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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

And, We're Off...

We are setting up our blogs this week, but all I'm getting is they are "doing this for a decent grade" -- what if I don't grade it? Can you be trusted to blog if no one is looking over your shoulders?

Well, I don't know. But guess what? That's what is going to happen. I'm not grading the blogs. I'll read them; I"ll comment on them; but you won't get a "blog" grade at the end of March. Why? Because I want you to LEARN!! I want your writing to get better. I want you to see your blog as YOUR IDEAS, not your grade. Grading is inaccurate and does not tell anyone what you learned. So what if you got an A in your English class last year? Did you read something amazing? Did your writing bring tears or laughter to someone else? If not, you didn't learn anything.

Yes, I'm turning your schooling on its head, and I don't care -- not even a little bit. Your job in high school is to learn -- not get a grade.The goal for this blogging experience is for you to connect with yourself -- your ideas, your thoughts, your fears. The reward for this blogging experience will be the comments you elicit from  other students (my comments won't mean as much as your peers).

Think about how you can use your blog space to show your learning about a topic you're interested in. Can you video yourself learning to shoot the basketball in different parts of the floor and critique your form? How about publishing your own poetry and getting feedback from a person you don't know? Or imagining what it would be like to travel around the world -- what would you see?

Watch this video about skateboarding...then tell me in the comments what you're thinking.


6 comments:

  1. Addie McAlister http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4445167889212022369#allposts/postNum=0

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  2. I think that it's going to be a cool experience to do an assignment with no grade. It will allow us to show who we are and what we think without the fear of being judged by a grade. I think that our way of learning is GREATLY affected by the fear of a bad grade and that is what pushes us into cheating to prevent the "bad grade" that we all feel will kill our educational careers.

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    1. I agree. The fear of failure does push us into cheating, and I think it will be fun.

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  3. I think this is a great idea. It will be an awsome learning experience for everyone in the class. I don't know about everyone else in the class, but I personaly have never had a teacher do something like this before. I am excited to see how well we have all improved as writers at the end of the year!

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  4. I like the idea of writing whats on ours minds and not being pressured to do it a certain way. Writing should be from the heart, and not a layout of what someone gives you to fill in the blanks for yourself.

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  5. http://sweetaddie55.blogspot.com/ Blogged today!

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