An End of the Year Review

Well guys, this is the last graded assignment for this blog, which means that I probably won't post much after this (though I might get bored over the summer).

from: iusedtohavehair.com

I've been saving this review for a while, cus I wanted to do this for my last one.
It's a review of this entire project.

Background of the project for the, like, two people who aren't in my English class:
We got this big project at the beginning of the year to make a blog about whatever you want, and post weekly. This blog was the result of that project. This is all very lucky for you, dear readers, because where would you be if you didn't have your weekly posts from yours truly.

Over the year, I've been wondering why Mr. P decided to make this project. It seemed like an inconvenience to make an assignment where you'd have to grade 100+ badly written posts every week.
I've come up with three reasons.

1. Better student/teacher communication:
If I was a teacher, I'd want students to feel open about talking to me about whatever the heck they wanted. I'm not sure if Mr. P shares this opinion, but for my argument's sake I'll assume he does. These blogs would be a great way to get to know your students, and see what they enjoy. Also, if the students are like me and get super awkward when they talk to a teacher ((which is a constant problem of mine, and I'm fairly sure that my percussion teacher thinks I have a disorder because I just can't answer his questions without completely panicking)), this project is helpful for getting opinions and ideas across.

2. Better student/student communication:
One thing that I've really liked about these blogs is that you can get insight on your fellow students. Like, it's cool to go on your friend's blogs and see what they post about and then joke with them about it later.
But it's also cool to see the blogs of people who you aren't great friends with, or want to be friends with. Like, maybe you talked to one guy in class and found out that he's in honors English, so he has a blog. You can go on it and find out stuff about him, and then you can talk to him about stuff he likes next time you see him.
Is that creepy?
I really hope not......but then again, this is the internet. The views from random people in Singapore should have reminded you that these blogs are public.

3. Writing practice:
Of course since this is an English assignment, it does make sense to have all this writing practice. A lot of kids have improved on their general spelling/conventions skills since the beginning of this project.
What stinks (for me at least) is that this isn't the type of writing I need to practice. I mainly write stories, so this casual blogging style isn't what I need to work on.


There is one benefit to this project that doesn't really relate to English, but I think most students will agree with.

1.Getting to show off:
Face it, we're all awkward teenagers that suck at communicating with each other. We're especially bad about coming out about our talents. This is a good way to show off our stuff without seeming too braggy.
People can show off their art skills, or writing skills, cooking, humor, music, or whatever the heck else they want to.
Blogging is a really nice platform for showing off what you can do, and I'm glad that a lot of students took advantage of that, because that was the most fun part about this project.

What I think about my own blog:
I'm actually pretty proud of myself with this blog. I know it isn't anything that I'll look at in 20 years and be like 'This is one damn good blog', but it could've been a LOT worse. I was thinking about doing a blog about my life, and trust me, you should be glad that I didn't post about my weekend LoTR marathon.
A review blog was a good match for me. I have a lot of opinions, but don't talk about them much because people get bored after a few minutes. This was a good way to get thoughts out without boring everyone to death.
Overall, this came out pretty well. It isn't popular, but it's a fun little blog that I can laugh about in the future.

Conclusion:
This is definitely one of the best projects I've ever done. Though it was a pain in the butt to have to think of something to make a post on and get it in by Friday night, it was a load of fun. The entire experience of blogging and making this weird community was strange and awesome. Thanks for the opportunity Mr. P!