Yay! I officially have a title for this blog. And I love who created it--my students. They brainstormed some ideas and eventually I chose Syed-ucation.
The geeky details:
In my two junior A.P. Language & Composition classes, I've used various forms of blogging over the years to conduct class discussions and extend the classroom community of writers and readers and thinkers to an online medium many of them are already comfortable with. I started in 2005 using blogger, which was great until I discovered sites that were more specifically made for classrooms. I used edmodo the last few years, and this year I've recently switched to Schoology.
We have folders for discussions for certain classroom texts, but I also created a folder for an ongoing semester-long discussion of any appropriate, newsworthy, current, or interesting topics they post about and argue/discuss with one another. They are also encouraged to post any texts or videos for their peers to analyze--visual, literary, or rhetorical analysis-worthy texts. So far, for example, a few have posted about sports-related controversies such as the replacement NFL referees and the possibility of adding instant replays to MLB. Some others and I posted about events happening in the news, such as the New NYC law about sugary drinks over 16 ounces and the reaction to the killings in Libya. Others have posted some of their favorite songs for others to analyze as poetry. It's been pretty helpful in keeping them informed and interested in discussing important topics and improving their writing and argumentative skills.
Since the point of the class is for them to be analytical thinkers and writers, I figured I would share with them that I'm doing the same with this blog, my own writing. So I posted up my own question/rhetorical analysis, explaining my blog to them and asking them to help me brainstorm a title and analyze what type of persona and tone I want to take in my own writing.
The responses were great. Even the suggestions I didn't use may end up in my future blogs, and I'm now trying to persuade my colleagues to use the runner up on our department t-shirt: Post-Grammatic Stress Disorder. How great is that?
What I really enjoyed about doing this classroom online post--in addition to how meta it is that I was asking my students for advice about my own online posting about my teaching--was that they conducted awesome discussion about how they wanted it to be a pun on my name since my persona would be something quirky and geeky. They also analyzed that it would be most helpful for me to have a title that reflected my interests and personality but also was open enough for me to write about various topics in my life and teaching. So yeah. I'm pretty pleased with the results.
On a somewhat related note: One of my former students from many years ago is now a librarian in our school, and she helped me with the goodreads widget on the side. I loved being taught how to do all this stuff from a former student. Thanks, Monica!
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