Toe in the Waters - an Introduction

A toe in the waters, indeed.

Here's the deal: I am a failure.  It's true.  I'm okay with it.  I don't need a hug or anything.  What I really need to do is come up with a new plan.  A successful plan.

Let me back up for a minute and explain.  I'm teaching a senior English class full of students who, like many students, are pretty well done reading books and writing essays on character development.  Who can blame them, I guess.

This semester I tried to do something new (and yeah, I don't count it among my many successes).  The idea was to organize the class around thematic topics currently of interest in the world.  I thought the ideas were terrific:

• Violence in the city of Chicago
• Computer hacking
• Armed conflict in the Middle East
• Presidential election tracking

You get the idea.  Some of the topics did pretty well to engage some of the students.   Some of them engaged only a few.  None of them were what I would term a home run.  And so... a new plan.

For the second semester, I want my students to blog as a full-time class occupation.  I have contrived a series of simple requirements that I will enumerate in a future blog entry.  I intend to have them reading and summarizing articles of interest, composing and posting arguments and advice, and linking to resources, pictures, and whatever else they want.

And you (in the very singular sense, as I doubt my ability to draw a real audience) can follow along as we either succeed or... make a new plan.