A rather pleasant and unexpected outcome of the classroom and individual blogging has been the things I have learnt about our students. I check the individual blogs of my students most weekends and I have had the most extraordinary insights into who they really are. The powerful thing about this is that the incidental, personal things I have discovered, are the things that make the students who they are. They are the previously unknown things that they bring to school with them each day, and influence whether they are going to be happy and settled, or upset and distracted.
For instance, I have learnt that:
• one student goes rodeo riding when he goes to stay with his dad
• another student travels to Queensland every now and then, to see her dad
• despite being “all grown up” on the outside, most of the kids adore their pets and have an amazing soft spot for them
• most of the children “blog” with a very mature sense of responsibility and an enormous sense of pride
• several of them are involved in sports outside the usual high profile footy and netball
• one student loves blogging because she enjoys sharing what she has been through
• one student shot a wild boar last weekend, which was chasing his uncle in Pooncarie
• another can now “jump” his motorbike without falling off
• another student is sad about his cat Shadow dying and wrote a beautiful poem dedicated to him on his blog
I love reading the student’s blogs and most of all, they love when somebody leaves a comment. Blogging is the most exciting and authentic tool I have used in my entire teaching career (almost 28 years). I appreciate the privelage of getting to know my students more and I know that they enjoy sharing parts of my journey as well.
