This morning, I had one of the most interesting and fun mornings that I can remember.
I spent it with a friend of mine, Mr. M., who teaches writing to 5th and 6th graders at a local area elementary school. Mr. M. asked me to come in and talk with his classes about blogging.
Mr. M. and I are creating a closed for-the-class-only blog that he and his students will use to write for and to one another.
(
COPPA concerned educators and lawyers, do not fret. The kids will get parental permission before they can write, and all of the blog administrivia will be handled by adults. Furthermore, Internet safety is part of the pre-blogging instruction and will continue to be part of the ongoing discussion both online and in Mr. M's classroom. Also, real life friends, please don't include anything in the comments that would identify Mr. M or the school where he teaches.)
Can I just say that the kids were awesome?
I had just under an hour with each group of students, and in every case, we ran out of time answering their questions. Usually we had to wrap things up with 4 or 5 hands still in the air. Most of the questions were intelligent, thoughtful, and sometimes even thought-provoking.
You should be seriously jealous that I will get to read what they write, but you won't. Because their blog will be limited to the 3 writing classes that are involved, plus parents and school administrators. Maybe we'll be able to work something out where I can publish excerpts of some of their work here, so that you can see what interesting writers these young people are -- and I am sure that they are.
In addition to enjoying meeting and talking to these young people, I liked the questions they asked that made me think about my own life and my blog.
One student asked me why I like blogging. What a great question.
I like blogging for two reasons: First, I love having a place to vent and share news and just express myself.
But second, and more importantly, I love blogging because of you, the people who read my blog. I love the community/ies that we've created, the sense of connectedness, and the fact that I've made great friends here in the blogosphere, some of whom I may never meet in real life. (I'm not linking to examples because I know I would forget some of you and I would feel awful about it. Trust me, I probably do mean you.)
Several students asked questions about why I started blogging, and how I decided what to write about on my blog.
It was fun to think about how that evolved.
When I first started, I wasn't sure how I was going to maintain the discipline necessary to write frequently on the same topic. Near the same time, I saw
Jessamyn's list of how many books she read the previous year, including a breakdown of fiction/non-fiction, liked/disliked, male/female authors. I was totally inspired by her list, and determined to create
one of my own.
As I told the students, I thought I was going to write a "book review blog" only it turned out that I'm not that interested in
reading book reviews. I didn't enjoy commenting on book review blogs. I love books, and I like writing book reviews, but I only like talking with people about books they like, not reading about what books some random voice on the Internet says.
So that didn't work out. Instead, I got pregnant, and suddenly needed to read the
blogs of everyone I
could find who was also pregnant (or TTC or adopting) (that's Trying To Conceive, if any of Mr. M.'s students are reading this). THOSE were the blogs I wanted to read, to comment on, and to have come read here.
It was fun to remember those days, to re-read some of those posts, and to catch up on some of the blogs I no longer read daily. (I miss you!)
So thanks, Mr. M. I had a great time this morning, and I look forward to working on this project with you and your student writers!
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