First Entries …

Hi guys,

 My group has been able to write their entries in our blog (it2itaim) successfully. They seem to have enjoyed the activity and had quite a positive outlook on this project. I am sure that they will be enjoying the blog much more than the Song Project in Inter Teen 2. I know it is a lot more work on us teachers, but I believe the benefits as far as language learning goes are far more reaching than the original class project. Blogging allows for the development of a stronger, tighter rapport between teachers and students as well as amongst themselves. Teens tend to be aloof and quite reserved in class discussions, fearful of what others may think of them. Blogs will allow them to feel free and say whatever they want. Some of my students have already read what other students have written and have started to chat about topics they would not be addressing had we not started this blog project.

 I am not so sure where to go from now on. My original plan was to go ahead with the Little Mermaid prompts, but I have written extensive comments back on what they have already written (You guys are more than welcomed to take a peek at them) and there is a lot of room for them to already write something back to me. Some of the comments are suggestions for them to revise what they have written on their blogs in a very subtle way, by prodding them to just go further in what they have written. That is a great start to have them learn about revision from a writing point of view. Being more specific is learning how Americans write. I am going to go with the flow for a while and see where these comments I have made take us. My only fear is that my students and I start having a Teacher-Student blogging experience when what I really would like to do is to have them interact more with each other. If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears

Rick