Blogging Around

I read Kate H's blog in which she discussed how her writing changed throughout the year. At first she put a lot of time and effort into crafting her blog but as the year progressed she treated it more like a journal. I commented the following:

It was interesting to read your blog post and I agree with a lot of what you said. For me, however, blogging still takes a long time and I put a lot of effort and energy into the form and content of my blogs. I've had teachers from across the country read my blog (specifically about collaboration) so I think you would be surprised by the broad audience that exceeds just our English class!

Next, I read Alyssa's blog. In her post she talked about her struggles with blogging and the things that made the experience worth while. I commented the following:

Alyssa, I really enjoyed your post. I too often found myself in a mess of thoughts struggling to focus on something specific enough for a blog. I wrote one blog about the dialectic between the individual and the community and it ended up being super long because I could not concisely formulate my ideas. It happens to other people too! I also really love reading other people's blogs and I wish we did more of it. It's really interesting reading about other people's ideas and I'm glad these blogs are public.

Metacognition: Blogging

This year has been my first experience with blogging. I use this blog primarily for English class but also for chemistry. Both classes have really taken advantage of blogs to supplement the class. I think that my experience with blogging this year has been a positive one. I've found it refreshing to be able to share my ideas with anyone who is willing to read them. I like being able to organize and edit my thoughts before making them public for my peers and the world to see. In this day and age we leave behind a technological footprint and it's nice to know that my blog is part of that.

I think that blogging should continue next year and that students should have the opportunity to blog more freely at times. This year we were occasionally given the option to choose a prompt. I think it would also be nice to occasionally blog prompt-free as my chemistry class does. This allows the blog to become more personal and show a new side of the blogger.

However, one of my favorite prompts is the "Blogging Around" prompt. I think that, although it is great to write blogs, it's also wonderful to read what other people have to offer. In English it is interesting to read about the views of my peers on English-related topics. In chemistry I am able to read about an array of different things that my classmates have to share. 

I think that what can be most improved about this blogging experience is integrating it into class a bit more. It would be nice if we could discuss our blogs in class or have our ideas recognized when they correlate with what we're doing in class. This has occurred several times this year and I think it's been beneficial. For example, I know that in one of my blogs I pleaded for a collaborative assessment after we finished one of our books. It was extremely rewarding that this actually happened and that maybe my blog influenced this. Even if our ideas and opinions are not used, I think it would still be nice to have some sort of recognition.

One way that the above could be accomplished is if the teacher whose class we write blogs for commented on them. I know there are a lot of blogs for a lot of students but if every once in a while I received some feedback I would feel more validation for this experience. Until recently I didn't really feel like anyone willingly read my blog and that was rather discouraging. 

Overall, however, I think blogging has been very successful. Mr. Allen has often mentioned that the blogs have helped him get to know us in a unique, efficient way. In chemistry, they serve as a way to connect us and build our class community. I hope that as classes continue to blog they begin to integrate the blogs into class curriculum and thus use blogs to their full potential. 

Best of Week: Growth

This week while discussing The Life and Times of Michael K we reread a poem we had encountered earlier in the year. The poem is called "Stone" by Charles Simic. I remember reading the poem earlier and thinking nothing of it. It seemed like a simple, insignificant, pretty poem. I liked it but it was really nothing special. I felt that, with some thought, I could craft the same poem myself.

However, now that I've reread the poem, I see it rather differently. Because I have so recently read Coetzee's novel I found that a lot of the same themes were present in Simic's poem. There was no doubt in my mind that the poem itself had been inspired by the novel. Now when I read the poem I deeply appreciate it. I see a hundred little things I had skimmed over before. I find meaning in the rhythm and structure of the poem. 

This experience, although just a small in-class exercise, provided me with some profound insight. It is so great to see how much I have learned and grown this year. When I first read the poem I was so sure of myself. I was positive that I had seen into the rather empty core of the poem and that there was nothing for me to gain from such a simplistic, mediocre piece. 

This week I have learned a very valuable lesson. I've learned that, no matter how sure I am about something, there is still so much for me to learn and gain. I've realized that I shouldn't overlook simple things and assume that there is nothing for me to appreciate there. "Stone" and The Life and Times of Michael K have helped me to see that in simplicity there is often profound insight and I should keep my eyes open for it. 

I feel that this week I have felt what the goal of our first semester final was. We were supposed to explain how the texts we have read helped shape and change us throughout the year. I feel that, even more than in January, I have now truly seen and experienced my growth. "Stone" has served as a way for me to measure the shift in my thinking and I'm very proud of it.

Blogging Around

After reading several blogs, I chose to comment on a couple. 

I read Dylan's blog post about the Jane Eyre writing assignment. He wrote about his feelings while writing as well as the process and final result. Since I'm still a bit confused about the writing assignment I left the following comment:

I really enjoyed this post Dylan! Margot and I also worked with the same topic and I experienced similar feelings while writing and after completing the assignment. I feel it was very different from most writing we have done thus far in Academy. I think it's interesting that we all felt a bit weird about it and then, as a class, we ended up showing Mr. Allen that we still have plenty to learn. I feel like maybe we missed something about the aim of the assignment and therefore didn't execute it as well as we could have.

I then came across Emily's blog. I noticed one of her posts was about collaboration. As is exhibited in previous posts, I'm very interested in collaboration so I found it unique to read about her thoughts. She talked about how collaboration benefitted her on her Jane Eyre writing assignment. I commented the following:

Great post Emily. As you probably know, I have many thoughts on collaboration and I think you addressed some good points in your blog. I think that you approached collaboration in a different fashion than Margot and I did and I see that what you did was very beneficial. It's interesting to see how students from the same class working on the same assignment can collaborate in such a variety of ways and produce such a wide range of final products.