The Great Blog Experiment

I had been wanting to begin blogging with my students for some time, but was reluctant to try something new. As far as I know none of my colleagues have their students blog, I don't know any other of my teaching peers who do it from other institutions, and, well, it's the fear of the unknown that often prevents us from moving forward with even the best ideas. So, last semester I finally mustered up the courage to set off on this new experiment.

I had to think out the process not just in terms of pedagogy, but pragmatically speaking as well. Pedagogically, blogging was to replace freewriting in my classes. I believe thoroughly in the principles of freewriting as introduced by Peter Elbow, which are essentially to create low-stakes writing opportunities designed to just get students writing without fear of it having to be "right." But in both my online and f2f classes I saw that it was increasingly turning into a rote process that lacked in creativity and ended up being just another hoop to jump through. I wanted writing to be meaningful to students. I wanted them to see the potential that they had, for them to believe in and trust their writing abilities as I did. Something had to change. I really wrestled with letting freewriting go because I still felt my students needed low stakes writing opportunities that it readily supplied. Epiphany! I could incorporate many of the freewriting principles into blogging.

Blogging is fundamentally a social activity with a potentially wide audience, whereas freewriting is primarily private, so I thought it would be a good idea for students to not only publish but to respond to one another's posts. This helps to create community in an otherwise anonymous online environment. The audience aspect, I figured, would push students to put more thought into their posts. When nobody reads a freewrite but me, it's easy to just let one's fingers type without thought in the head. No longer when there is somebody else tuning in!

Next came the practical process of how to carry this project out on a class wide level (several classes, actually). I created sample blogs, logged the process, and then had to figure out how to manage and assess each individual student's blog. This was, for me, the most daunting aspect of adding it to my courses. I figured it out, though, and have devised what I think is a pretty workable solution.

The end result? Well, it was greater than I had ever hoped for. First, the blogs from last semester were AMAZING! Just about every single post was meaningful and well composed, and my students were genuinely engaged with the material and with each other. The responses that they made to one another were encouraging and extended the conversation thoughtfully and in unexpected ways.

At the end of the semester, when I read their evaluations of the class, almost every single student said that blogging was the best part of the class. They strongly felt that it exponentially enhanced their learning experience. I was stunned! Success.

But I must tell you this: my greatest thrill was realizing that a student who had dropped my class continues to blog. This person found in blogging a medium, a voice, an outlet. It made that much of an impact. And that, is what teaching is really about.

The Power of Voice

I have just finished teaching a Women in Literature class for the first time this past semester. I had never taught the class before, and volunteered to teach it just 2 weeks prior to the term beginning. The course had been prepared by one of my colleagues who suddenly was unable to teach it.

When I read the syllabus, however, I began to wonder if perhaps I had made a huge mistake. I had only read one of the five assigned texts, and the one I had read was back in 1985. How was I supposed find time to read not only the books but the criticism that goes along with each so that I could present the literary analyses required? Panic!

On the first day of class I was uncharacteristically nervous, worried that this room full of expectant faces would somehow discover the impostor that I felt I was. My mouth went dry and I could barely lecture. I remained uncomfortable until about half way through the first novel because--and this is perhaps what I love best about teaching--we had the most incredibly enlightening discussions, and we all learned about each of the novels together. They were not only GETTING it, but they were ENJOYING it! And so, I found, was I.

One of the primary themes we based all of our novel discussions on was the idea of "voice," and how the main character in each novel finds her voice, her ability to stand and speak for herself, attains autonomy in a world dominated by men, and reveals her truth.

I am forever changed by this class. I have a much greater appreciation of those strong, brave women who paved the way for me to be independent, to have, as Virginia Woolf believes all women should have, a "room of my own." But more importantly, in these last six months, I found MY voice. I regained confidence in myself as a professor, as a woman, as part of an academic community. Although we read the lives of fictional characters, these women inspired me to live authentically and on my own terms.

Look out world--we are here and we have something to say!