Mon 2 Jun 2008
Evolving as a blogger
Posted by joseantoniook under Reflection
I have been a blogger since 2006. Everything started when I was a Hornby School participant in Sorocaba, Brazil. I first started using my blogs as a personal diary, I guess that is what everybody does. That is how blogging begins. Next, I started teaching and saw that blogs could be a tool to guide students and share interesting resources, such as, websites, references sites like dictionaries, online corpus. Later I started to see them as place for conversations, a venue for publishing students' work, and finally I started having my students setting up their own blogs.
The picture I used, I got it in taggalaxy at my friend Carla Arena´s suggestion. I just typed the word blog and got this wonderful picture.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Hey, José. Wonderful picture! You mentioned you started with a reflective blog. In my case it was just the opposite, but if it were today I’d start the way you did. I first started blogging with my students, then I felt the urge to keep reporting my views, perspective, thoughts…Always learning, right?
Great to see you around.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hi Carla,
Thanks for the comment. I think that when it comes to blogging, the earth is round (like we say in Portuguese). I started with reflections and fell myself going back to reflection blogs. It is good exercise to reflect on our practice. I always lear with it and from feedback from other.
C U
It is getting windy and cold in BSB
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
wow JA!
Thanks for such and insightful and personal account on blogging. It is really inspiring.
I also started my blog first before introduce it to my students…I was going o say my kids as I always see then hehehe …. but it was hard work at the beginning even though I was doing it in my own language. It was hard to find my blogger (not writer…I am not a writer) side. It took time to find and sustain a voice in cyberspace. And when I started introducing blogs in the classroom I still wasn’t sure where it would take me/us (the students) but it felt right (and learning is also about how it makes us feeling!) Blogging became an escape channel to somewhere else outside the classroom - we connected to native speaker, we expressed ourselves, we collaborated with other classes, we had fun and we learned beyond what the handbooks had to teach us. I’ve learned so much too, i felt (and feel) I am never ready to graduate!
Blogging helps me think, supports my learning and my connections. What a world, What a treat. And just to think I was never able to maintain a paper journal. Somethng was missing. The communication feature!
I am so happy you joined us. I have learned so much with you. You are a very inspiring educator!
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 am
Another adventure, another blog, and “evolve” seems to be motivating you to keep on reflecting. That´s wonderful.
I started blogging in 2005 after BaW in a too serious matter when I created a blog for a whole community. I was coordinator of freshman studies at Universidad Simon Bolivar at the time and I was organizing a f2f event to let professors and students reflect about the study programs of the first year of study of engineering and basic sciences, but set up the blog for those who wanted to participate online. Although there was not much participation then, this initiative is often mentioned as a way of opening discussion and reflection in the widest possible way in our community. A colleague and I described this experience in an article soon to be published in Spanish.
I had always tried to open blogging to my students but since our main objective is EFL reading, I found it hard to do. This academic year I decided to go for it and we have class blogs where students have an open window to share their thoughts or content about the course. Many students do not have access to Internet and take turns in my office to read it and contribute to it, but iw has worked well so far. I sent a proposal to Tesol 2009 last Friday with the hope of attending the conference next year and meeting as many of the Webheads as possible. I will send another to AAAL 2009, which is also in Denver, but this time the topic will be on EFL writing from a sociocultural perspective. The deadline for this one is Aug. 15th.
The answer to why I blog was the subject of one of my posts as I was tagged by Ronaldo a couple of weeks ago in a Meme started by Carla. http://bleiva2003.wordpress.com/
I still blog at Blogger, Motime, Wordpress and have a new account at Evolve which I do not know if I will use yet
Too many blogs, very little time!!!
Keep up the excellent work you always do here, there and everywhere, Jose Antonio!!!
Cariños, Berta
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hello Cristina and Berta,
I also always refer to my students as my kids. I totally agree with you that we are always learning. It is an endless pleasant journey. I like blogs because of their simple format and their immediacy. I feel really happy because I see that my students like doing it too.
I loved the metaphor of open windows for blogs. That is what they are: windows to students creativy, to their thoughts, their emotions, their hearts and souls. I am always impressed by their creativity and enthusiasm.
Thanks for your kind words and comments
Hugs
JA