Frustration, Blockquotes and Trackbacks

I should be doing dishes right now or making dinner, but instead I just want to work more on the blog! Trying to learn how to quote properly and do trackbacks. Since I just read Will’s entry about being frustrated, his entry gets to be my guinea pig.

On a side note, one of the teachers shook her head when I told her that I read all of my students’ work online in their Weblogs. She said she just couldn’t do that, and I totally understand. But what I also understand is that our kids are going to be doing more and more of their reading and writing and responding online, no matter what we want. They are doing it right now in fact. I keep thinking about that principal a few months ago who talked about “preparing kids for their futures, not our past.” So true. And so difficult when we seem so unenthusiastic about doing what we need to keep up with the technology. Teachers, especially, need to be lifelong learners and be willing to adapt to changes that can make teaching better, no matter how uncomfortable they are. Otherwise we do a disservice to our kids.

I can definitely empathize with him. So far, a few people that I’ve shared my enthusiasm with about blogs and wikis have all been extremely skeptical and pessimistic. And I understand that. It’s new technology and there seems to be this pervasive fear of putting our students ‘out there’ on the internet. And yet, it’s being done across the country. It’s the reality that our children are going to be growing up in. Right now my biggest frustration isn’t convincing people to give our student’s a chance, it’s hearing having the same arguments again and again and again. Is it possible that some stranger could read a student’s blog entry and comment, “That’s stupid. You’re an idiot.” Of course it’s possible! But is that a reason to hold back?

Ok, I’m going to pause right here. I don’t have the time or stamina to follow through on this to the extent that I’d like to. Consequently, I’m going to put this on hold and then come back to it. This would probably be a great time to figure out how to save an entry without actually publishing it, but I’m not in the mood to figure it out just now.