Becoming Part of the Blogging Community

"What if I don't have anything to say?" was my first concern when I created this blog.  Since then, I've started reading other blogs and discovered that I have too much to say!

As I said in my last post, I love teachpaperless.com.!! Their ideas are innovative, fun and most importantly practical!  For example, one teacher posted an example of a paperless final exam, another blogged about how he uses Jing to give his writing students feedback.  I'm already thinking about making our grammar tests paperless - no more grading!!  I liked the idea of using Jing for feedback. However, I still had some questions, so I commented asking how he got around Jing's five minute limit and whether it really was a time saver.  

Another blog, techlearning.com also had some great ideas.  One teacher was looking for others to help her develop a series of online textbooks by compiling all sorts of resources - including student work!!  I commented telling her how much I liked the idea of having students in on the making of a textbook. In fact, our school is working now on making textbooks.  I think I'll suggest having some of the students come in to add their ideas to the books.

While blogs are an excellent source of information, it's important to keep up with the news too!  I'm especially lazy about education news since I live abroad.  Lately, however, I've been thinking about moving back home. Yet, each time I think about it, I read another article about teacher evaluations or the problems the teacher's union is having, and I decide to stay abroad a bit longer.

As you may have read in my first post, I believe that blogs, unlike websites, are constantly changing and developing.  I've only been following these blogs for a week, so I haven't noticed many major differences, yet.  I did, however, see that some blogs update more frequently than others and that they are mainly written by multiply authors.  Looking back all the blogs, I realized that writers tend to included details from their personal lives which helps to build the community around the blog.  It was this sense of community which drew me to finally post my own comments.

I hope you enjoy my blog and feel free to post comments! Thanks!