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Why Do You Blog? A Student's Perspective

Posted by Unknown Rabu, 27 November 2013 0 komentar

The following is a guest post by New Milford High School sophomore Sarah Almeda. After learning about her Chemistry blog titled Avogadro Salad I asked her to share some insight on the importance of blogging from a student's perspective. I was so blown away by what she wrote below that I went against my long standing personal policy of not following my students on Twitter. Please take a minute to read Sarah's post below, share a comment with her, and check her out on Twitter. This is one amazing student!

...Um, because Ms. Smith made me?

Lol, jk. (That’s, “laughing out loud, just kidding” in teenspeak, that fictional language adults seem scared of...?)

I’m Sarah Almeda, a sophomore at New Milford High School. Somehow, I can have twitter conversations with my teachers and my principal. Somehow, they led to Mr. Sheninger giving me the opportunity to write a guest post on the importance of student blogging. I’m a blogger at heart, as I have been since 4th grade. That’s probably why I was actually excited when my chemistry teacher, Ms. Smith, opened the year by telling us that part of our assessment in the course would be the regular maintenance of a blog. This included posts twice a week that connect chemistry to our world.

Image credit: http://gregmillerprincipal.com/tag/blogging/

Now, I’ve posted almost daily to a personal blog for years and I’m grateful for the decision. I’m told I’m a very good writer. I’m not trying to boast; my writing visibly improved when I started blogging and I can tell you why. Teens turn to the internet for validation, myself included. Why? When I post to my blog, I don’t write to impress a teacher. My audience is the World Wide Web, which is literally worldwide. I attract viewers from all around the globe. When a post gets attention, some views, likes, comments, or even subscriptions, I look at the post and think, Wow; I had some valid ideas that a complete stranger could relate with. What did they like? How do I turn these visitors into regular readers? When a post gets no attention, I then think, What would be more interesting? What will lead viewers to my blog? How do I get a response?

Rather than having a teacher hammer the importance of good writing into my head, I get to feel it in a very real world situation with immediate feedback. I don’t just learn about writing, either. Yesterday, my friends were genuinely interested to hear me talk about how one day our phones may literally be coated with nanodiamonds. I learned that from an article I blogged about. Now I’m always learning a great deal about topics that I decide are interesting to blog about, like the chemistry behind a bad hair day. Not to mention that my chemistry blog is a blessing for someone whose homework always seems to disappear rather inopportunely. I can put an assignment on my blog in the “Homework" category, protect it from copycat classmates, and email the password to Ms. Smith so she can view it whenever she needs to. Not convinced yet? I learned HTML coding when finding ways to better format blog posts, and it’s become a very useful skill.

A personal blog’s also the perfect place to vent my feelings. After articulating my emotions to an Internet audience, I realize I’m better understanding myself. In an Internet world where that wretched teenspeak is the preferred language on nearly all social media platforms (bc my insta captions/ tumblr posts r like so articulate lol jk idec) blogging is a practice that expands learning way beyond the walls of the classroom. It encourages self-improvement and dedication in a way that I don’t believe can be taught as well as it can be experienced. And it's addictively fun!

So, pull a Ms. Smith move! Teach kids to blog! Start one yourself! Trust me, you’ll find the time, you’ll find the passion, you’ll find out a lot about the world, and you might even find out more about yourself. And watch out for me! You can find my chemistry blog by clicking HERE, and I’m even building my own website with the awesome tools I learned in business class at NMHS.

Cheers!

-Sarah “Shmarah” Almeda

Please take a moment and leave a comment for Sarah. Not only is she a talented blogger, but an artist as well (see her self portrait below). She, like many of her NMHS classmates, fully take advantage of everything that NMHS has to offer to advance their learning and follow their passions.

Image credit: Sarah Almeda

Baca Selengkapnya ....

Use of Blogging to Address the Common Core

Posted by Unknown Sabtu, 17 November 2012 0 komentar

First year New Milford High School teacher Mrs. Westbrook has been tackling the Common Core in an engaging and innovative fashion. One major instructional shift required by the Common Core Curriculum Standards is the increased emphasis on the use of informational texts. As students engage nonfiction, they learn to grapple with complex ideas and arguments and use those ideas in forming their own opinions.

One strategy for helping students meet these demands is the use of blogging to scaffold challenging texts and to encourage students to consider evidence and the perspective of others. In the study of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Mrs. Westbrook’s class discussions have centered on the playwright’s purpose – a purpose the famous author described in a 2002 interview we use as our informational text for the lesson. In the interview, the author presents a complex argument that links the events in the play to events in modern society.

The blog assignment requires students to consider his argument, find evidence to support his argument in the play, and to evaluate the quality of his argument using their own observations. At the same time, the assignment provides a powerful learning tool. On the blog, students can access the informational text by replaying the interview. In addition, they can read salient quotes from the author to reinforce their comprehension. Finally, they can use teacher-generated questions to guide them in crafting a thesis-driven response to the author’s argument.

Once students have posted their responses, she can comment and question them to raise the level of student discourse, provide personalized writing instruction, and teach to their misconceptions. Here is a screen shot of the task/question: