I learned a couple of things this week and as usual I am typing them in last minute without much time to think through the wording, how to say it better and whether the grammar is totally correct. Each week comes around so fast!

Last week, I had my Writing for the Media class make blog presentations from what they had created over the course of the semester. It was interesting to hear the ones who really wanted their blog to have good informative posts – which is why they couldn't get many done. They didn't have time, unless it was assigned, to make their blog something people might actually use.

Another picked a topic that wasn't her major but a side interest so it didn't get fleshed out fully because it wasn't something overflowing from what the student was already learning and she had a lot of classes that semester. I find that my students learned what many are learning: unless you are naturally generating the information in the course of your day for pleasure or work or you really just love researching and writing on a topic, it is hard to keep up. It has to become a natural process to think in terms of capturing a moment or educational tidbit in words.

As a blogger, you almost have to get into the mode of educator if you want people to keep coming back – like what in your post is something that people will want to take away -  a laugh, an emotion, a bit of wisdom you've learned, etc.? This was actually talked about at Blissdom 09, the blogging conference for women I attended earlier this year.

Almost none of the students took the time to go comment on other blogs. Though I told them to, I didn't assign a grade to it so it didn't get done. Students are already learning the balance of prioritizing what matters to achieve the end goal – a good grade. They aren't going to do it simply for the educational value. This helps me as a teacher too. If I want my students to participate and learn from an exercise, it either has to be during the class hour when I can watch over their progress with an evil eye or give them an assignment that is graded.

Because this was my first time teaching this class, I realized that students will still fail, even though the class was mostly initiative based (i.e. turn it in for a good grade. I didn't grade very hard on grammar.) One student simply did not turn in the work and didn't come to class but half the time. I really couldn't help him redeem himself when he didn't respect me enough to show up. You can only scramble so hard at the end. I know because I had some scramblers and a couple made major improvements in their grades there at the end.

Tonight is the final presentation. I am excited to see what the students came up with. They had to attend an event and produce a multi-media presentation, including a newspaper in which each participant in each group had to write an article. This is going to be fun. Right now, I need to decide what should be on the grading sheet and create that quickly!

I also learned that there are significantly more online helps for the Communication Theory class I have been asked to teach in the Fall. I am sooo psyched. I found powerpoint presentations created by the author, video clips, etc.! I had to create all that for this last class. It wasn't tough but this next topic looks a lot harder.

Well, I am running out of time to write this AM but I do want to mention the most unhilarious thing that happened to me last night. A dear friend and poet who I helped start a blog last week, asked me to join her to listen to the aging missionary Elisabeth Elliott who she thought was coming to the Free Library of Philadelphia last night. Trekking through rain and traffic, I met her there and we walked up to the rare book collection where we entered the Elkins Room, named after the man's home from which the wood panelled library was removed years before.

Apparently, the Elizabeth Elkins Elliott who showed up is an older poet from Massachusetts whose grandfather was the Elkins who once owned the contents of the room, which included the desk of Charles Dickens. (Ay, yeh, yeh. I had to so much to do here that didn't get done). Her story about dancing in that very room as a child was delightful. I wish her poetry was the same. It was very intellectual and dark, caught in the fears of the present rather than the future.  Her joys lay in the heady critique of humanity. Her meanings often flew right over my head but some would like that intensity – to study her intentions. More power to them. I'll stick with plain language, thank you.

Oh well. I did enjoy seeing old hymnal pages on display, dating back to the 12th century, painted onto animal skins and embellished with fancy lettering and gilted minatures. Fascinating.

Have a good one and head over to Jo-Lynne for more What I Learned This Week!