The blogoshere is a world of reading and writing: a world that students should engage, a world of both scholarly and personal pursuits. Korea International School has entered this world due to the vision and passion of one man, Clay Burell. Through his gentle prodding, expertise in blogging and teaching, and his leadership as the English department head, Korea International School launched an ambitious high school-wide blogging initiative (that will expand into the middle school during the 2008-09 school year). The goal was to have every student blog, but to reach the goal we, the teachers, needed to blog as well.
Our first experiments were difficult and nerve racking, but we pulled together as a learning community to support each other. Luckily Clay was able to share his experiences and the experiences of several of his students who all began blogging at the beginning of last year. Clay’s blog (http://beyond-school.org) is a constant source of inspiration for teachers and students. We discussed our blogs with each other; we collaborated on possible ideas for writing and possible pit-falls to avoid. We shared our successes and failures with each other and our students.
After a full semester of blogging, we can look back and see the personal development of all our students as writers. In my ninth grade World Literature course, four students stood out as exceptional. I encourage you to take a look at these student blogs for encouragement and inspiration. Jane’s blog (kjanew11.edublogs.org) is clever, witty, sarcastic, and wild; this blog will surprise you with the force of its prose and the fact that it was written by a ninth grader. Beatrice’s blog (kbeatricep11.edublogs.org) is an art gallery of her highly original and creative work; a great example that on the Internet communication can be more than words; images are powerful, too. Jin’s blog (kjinK11.edublogs.org) is raw and genuine and shows a young man maturing into a writer; at the beginning of the semester Jin began blogging and he has blossomed because of it. Finally I recommend Daniel’s blog (kdanielk11.edublogs.org) for its passion; Daniel is an enthusiastic break-dancer and his blog is a repository of information about the subject; it is wonderful to see students develop a love for writing through activities they enjoy and love. If student writing is something you are interested in or if you have some students that are currently blogging, you should also check out http://students2oh.org, which is a blog produced by students about education and learning. Clay helped the students establish this blog during the first part of the school year; on a side note, the students are international and none of these students attend KIS, Clay met them through the world of blogging. The students of Students2oh.org encourage submissions from other students for publishing on their blog that currently has 1000 subscribers.
The road ahead is definitely bright as the faculty members develop as writers along side the students. This is the elusive learning community that we hear so much about, but see so rarely. We have launched into the blogoshere at KIS; and although Clay will be moving on from our school, his impact will never fade due to the blogs our students create.
