SOLSC 3.7.2013

Hey Munchkins...

Progress reports go out today -- grades always stress me out. Even as a student, I'd get fearful and anxious when report card time came around. I was a good student, but not strong in math, so the thought of failing math classes gave me stomach ulcers. I had these feelings even when I knew I was doing all right!

When you get your progress report, I wonder if you'll be surprised? I wonder if you'll know already how you're doing? I think it's simple in my class: do you read every day? do you write in your daybooks every day? are you blogging right now? are you trying to do things better each time you write?

But then again, my anxiety about grades and grading float to the top: have I even shown you how to notice your own progress so you don't wonder about your status in the class? That's probably what I need to work on!!

Happy blogging today. Remember to write your blog post...copy the post's URL in the COMMENTS section here....comment on your writing group's posts...try to comment on 3 national posts.


If people cannot write well,  they cannot think well,  and if they cannot think well,  others will do their thinking for them. 
-- George Orwell 

Bloglems

Okay, my little kiddoes....I grabbed the logo for our blogging experience. The chicks over at the Two Writing Teachers blog always create cool pics for this event. I like this one because of the butterfly at the bottom. Didn't notice it? Well, look closer!

I have to say that I'm terrified that no one will blog. I'm afraid that you'll forget me, and you'll go "Oh, blogging's just stupid", and you'll go around telling all your friends that I'm such an easy teacher because I don't grade.

Hopefully my fears will be laid to rest, and one day you'll come in with questions and excitement about your topic. And ask me if I've read your blog yet. Maybe even be upset if I haven't seen it. But then you'll speed to the computer, pull up your blog and make me read it "Right, now, Mrs. McCabe!!"

I can't wait for that day!!

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.