Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Blogging experience

Blogging experience...what is blogging?? Just kidding, but that about sums up my blogging experience!

I have followed blogs of friends. My best friend Trisha taught abroad in Ireland a few years ago and kept a blog to keep us all updated. I wish blogging had been around (or I had known about it!) when I studied abroad in 2000. It would have been way easier to keep a blog then to try to email individuals to describe my experiences.

I also have friends (Mary and Dan) with a 13-month old daughter who keep a blog. Their family lives near by but they post photos from trips they have taken or funny updates about their daughter.

For my class project I plan to create a personal blog about my "journey" being pregnant. My mom keeps asking me to send her pictures of how far along I am and I think it might be fun to look back at the process.

I plan to have my blog resemble Mary's blog about her daughter, Anya. (Click on Anya to see the blog). Mary updates it with pictures and funny stories. If you scroll down to the bottom there is a hilarious picture of Anya looking like Wolverine!

Blogging in the classroom:
I am definitely interested in blogging in the classroom I just don't have a good idea of what that should/could/would look like. I also am concerned about my students doing it in a second language. The most authentic audience would be their pen pals in France but I worry about students taking enough time/having the right process to help them write a blog (or other digital venue) that is well written.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing what second language/ELL teachers do with their students.

In the article "HOT Blogging" by Zawilinski (this week's primary reading) it references a "Showcase Blog" used in second language classrooms to practice English. However, when I went to the site it first asked for a password, but did let me in. Honesntly I wasn't too impressed with the site and didn't find it to "showcase" the students' work. There are activities/quizzes but I guess I was looking more for a portfolio type of blog.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Molly,
    Friends of mine are driving the length of Route 66 this fall and I think it would be great if they kept a blog so we could live vicariously through them. However, altho they are both tech savvy, I doubt it crossed their minds. The difference is a public vs a private journal.

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  2. Molly,
    I wish that I could have blogged about my pregnancy! It was such an amazing journey and a blog would have been a great tool to capture it all. (I did keep a few written journals though.) It would have been neat to capture all the thoughts, ideas and experiences that my husband and I had over those 9 months! What a great tool to chronical my transitions from normal to HUGE as well! Many woman will talk about how they hated being pregnant by the end, but not me. I loved every second of it and can't wait to do it again! I get belly envy whenever I see a new friend start to show.
    I wish you the best of luck and hope that you have an amazing pregnacy...it is the best thing you will ever go through with the most amazing gift at the end.
    Take care of yourself,
    Kristin

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