Blogs

Britain Going Blog Crazy - Metro Article
Originally uploaded by Annie Mole

When I think of blogging, I almost always hear in my head comedian Mike Birbiglia talking about his "secret public journal" (his blog). Blogs are like journals in a lot of ways - they are an avenue to vent our frustrations, work out solutions to problems, express ourselves and record our daily life ... but they're public, which adds a dimension - others can share our frustrations, offer suggestions for solutions to our problems, judge our expressions of ourselves and comment on our daily lives.

There are plethora of "styles" of blogging. Some bloggers post daily short snippets, some post long articles daily or sporadically, some have several posts a day ... some are formal, some are very informal, some invite conversation more than others ... some are meant as a way to keep distant relatives updated with the happenings and photos of the grandkids, some are meant to educate, some are humorous, some are very personal. I really don't know if I have an impression about blogs "in general" because I read so many different types and styles of blogs on a myriad of topics (political, productivity, humor, family, photography, etc. - and oh yeah, education blogs lol)

I often find myself lost in my RSS feeder, clicking on commenter links and opening up new tabs, and realize hours have passed by ... I bookmark interesting ideas and pages, and come up with all kinds of wonderful ideas for starting my own blog. Then when I sit down to write, I can't think of anything lol. Or if I do think of it, I think "there are already so many other blogs out there with this information in it, why would anyone want to read mine?" so I put it off.

I did write one blog post on my personal blog that was education-related (you can see it here), and it gets a few hits per day (but no comments), so that gives me a little boost in the desire to write more ...

Just to share, two of my favorite sped blogs are
http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/
and
http://specialed.wordpress.com/

Kate's blog (the first one) is just PACKED with links, ideas and information and Daniel's has personal stories, anecdotes and ideas/opinions that I can totally relate to.

Another blog that I enjoy is http://kellerbusybees.blogspot.com/ - I enjoy seeing Andrea's little ones and the activities that they do. I "met" Andrea on Plurk and she is a valuable member of my online PLC! I think that her blog is a great example of how you can use Web2.0 tools with learners like those that I work with - when many people would think that it would be inappropriate, impossible or meaningless to do so!