Thing 4

I never thought about this until now, but blogging certainly creates a sense of community. Reading my classmates blogs about their experiences with this project allowed me to see that I was not alone. Others were having the same anxieties and issues with setting up their blogs that I was. This made me feel like I was not alone in this experience. A friend of mine with a child with Down Syndrome has a blog and has many followers. (some with children with special needs and some without) People (even strangers) are able to offer support and encouragement. She has a built in community surrounding her offering her encouraging words. Some followers are able to relate to her experiences and can offer great advice to her. I know a few other people that blog too. One of my friends is a pastor of a church and blogs different experience from his daily life and relates is to the bible. Another friend is an amazing singer and blogs about her life as a stay at home mom. When reading 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog, I really liked how suggestion 8 had a question mark after it. To be controversial or not; some may say yes because it draws for followers and more responses to your post. However, it is worthy to consider what kind of community you are trying to build by blogging. By adding controversy, you may lose followers who actually have input that is essential or enhancing to building your blogging community. I agree with the author when he says he tries to stay clear of controversy. I also agreed with CoolCats blog about leaving meaningful comments. I know I don't like on D2L when people comment to my post by saying I agree or good job. If I publish a blog, I have put time into it and I want some time put back into any comments. If you can’t post anything better than "I agree, then don't comment at all. I chose a few different blogs to comment on. I posted to a girl named Rachel. I don’t really know her, but I know her mom. Rachel is a college student at UT Knoxville. She writes very articulate and inspiring blogs about her journey as a college student and blogs about her faith and her relationship with Jesus Christ. I simply chose to blog encouraging words to her and told her I appreciated her honesty and her blogs. I also blogged to Angie Howard. She is a friend of mine that I haven’t seen in about 7 years. She posted a video of her singing God Bless America. It was amazing, and I blogged to her thanking her for posting her video of her singing. When I commented to her, I got a message from blogspot saying I would have to wait for her to approve my comment before it would show. I am imagining by the time this is being graded it will have been approved. The link for Rachel is http://rapelt.blogspot.com/2012/09/dear-me.html?showComment=1347584971549#c7759980820174374441 and the link for Angie is http://angieacapella.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-remember.html#comment-form I chose a few classmates blogs to comment on. I chose Wendy Young because I know her. She was in a class of mine this summer. She also agreed that technology was hard for her to use to her advantage. I could relate to that so I posted a few comments to her letting her know that she was not alone. The link to where I commented is at http://wyoung3780fall.blogspot.com/2012/09/thing-1.html#comment-form I commented on Ashely Saunders post blog http://gonnalearn23things.blogspot.com/2012/09/thing-3-blog-in-classroom.html#comment-form I commented on her because we initially had the same questions about how a blog would fit into our classroom. I thought it would be good to see how we both felt I chose Danielle Witter for the opposite reason that I chose Wendy. I don’t know her at all and she posted in thing 1 that technology was her strength. (which is my weakness) The link is http://dwitter3040.blogspot.com/2012/08/thing-1.html I commented on Alexis Wylie at http://wylie23thingsblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/in-my-future-classroom-or-teacher.html#comment-form I chose Alexis because she sits behind me in two different classes and I thought it would be good to get to know her. I posted on a few other blogs to from other sections. I will try to find the URL to this one girls post and edit this one. It was so funny. She talked about how she was in tears and curled up in a fetal position because of the difficulties of setting up a blog…It was so funny to me because I could relate. I blogged to another guy in a different section about his avatar. The avatar had an army shirt with a chef’s hat and I think he was a cook in one of the armed forces. My section is really slacking right now. There are not many posts to comment on. 2 of the registered blogs have no entries, and one blog has been temporarily shut done to investigate appropriate content. Anyway, I am sure I will comment as the semester goes on. I like this assignments of 23 things and I am beginning to like the whole blog thing here is another link to a comment I made...I was actually responding to Wendy a classmate) who had a great idea on how to incorporate thing 9 into the classroom..sharing ideas!!! just one of the benefits to blogging... http://collegemomsblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/blog-post.html?showComment=1347765420320#c5227731978529188322