the response may not be all around favorable by others.

[Brian Mull]

Just wanted to let you know that I see great value in what you are doing with blogs. I made similar comments to yours this morning myself.

http://nlcommunities.com/communities/gli/archive/2005/10/19/1701.aspx

[Tiffany]

Hey my name is Tiffany, and I've just been asked by my teacher to check out your class blogs, because we too are writing blogs in English class here in Australia. I think that the whole blogs idea is a really good learning experince. If you want to you can check out my blogs...

http://tiffanymoore.edublogs.org/

It's not much good, but I'll be thrilled if you read it. Just ignore all of the critisism that you've been receiving because you're doing a great job with the blogs. Thanks for your time, from Tiffany