It's Not English, It's Just Blogging

The Examiner Monday, November 14

    For a  four month period in 2004, when The Journal Newpaper experienced the transformation that eventually became the fine paper you are reading today, I had no column.

    After years of being able to publish the good, the bad, and the ugly events of my classroom, I had to resort to water cooler talk which, I quickly discovered, was no substitute for the pen.

    So my son David said “Why don’t you start a blog?” His TypePad website was not at all the kind of thing I felt comfortable emulating with its photos, daily commentary on politics, films, and life in general.

    But he convinced me to create a more “formal” weblog on which I would post columns about teaching, brief reviews of books I had read, and even reprint some of my old Journal columns.

    A passion was born. When I “auditioned” for my current column in The Examiner, all I had to do was email my weblog link to the editor-in-chief (www.erica_jacobs.typepad.com), and the job was mine.

    Last year I had the distinction of being the only teacher any of my students knew who had a blog. I was flattered when Stephen wrote on a technology website: “My English teacher has a blog? I was so stunned, I just had to post it.”

    My son had another idea for this year, though: why not encourage all my classes to create weblogs of their own as a means of publishing what they write? Instead of the normal $71.60 per year website fee, he negotiated free promotional rates for every one of this year’s students. (It helped that he was friends with the creators of “TypePad!”)

    Initially, some students had reservations. They thought of blogs as daily journals where people argue about politics and make public their most intimate thoughts. That didn’t sound like English class to them.

    But two weeks into the project, I can visit 108 websites to see student writing: commentaries, college essays, poetry, book reviews.

    Each time I access a student link, I marvel at the individuality of their publications. Their sites boast unusual color schemes, photos of their friends, families and pets, drawings, and other artistic touches I would have no idea how to create. They praise one another in the comments section, and link under “awesome blogs.”  And each site has a serious piece of writing---a college essay, a poem, or a satire.

    Stephen gets the prize for the most enthusiasm. He visits all the sites and leaves comments like “hey, teena, your blog looks really nice. Would you have a problem with me linking to it?”

    Valerie’s verdict is typical, as is the informality of her blogspeak: “Ok, I’m not gonna lie, I kinda like the whole blog thing…” and Rebekah’s words are quite telling: “Now that I’ve figured this thing [TypePad] out a little better, it’s 100% less annoying and about 78% more addicting.”

    Students pay me the highest compliment when they tell me, “This isn’t work, Dr. Jacobs, it’s fun.” I wish all my English assignments had the 100% success rate of our weblog project.

Comments

[Josie Fraser]

Hi Dr. Jacobs - I found your blog via your son's. Please make sure you add yourself to the edubloggers map! You can find it at www.frapper.com/edubloggers. I'd really like to be able to check out some of your student's blogging - any chance of some links?

All the best, Josie.

[Ari Moore]

This is awesome, what a perfect use for blogging. Was it one assignment itself, or a semester-long thing where students posted all their assignments?

[Erica Jacobs]

This will be year-long, and will include college essays, creative writing assignments, and blog entries of their own choosing. We are making it up as we go along!

[David Jacobs]

I think Josie meant http://www.frappr.com/edubloggers rather than frapper.com. Talk about the need for better teaching: New web software companies often drop the 'e' from their title. There are some good blogs on the map - including: http://www.assortedstuff.com/

[Stacie Swick]

I think it is great that you have encouraged your students to make their own blogs. I am a junior elementary education major and would very much like to hear from you about your experiences in the classroom, and experiences with students and technology. Any advice you can give a future teacher would be much appreciated!

[Dr. Jacobs]

Hi Stacie,
I will write again about how the project is going. So far, so good---although more students than you'd think are feeling inadequate to the task. I figure I am preparing them for the website work they will do in the working world!

[Stacie Swick]

Hi Dr. Jacobs,

Thank you so much for writing back. I appreciate the time you have put in to talk about this. I hope that your students will continue to succeed in this project.