Speck of Sand

There is one like her every year: the quiet one who might get overlooked in a crowded classroom or a busy hallway. She's the one who always seems to know the answer, but she seldom says it out loud. Mild-mannered, maybe a little shy, she goes about the business of excellence in her own peaceful way. She goes by the moniker Speck of Sand, seemingly appropriate for one so quiet and unassuming. And it would go like that all year with no one ever the wiser if not for the magic of the Internet. You see, in this online classroom, the name Speck of Sand becomes pure irony. No way will she be overlooked here! She is the superstar! She is the most noticeable and the loudest. In the virtual classroom, she is the one with her hand in the air, demanding the attention and respect of her classmates. Hers are the blogs with the coolest graphics, backgrounds, templates, and mouse trails. Hers are the discussion posts with the massive pictures of Asian soap opera stars in the signature line. She's the one with the coolest avatar, and it's clear that she is comfortable and at home in this online world where intelligence and attention to detail make such an obvious difference in the quality of the final product. She was my unofficial Honors TA, who knew more about how to make the computer bend to her creative will than anyone in the class...including the teacher!
There's one like her every year. Who will it be this time? Maybe you....

More Reasons to Blog That!

Since that last post, I've been pondering more reasons blogs are cool. Here's a list:

Blogs can have links to other related material. Have you figured out how to include links to other web sites in your blog yet? Try it!

Blogs can include pictures, sounds, movies, and anything else that can be digitized. Some of you have already discovered the magic of including pictures on your blogs, yet another way to make the writing experience richer for both you and your readers!

Blogs extend relationships beyond the school walls. Amazing what you learn about each other from the blogs that you'd never know from sitting in classes together all day! In a future blog I will talk more specifically about a particular student that I never would have known at all if not for her blog. (And it would have been my great loss to have never known her!)

Blogs help you make sense of your world.

Blogs help you figure out how you feel about things and allow you to develop or discover the reasons you feel as you do.

Blogs are permanent. You can go back and check them long afterwards to see if you still feel the same way. If you want, you can edit them accordingly.

Blogs are convenient. You can blog from anywhere there is Internet access, i.e., almost everywhere.

Blogs allow you to see how you have changed.

Blogs help you make writing your own. (The same self-involvement that makes MySpace so annoying works to improve writing because in order to control how others see us, we must master the writing process.) Blogs are ultimately selfish pursuits (like all Millennial technologies) because you are really doing it for yourself. I tell student writers all the time that the first step in mastering writing is make the assignment your own. Bring yourself to it. It's hard not to do that online. Boring people come across as boring. Enthusiastic people shine! Which reminds me...
...there are two types of student bloggers: 1) Those who treat it only as an assignment (ugh! dullsville!) and 2) those who embrace the experience and take some satisfaction in saying something important in a powerful way. (This puts the honor in Honors English, and these are usually the ones who stick it out until the end.)

You are some of the only people...on earth...who are using blogs in this way right now. Welcome to the Cutting Edge!