This weekend I was checking and posting comments on my blogs, and I had two firsts.  My first spam comment on my student blog, and my first student with his own blog.  The first one was no big deal, just deleted it.  The second, however, got me thinking.  I was excited and scared at the same time.  I loved my job, and feared for my job at the same time.  Would I hug him, or scold him?  This one was going to be tricky.  I don’t want to crush the spirit of a young blogger after all.

My students are no strangers to blogging.  They comment on my class blog, start their own strands of conversation on my class blog, post to the library blog, and read and sometimes post on our principal’s blog.  This particular student also writes on a blog that the gifted teacher has created.  So should I be surprised that he went out there and made his own?  I guess not, but I am.  Why?  Because they are 8 for gosh sakes!  When I was 8, what was I doing?  Playing jacks, or reading a book that I DIDN’T get AR points for, most likely. Would I have been blogging if there were such a thing back then?  Maybe……Probably…..ok, YES!  But this is the part of teaching that gets scary for me, because whether or not he knew about blogging before I showed him,  I feel responsible for opening up this world to him, and I have to be sure that he is safe.  Do his parents know he has a blog?  Does he have his own email?  So, I call out the troops- alert all interested parties, and today my whole class had a presentation on internet safety- something that I had already done on a small scale, and a lesson that would have been taught by the library media specialist in the next few weeks….but we bumped it up a little because…..well, because I was freaked out, and my LMC lady loves me:) 

I am not sure if the internet safety lesson made me feel better, or worse.  They sure knew all about webkins, and facebooks, and how to make a fake email when you need it to get to the game you want to play!  YIKES!  Well, at least I know now what they know, and hopefully our talk today will make them think.  Tomorrow, my young blogger will have a little private session on blogging safety, we’ll clean up his blog, perhaps move it to edublogs, and then let him write- I see how this could be the start of something great….or not.  I guess that’s what experiential learning is all about, and I can always be a Wal-Mart greeter, right?

Day one of the new blog, and I am still trying to figure out what I might do with it.  My newest idea is to document the next 365 days of my growth and learning-one new thing every day.  Not a new idea, but a stretch for me.

So here is day one.  Today, I sat in a United Streaming workshop.  Not so new to me, but new to others in the room.  I spent the first few minutes spinning my wheels, my feet firmly planted in the basics along with the other participants…and then I stretched…across the gap….and twittered.  “Anyone out there have some great ideas I can share about United Streaming? ”  Sure enough, the ideas started coming and I was the bridge between my new and expanding social network, and the 5 other people in that workshop.  I absorbed, learned, and then shared small bites with the group.  What did I see?  Learning on many levels- I got new ideas about editing US video and having students create voice over to show understanding of content, and other participants learned how to advance search and visited the DEN website for the first time.  I stretched, the network grew, and the gap got a little smaller.  Thanks Lori A. for sharing, and thanks Shelly for letting me bring a bit of chaos to your workshop!  I needed a stretch today.