Writing Culture

We are blogging.

For whatever reason, it sounds ridiculous to write that. I'm not really sure what I'm getting into, and I'm pretty sure we're building the plane in flight, but what the heck, right?

This whole blogging business is happening because of the work we're doing with Dr. Utecht and a book I'm reading by John Warner titled, "Why They Can't Write" (coupled with my own sense of adventure and curiosity). And my 8th graders are freaking out right now - freaking out excited and freaking out nervous. The idea that their writing is open for every 8th grader to see is nerve-racking, and I get it. Making our writing public takes a level of trust and vulnerability that has the potential to backfire. It also has the potential to spark a new writing culture at school and beyond.  Here's what I wrote to my students in my first blog to them if you're interested: Buckle up!. 

In John Warner's book, he writes about our writing 'crisis' and drives home the point that good writing always has a strong sense of audience and purpose. The root of the crisis, he asserts, is what we all know - if our students' audience is always the teacher and a test-scorer there is no purpose in writing - I couldn't agree more.

All that to say, I'm flying blind. I've already discovered limitations in the blogging sites we can access.  We've settled on edublogs, but it's a pretty clunky site. There's also a part of me that wishes we could use a different site and take the filters off so student blogs were public. I see the reasons we wouldn't make them public, but I see these same reasons as opportunities for students (and me) to learn. What a great way for kids to begin to understand the do's and don'ts of blogging in the real world. What a great way to begin to create a brand and understand the ins-and-outs of presenting yourself not only for today but for tomorrow. And what a great way for some of our kids to make a little change on the side.

I really am flying blind though and I'm wondering if there are any folks out there with experience in the blogosphere who can give me some direction about what's worked and hasn't worked within the classroom setting.

Ultimately, I'm excited. I'm excited to not read the same old thing for the rest of the year. I'm excited about the possibility to succeed and the possibility to fail and I'm thankful for a district that encourages this kind of risk.

I'm hoping to spark a new writing culture and I think this could be one way of doing it.

Cheers.