Sunday, November 16, 2014

Welcome, my students!

This blog is going to gain an audience for a few months, as I attempt to bridge the gap between work and home with my words.  I will be out on a leave and need to communicate with you, so I am using this as a space for communication.  You can leave comments anonymously, or email replies to videos, articles and other posts, and you will continue to utilize the International Poetry Guild website, where I will comment and respond to your writing, too! To me, teaching is reciprocal -- it is a give and take.  This is why I always try to write the assignment you're working on, and also ask you to workshop my pieces!

Anyhoo, this is a blog, which, as we've already covered, is not a reliable source of information, because it is open source -- and is not fact-checked before published.  This is a public journal and I can say whatever I want, whether it is true or not.  But blogs are useful and important in so many ways, they are how I've figured out my stances on many issues affecting people living in this country, and abroad.  I've bemoaned loss and found love, celebrated life and honored death in this space online, and have done so since 1998, when I first went away to college.  I am looking forward to being able to read all of my old writing someday, and to passing it on for as long as the internet (and humanity) are still around.  This particular blog is my published thoughts on teaching, and it started in 2007, when I was in grad school and learning how to teach, so scroll back if you feel so inclined.

Your job is to read these posts, starting December 22nd, and to write a weekly 2 paragraph response to the lessons/songs/ideas/wonderings that are presented here.  Due to the focus of our unit, I will be posting about the media, corporate vs. public media, and what it means to make your own media here.  There are lots of other blogs that you can visit, on about any topic that you can think of, so this is just the jump off.  Do not feel like you must limit yourself to reading what I write; if I post about a topic, go and look for other blogs or news stories that deal with it to figure out how YOU feel, before you respond. I expect you to disagree with me and I welcome every conversation that we will have here.

Yours in writing,
Ms. Lauren