Dear Pre-Student Teachers,
I just finished reading your blog postings and your comments/replies to one another, and I AM IMPRESSED!
Thank you for your engaging narratives of your first days of pre-student teaching. Thank you for your insightful questions and early inquiry. Thank you for your thoughtful planning and goal-setting. You’ve knocked my socks off with your witty, intelligent writing and your professionalism. Really. My socks are in the hallway outside my office door.
Since I won’t see you face-to-face until after your second blog posting (online reflection) is due next Wednesday, Sept. 7, I wanted to give you a few pointers for making the most of this blogging experience and for earning full credit on each post:
Title
Shoot for a creative, relevant title. If you plan to post more frequently than required (as several of you are doing), just include “Online Reflection #___” in your title for the post you want me to evaluate. For example, check out Sianna’s blog post: Online Reflection #1: The Hardest Part of Any Journey is Taking that First Step. See? Simple as pie.
Engaging (even experimental) Blog Posts
If you’re still wondering what’s possible with your blog posts, check out innovative posts by these authors for inspiration (just click the name, and you’ll connect to the post):
Replies/Comments: Continuing the Conversation (and earning full points)
Check your blog postings for replies (you should receive an e-mail notification on your Google account e-mail when someone replies on your blog), and then respond to them. The best way to grow an audience is to respond to that audience. If someone has posted a question or made a connection to your experience, respond—if only to thank them for sharing an idea, experience, or advice.
In addition, when you reply to someone else’s post, you can click the “Subscribe by E-mail” link after the comments in order to receive notification when the blog’s author (or someone else) responds to your post.
Here are some examples of strong replies that continue the conversation:
Productive Discussions
And here are some examples of productive discussions that resulted from an engaging post, a thoughtful comment, and the author’s response to those comments:
The Importance Posting On Time
As you’ve probably noticed, I have waited until after your comments/replies were due to begin my assessment of your online reflection performance. This means, of course, that if you have updated your blog or posted comments on someone’s blog at some point today, I most likely have not read it (and you have not earned credit for it).
If you post a blog entry or a reply/comment after the deadline, send me the link via e-mail, so I can assess your work. For online reflections 2, 3, and 4, you will earn reduced credit for late postings of any sort. For online reflection 1, however, I am being lenient because this is a new experience for most of you, and I understand that technical difficulties have been a challenge. Please let me know how I can help.
Thanks again for your stimulating online conversations! I hope you will review one another’s postings on our class blog regularly (the blogs are listed according to most recent updates). Use this as an opportunity to connect with your fellow pre-student teachers, sharing your successes and frustrations, and seeking out advice and resources.
Thank you!
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