Monday, October 20th, 2008...4:26 pm
What If You Couldn’t Blog Anymore?
My student (Yahoo web hosted) website is down for the first time in 3 years. Of course, this would happen the day I told the Head of School to check out the website. He said he’d look at it this evening. Figures. Tried to call customer service, but there’s an hour wait time.
Do…not…panic. I check it about every 1.2 minutes to see if it’s working. No, I’m not panicking. Ironic that earlier today I wondered what would happen if my blog just disappeared and the 3 years of work I spent building it up was gone. The amount of anxiety I felt with that thought makes me wonder if I have a problem.
Nope, still not working.
This got me thinking. What are some reasons I’d stop blogging?
- Death
- Sent to prison
Well, after about 5 minutes of thinking that’s all I could come up with. While #1 is certainly out of my control, I’m definitely sure #2 is not going to happen.
I guess now would be a good time to share my new favorite thing to do when I’m bored: explore Vimeo. Right now there’s a great competition called Climate Matters. Here’s one of my favorite entries, a very child-like view of global warming:
Green to Blue from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.
1.2 minutes later…BLISS…
I never thought I’d be so happy to see kangaroos punching each other.
4 Comments
November 6th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
1. What would I do if my blog disappeared? Wow. Stop challenging me with that. Just be sure you go into the dashboard and export the blog data to a folder frequently. I know I do. Wow. Stop those scary thoughts.
2. I too have pondered about what happens when a blogger dies. I had been under the assumption that the only way humans become immortal is to pass on their genes to children. However, I am beginning to wonder if method #2 is to build a solid blog and just let it ride on as you slide into the ground. Wow. Really makes you think of your pages with a different slant, eh?
3. I PANIC when my Ning networks go down at crucial times. It is still a relatively new service with upgrades coming frequently, so I am not complaining. In fact, in sharing with a fellow biologist, check out my two class networks. I’d love to know what a fellow biology teacher (and blogger) could offer as brief feedback if you get a second. Marine Biology: http://stjoeh2o.ning.com and Dual Credit Biology: http://mwsu-bio101.ning.com
Keep up the good work and… love the header.
Sean
November 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Sean,
I really like your networks! It looks like your students are active and engaged in conversations. Do you offer credit for comments? If so, how much? If not, tell me your secret! I have a twitter group with my AP students, but only a few of them use it frequently. The only way I’ve been able to get students to post often on the blog is to reward them for it with a grade.
I love that you ask your students to reflect on each day’s lesson!
Stacy
November 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Hey thanks much for taking the time to peek.
What is funny… is that I don’t really offer “credit” for comments. However, I have certainly revisited the idea again and again as being a worthwhile endeavor.
We talk about being good stewards of the conversations we start in class. I always tell them to shoot for a minimum of two comments to others just as a way to check themselves. (similar to “how long does the paper have to be?”)
I tried putting commenting into the scoring guide for blogging “The Enchanted Braid” in marine bio class. However, I find that I have had more success in my DC bio class by just preaching the power of conversation and collective knowledge.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall for your talk in Portland. We always have tons to learn from folks doing similar things from so many miles apart. God luck with that, I’m sure you will contribute well regardless of the audience!
Sean
November 12th, 2008 at 7:43 am
That’s excellent that it works for you. Not grading comments works for my AP students, but not my 9th graders.
I hate grading comments. But, I tried not grading them with my 9th graders and comments deteriorated to, “Hey man, awesome post.” Also, some students weren’t getting any comments to their post. I started rewarding students who wrote fruitful comments with points which led to my current system of grading. Grading comments fixed poor quality commenting, but it definitely leads to other problems – what makes a comment acceptable and how is that graded fairly.
I’d love to hear some other suggestions people have about how I could make this work.
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