My Gut Tells Me...

Quick quiz: Behind technology educators and librarians, what group of educators do you think would blog the most or at least be the most likely to see the possibilities in using blogs to fuel their students' work/learning (and their own work/learning as well)?

My gut tells me:  English teachers who love to read, write, research, share, analyze, cite, and discover. 

That was my hunch.  So, I was curious what I'd find tonight if I looked at blogging resources through the lens of my new classes alone.    That was the thought-process, anyway...

Here are just a couple of new discoveries for me tonight (although it hardly represents the full set of possibilities):

• "A Central High School English IV Weblog" Interesting that she includes Wikipedia as an immediate sidebar reference for her students; certainly would make for a great faculty room debate, n'est-ce pas?  Also appreciate that you can see copies of each book they are studying on the sidebar as well.  Finally, enjoy seeing McSweeney's and also Google Notebook sitting side-by-side.  Tea Party 2.0, or so it seems (he smiles).

• Room 278: Explorations in Medieval Studies and Beyond blog Appears to be a solid day-by-day college course that suggests not only some interesting resources for the students (and visitors), but also how a blog is being used to simply offer assignments for the most part (rather than to engage conversation).  It is when you explore his blogroll, however, that you begin to see that one simple surface link can lead to countless gems over time.

• Beth Ritter-Guth's College English blog Demonstrates that college professors are not only blogging about their English courses, but they are offering full podcasts of their lectures and student work, too. Again, I don't plan on spending enormous time here (not a quality issue), but I am intrigued by the ability for a student to be able to listen to a course long after the fact...and also that there will be some interesting lectures to consider sharing with the kids, too, as long as the engagement level is high enough.  But I will definitely keep the transcripts from her lectures handy on occasion.

• Some great StumbleUpon collections with a focus on the works we'll be studying. Too many to list here, but a great reminder that a web 2.0 app allows me to capture the on-going resource discoveries of a wide range of passionate "Brit Lit" fans.  Never been a fan of de.lic.ious. or other such services; just didn't seem necessary for what I was doing in the past. Definitely re-thinking this as I go forward with a massive butterfly net on the look-out for supplementary resources for my kids (and myself) to spark deeper (and sometimes tangential) conversations.  And this reminds me that creating a class wiki will be a must-do soon. I'll probably begin one in the fall and challenge my kids to take it over in the spring once they get the hang of it.

While hardly being a comprehensive list, this is a solid toss-a-rock-in and see-what-ripples moment for me in seeking blogs that focus on "Brit Lit". 

Again,this is NOT meant to indicate anything other than the water is deep and the opportunities wide.  Again(squared), this is also NOT meant to replace the many resources that can be found through more traditional sources such as libraries without even wandering down the rabbit hole of blogging.  It's just a discovery process that will be refined over time to support the work my kids will do this year.

P.S. BTW, I love that I threw out a sub-140 character request for resources via Twitter tonight and within 5 minutes had the following reply from a 'new' science teacher I hardly know:

I sent your blog post to the Brit Lit teacher at my school I hope they can help you.

Brilliant.  Just brilliant! 

No doubt that the blogging network will be a great resource for my classes this year.

Comments

[Damian Bariexca]

Christian - I teach Honors Brit Lit at my school; last year, in my first foray into wikis, I had my class compile a wiki on the Romantic movement. There's also some blog-style discussion on there. It's currently protected, but if you're interested in having your kids do something with it (maybe edit or add to it?) when they read Frankenstein (as mine did), drop me an email and I can un-protect it or invite your students to join the site.

Here's the link:

http://britishromanticism.wikispaces.com

[Christian]

Damian -- Given how many conversations we've been in as of late re: 'new' teachers, I love that we both have begun to talk about BritLit serendipitously at this point. Gotta be a good omen, right? I'm feeling pretty confident we'll be knocking around a few ideas together for class (to say the least!).

Great wiki. Really appreciate that you've taken the time to reflect upon the project and experience from your vantage point and the perspective of your students as well. Also really value the rubric and clear definitions of what was expected. And obviously I can see how the resource content-wise was a real blessing for you and the kids to be able to share over the length of the unit.

Definitely increasing my desire to add wikis to my classes, Damian. Thank you! Let's definitely begin brainstorming in the coming weeks once I have some time under my belt with the kids/classes. As we begin to enter Lord of the Flies land, I think I'll be in great shape (about 2 weeks in)...and will be ready to test the idea waters more thoughtfully!