Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Thing 12: Creating Community through Commenting

Point # 1:
"You become part of the life of the blogger you are reading." (from coolcatteacher)

Wow, I never thought about that, but it is true. What we say, can in turn, shape the direction of the current blog conversation. This in turn can lead to a new and more in depth topic. Cool.

I got myself into a time snafu just reading CoolCatTeacher's blog. I
would link to other bloggers that she referred to in her blog, and before I knew it-WHAM! the summer reading camp group had arrived and the student teachers were needing me to lend them my expertise.:0 ha ha!

I also found an incredibly motivating Youtube video on Mr. P's blog
called the The Power of One. It has so much potential for writing prompts and conversations that engage students in critical thinking. I plan to utilize it.
Second point: Don't be afraid to comment. Now I know coolcatteacher was referring to me. I love to lurk in the shadows and stay concealed. It is my objective in life to go unnoticed just like Nobody Owens in The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.



Choose at least five different Library2Play blogs and make at least one comment to each. I found some very interesting blogs that I commented right away. Library Larks and Mr. D's Flying Circus. What a cool name, it makes me think of Monty Python's Flying Circus. I learned that you could approve someone's comments before they are posted. stretchylibrarian was another I chose for the name because I have a reference book with the same name. Nice work! Next, I explored schoollibrarythings and found a charming sunflower video.On TechbrarianTalk's blog, I commented on my satisfaction with wikispaces wikis.

Find two blogs about a subject of personal interest: I like many, but I posted my first comment on Tarie's blog Into the Wardrobe. She had posted a review of Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. It's a pretty violent book-really great for a psychology class. As for myself, I prefer The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It has a similar theme. Tarie's blog is very interesting consisting of author interviews, and reviews of childrens and YA literature. I had previously communicated through email with her to compare notes. I think I did a pretty good job commenting. I even asked open ended questions-thanks coolcatteacher for the commenting advice.

Another useful blog I stumbled across and proceeded to email the blog author was Naomi Bates at YA books and more
I was researching book trailers and found many great tips and tricks on her blog. Now, I will just start leaving comments as I know emails can really drag a blog author down time wise if they have to answer people. Naomi was very kind to respond to my emails.

Whew! this was a Looooonnnnnnnggggggg assignment. I am halfway through and have caught up to a lot of people who started before me.




2 comments:

  1. Hey - Thanks for commenting on my sunflower video! I was proud of it because I'd never done one before and thought it turned out pretty good. I learned from Techbrarian Talk that you are going to use a wiki for an online book club. I'm really interested in that and will be following your link to read about it.

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  2. Incredible video.. thanks for sharing. I think it could have many applications... there are a lot of adults that I would like to share it with. Too easy to think of yourself as being the "only one" who cares, so why bother.

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