Survey Says...

Students:
At the end of class last week, I took a quick survey of hands to get a feel for the love of blogging. All thirteen boys said they found blogging to be more beneficial to their writing. They said they wrote more and it was “easier”. For the female students, eight out of eleven girls said they preferred blogging.

One girl made a really interesting comment. Although she found blogging fast and easy, she found the most challenging aspect of blogging was finding the time to sit in front of a computer.
It may seem like an odd statement coming from a digital native, but I think I understand her position. I find students to be attached to their Ipods and cellphones and less likely sitting in front of their computer. They are still too young to all have Blackberrys where they can blog on the go.

Teachers:
When I first began the Bulldog Blog, my Department Head said “Blogs are so awesome! I used them with my media classes.” I felt really reassured when I heard that other people found success in something that I was about to experience with my class. My Department Head, clearly a great blog baker, had her students create their own blogs on various research topics for their course. I was intrigued, but was going to stick to my simple boxed cupcakes – blog responses.

Two days after I put my Bulldog Blog in the oven, I mean online, another colleague decided to give the recipe a go as well. Seven weeks later and her students are fully immersed in contributing to a blog that centres around current topics that are relevant and “hot” to the course. Am I starting a trend?
Principal:
My Principal was so thrilled that I was going to start an new initiative in class, especially one that was both green and linked to media literacy. Later that first week, I received an email from her stating that upon showing the blog to her own teenage daughter, her daughter that I must be a “hip” English teacher since I was blogging with my students. Although my goal was not to be hip, it is great to hear that teens appreciate the effort by teachers to tap into their cyber lives.