Reflecting on Digital Writing

Prior to taking this class, I rarely wrote. Although it has always been an enjoyable pastime, between school, work, and home, I haven’t been able to write as much as I’d like. As such, I was happy that I was able to sit down, relax, and pen my thoughts, whether it was related to something academically, or personally. This semester, I learned that I really do enjoy writing, but that I need to make time for it. Because blogging was part of an assignment, I knew I had to make time for it every week to complete it. So, for future reference, I know that I can still enjoy writing, but that I need to make time for it, almost as if it was an assignment.

Also during my digital wiring experience, I learned that it is not as hard as it seems. Sometimes I would get caught up in the layout, or the formatting not being exactly right, but after playing with it and pressing buttons that I had no idea of its function, I was able to get the hang of it. Which leads me to my next point, as teachers we should be first a student of a new instruction, before presenting it to our students. I would certainly advise my colleagues that we have to first have to become comfortable with new instruction before we expect our students to be proficient in it.

My biggest challenge this semester was the open posts. My mind is always running a constant race, but when it came time to write an open post, I froze- I had no idea what to write! As a result, instead of allowing student complete free choice, I would give students a short list of ideas, but still give the option to write something of their choice. Overall, my blogging experience was positive, and has encouraged me to continue writing digitally.  

What I learned about Digital Writing

 I enjoyed reading Troy Hicks “The Digital Writing Workshop,” as he offered many practical strategies and examples. Some of the biggest “aha’s” I got from this book are: allowing student choice, encouraging active revision, studying author’s craft, and broadening our understandings of assessment. In my literature circle, we discussed how blogs can be used effectively in the classroom. One of the things we came up with, is that students would be able to virtually respond to other writers. This would help the author by allowing him or her take that feedback, and use it for a future post or to make revisions. Another benefit of using blogs inside the classroom, is that students can create a searchable archive of posts. This way, students will always have access to the work they’ve done, conveniently located in one [digital] space.

 Hicks recommended setting up student blogs through a free service such as Edublogs, or Class Blogmeister, then secondly, integrating a social network with built-in blogging such as Ning.  From a teacher’s standpoint, blogs are a great way to also get students to thinking on higher levels by analyzing, synthesizing, and reflecting on information over time. Hick’s notes, “…the goal is for students to create their own blogs and connect their ideas to those of their peers.” I think this is a powerful quote, because it shows some of the most important things to adolescents: 1) being able to communicate digitally, 2) receiving feedback from their peers (what does “so and so” think about my post?) Through blogging, teachers and students can advance both the teaching and learning of writing.

Fall Back

It’s that time of year again…time to “fall back,” and gain an extra hour of sleep. In previous years, I looked forward to the clocks turning back one hour. As most people say, “Hey, I’ll get an extra hour of sleep, right!?” Wrong! Well, at least in my case, things happened differently this year. Since the clocks went back an hour on Sunday, I have been getting up during my usual “spring forward” time. That means that I, unlike some people, have not had the pleasure of enjoying an extra hour of sleep. Instead, my body has mechanically woken up every morning—an hour early! This is frustrating because as a busy college senior, I thrive from life’s little bonuses such as gaining an extra scoop of rice at Chipotle, and getting an extra 10% off at the Goodwill. In similar fashion, I would also benefit from getting an extra hour of sleep, but unfortunately, my body did not get the memo.

I suppose I could use that time to be productive like getting an assignment done, prep my meals for the day, or work out; but instead, I choose to play the victim role and “play sleep.” This is the state where I am not really sleeping, but instead, allowing my body to think I am resting by just lying there. This is torturous in itself because as I’m lying there, my mind runs a marathon as I think of all the things that needs to be done.  

Hopefully, I can train my body to rest peacefully until it is really time to get up. Until then, I’ll continue to “play sleep.”