Blogs for the Semester
Newspaper students: After observing the class the past few weeks, I have decided that I am going to reintroduce the blog. Too much time is being wasted and as a result, I believe that many of you would benefit from having something to work on when you are finished with the other activities. Those that have been here last semester know how to do this, but those that are new will need some help getting their blogs together. Just within the last year, blogs have been taking politics by storm. Journalism class reflects many opinions, but some of them cannot be put into print due to the school policies. There are few rules for the blog, but the ones that are there are very important.
- No profanity on the blog
- No inappropriate content (sexual, etc.)
- Do NOT put any personal information on the blog (this is a public website and so anyone could read the information that you post)
- You should make a minimum of 2 posts on your blog a week. (These should be about issues that are relevant to you and can be found in the news or other media sources)
- You should make at least one comment on each of the others blogs each week
- Inappropriate comments will not be tolerated
Grades for Blogs
Everyone received a 95 for their blogs. I will get more in depth later, but I just wanted you to really experience it this go round. From now on, really read each others blogs.
Thursday Note
Just a reminder newspaper students. You need to have at least two posts by Friday and you should also visit each others blogs and leave comments on them as well. I will be back tomorrow and I will be printing off the newsletter. If you finish it today, which you should be able to, please let me know. You can just leave a comment and I will get it.
Reminder to Students
This information is public, so please make sure that you don't leave comments that contain too much information. I will also be looking at the comments made, so play nice. Mean comments equal mean grades:)
Rantings of a Crazy Teacher
If you are reading this, than you are obviously a member of the Tribal Tribune staff. I have come to the conclusion that since there is an obvious interest in writing about yourself on the world wide web, I will use that as a "teachable moment." Your blog will be graded periodically and there are times when I will leave comments on them as well. This will be counted as a daily grade and I want you to use this as a good time to acquaint yourselves with each other. There is a certain amount of freedom on this blog, but I do have some requirements.
1. This blog cannot contain any profanity or things that are inappropriate according to school policy. This will be looked at by me and any other teacher that might want to look at it.
2. Do not put any personal information on your blog. This blog will be on the Internet, therefore anyone can look at it. We don't want anyone getting information about you that could be used later on for something more sinister in nature.
3. Decide what your focus is going to be for this blog. The sections that you can use to jump from are: national, international, education, economics, movies, music, etc. Your blog is going to be used to show the issues that are important to you and the reason that you think this way. I will be looking at your responses and checking for actual thought.
4. You should have a minimum of two posts a week. I also want you to look at each others blogs and leave comments on their posts sharing with them your opinions and recommendations on how they can improve their writing skills. Grammar and spelling should be looked at.
These are the following questions that you should look at to start your first blog: 1. What do you know about this topic? 2. What do you think about this story? 3. How might the information provided by this news affect your life, someone in your life, or your community? 4. Who might be interested in this story? Why? 5. What different opinions exist about this topic? 6. Who is affected by this topic? 7. How might expressing your opinions affect what is happening?http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20060526friday.htmlAs you can see, I have also cited where some of this information came from. You will need to do this as well. I can help you when the time comes to do this. When you are not working on articles or research for the press conference you should be working on this. Creativity is a plus and I encourage you to have fun with this. Eventually, the school newspaper will no longer be paper. Many of you are looking at college and I want you to work on those publishing skills ahead of time. A blog is also something that you can place on a college application as well as resumes. Many companies and schools are looking for students that display strong knowledge of the Internet. What better way to show journalism in action?
Fun Portfolio Page
http://student.tfc.edu/tfc/wood/mememe.htm
