Teaching High School

Not Working

My blogging is not going the way I had hoped it would. I find I do not take the time to write in here very regularly. It feels like a forced activity at times (and by the small number of posts here, it is obvious I don't force myself to post very often).

I want to do other writing too and I rarely participate in that. I made a new paper journal two weeks ago; there are precisely two entries, neither being particularly long. I haven't written any fiction material in a long while.

But I am in first place on TopSpin for Xbox. Woohoo. That is totally an avoidance piece of software. I love to kick Anna Kounikova's butt.

Privacy Issues and Student Blog Use

In this entry at Jeremy Hiebert's site, he makes mention of privacy issues and how that might relate to using weblogs in the classroom. Since this is akin to my need to remain anonomous, I thought I'd comment.

First, as mentioned in my "About" page, I found the offending student's weblog at LiveJournal. I set up a LiveJournal account last year for a project I was working on. Around that same time, I heard students talking about thier LiveJournals in class and asked them why they did it. They said it was a fun way to communicate and share with friends.

So on a whim one evening, I searched for the city in which those students resided. It was not that difficult to ascertain to whom a number of the journals belonged, despite their entire full name not appearing on their Info pages. Oftentimes, though, they would do some survey and write in their full name.

The biggest surprise and scare though was the one entry which glared at me when I scrolled down to read the life-threatening comment with my name clearly mentioned. I immediately printed it and made a few calls to friends in order to calm down. With the help of them then, I had a plan to take to school in order to resolve this surprise.

Well, the surprise was on me when I was finally told some three days later that the district could do nothing. I was asked some ridiculous questions: "Did you tell your students to go to this site?" "Did you assign your students to write a journal?" "Did you inform your students you use that site?" "Did you let the student know you found the offending entry?" And so the student remained in the school district, in my same building, and in my class. It was quite uncomfortable for the remaing three quarters of the school year.

Second, I've thought plenty about using weblogs with students and have read about plenty of people who do. (See some examples in the side bar here.) I know though that it is not for me nor for the district with which I am currently employed. Too many rules and regulations and guidelines and acceptable use policies would hinder any real learning, inquiry, and sharing.

I do indeed see weblogs as a wonderful tool and I personally am enjoying using it as a tool as I am doing. There are many things in my district which do not really promote learning nor innovation (though it is espoused as a district which does do so, along with declaring they are a technologically advanced district) and I am seeing the hypocrisy even more clearly in this larger venue in the district.

I hope someday to be in a district where such advanced and engaging technology use is acceptable and the norm.

Anonymity of the Weblog

I've come to understand that my anonymity makes it "harder to become part of a network", so I wanted to explain. This information appears on my "About Me" page as well.

So, my note about this site being anonymous: It is a must. I understand that being and remaining anonymous makes my blog a little less personal.

Last year I came across a then current student's weblog which had threatening words towards me included in an entry; my district would do nothing to resolve this and she never found out I knew about her words. The police report I made had a non-result.

Not that I intend to make threatening remarks, but due to the incident, I do find it imperative to remain anonymous. I hope you all understand. If you have comments about it, I would love to know how you feel about remaining anonymous.

Finding Similarly Minded Bloggers

As I've been searching around and noticing people visiting my site, I've run into a number of nice places to learn more about blogging in the educational sphere and about blogging in general.

First, I'd like to mention Albert Delgado at Educational Weblogs. He has quite a site put together, utilizing all sorts of blogging technology. I am still working through much of what he has there as the side bars have many links to interesting things.

A site Delgado links to is Educational Bloggers' Network which apparently has roots in San Francisco, a place I would like to live.

Also interesting is Dialectic Journal. She has been blogging for a few years and is almost done with teacher training. From what I can gather, her site is a culminating project.

Finally, another site I enjoy is The Shifted Librarian. There are times when I wished I would have scrapped my already begun master's degree in Teaching and Curriculum to get a degree in library science. That site talks about all the things an excellent school library (or any library really) should do.

I am trying to find more educators to link here because I find that I go to those blogs from my link list and find more reasons on why I am writing this blog. A few are the following: 1) figure out how to use blogs in my teaching; 2) become a better teacher by reading other blogs; and, 3) write more in general.