I am only now five posts into this blog, but I think I am on to something here. Since I started blogging, I have jumped around from others' blogs to read what they have to discuss regarding education, politics, Disney World food, television shows, to a Batman vs. Superman showdown and why it isn't as simple as you think it would be. I am trying to fulfill what seems to be an insatiable desire to learn more. I am constantly reading on my tablet or smart phone about "stuff", and nothing in particular many times.
Much of the time my wife, excuse me, my BEAUTIFUL wife, asks what I am doing and many times I simply tell her, "reading". However, I found myself in the past year often times responding with, "learning". And that is true, not some sort of clever connection to the title of this post. There have been many nights before I go to bed when I pick up my tablet and go on Wikipedia because something I heard that day motivated me to learn more about something. Before I know it I have gone from searching information about the planet Jupiter because my son asked me a question I could not answer, to clicking on a link about Gas Giants. If I keep going, I end up on completely unrelated posts and end my night with checking the career statistics of former basketball player "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison. It's a good time.
To my point. I gave my students in my AP U.S. History class the opportunity to blog. I use the word opportunity because it is not a mandatory assignment, but rather an opportunity to publish something they want to write about (the whole premise is part of the gamification of my class which is introduced here). Students are starting posts in their blogs and they are responding to the world around them. They are formulating their own ideas and looking up facts to support a thesis. Some may not even be aware that they are doing it, but I had one student blog about the partial government shutdown and it is apparent through the post that he looked for information to support his opinion. It is evidence he can formulate a thesis and analyze data, which, in turn, is exactly what I want when teaching my students to write an answer to a Document Based Question. It is proof of learning.
I know there is some way I can connect that blog post to a particular Critical Learning Standard or Learning Target, but I am excited that my students are finding an outlet for things they are concerned about and are learning more about the world going on around us. The opportunity to blog may or may not reinforce something taught in my class, but it is reinforcing what many of us find only in our spare time anymore. The opportunity to focus on something about which you are passionate or curious reinforces the very same motivation that makes my 4 year old son my favorite student and being his father the best teaching job in the world. Blogging reinforces the importance of reflection, analysis, and a simple desire to learn.
