Remember the part in the film Julie & Julia, when Julie is so excited about the first comment on her blog only to find out that its her mother? Who then said she seemed to be her only fan? But then, as her blog takes off, she gains many random readers who start to send her letters and ingredients for upcoming recipes. This motivates Julie Powell and renews her sense of purpose through her blog. When confronted with difficult recipes, her husband says something to the effect that she doesn't really have to cook it because no one would ever know! However, Julie responds, "But my readers would know!" She felt she owed it to her readers to be accountable and follow through on her original goal.
I can see how thoughtful and encouraging comments can continue to refresh and energize the author to continue writing or to continue with their goal. Even though commenting on each others posts is early in this list of Things, I hope we can still comment on each others blogs during the long stretch (Thing 17ish?) to pick each other up and motivate each other to finish!
This will especially be helpful for students because they LIVE for feedback! I can see students coming back to their blog/post multiple times in the day to check if anyone has posted a comment on their blog. Hopefully they will put more time and effort into their posts because it's being read by a larger audience.
As adults, we've anguished over our blog identities, templates, colors, fonts, etc... and I bet we smile when we get that email notification that someone has just commented on our blog (or maybe that's just me?). Imagine how our students will feel!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also enjoyed Julia and Julia and how excited she became and hope through this experience I can experience that also. I enjoyed your 23 things poem on a previous post. Keep up with your thoughtful reflections, I enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about how students "LIVE for feedback." Just today, I gave a pop reading quiz and before it was turned in, one called me over to show me her answer, knowing full well I wouldn't say anything about it. She literally said "I know you can't tell me, but I want you to see this answer and know what I was thinking..." and proceeded to explain her rationale (which is funny in and of itself since it was a pretty black and white question that didn't really require any detailed explication). And when she was done, she looked up to me, eyebrows raised, waiting for something, even a hint of affirmation, and when I said "uh-huh" noncommittally and walked away (as was totally appropriate!), I felt like I'd kicked her puppy.
ReplyDeleteAnd to add insult to injury, I realized only hours later, reviewing my own blog, that there were no comments yet on my latest post. Ironic heartbreak.
We are all in a world of immediate feedback. Just recently I called my husband on his cell and I went staight to vm. I proceeded to call half a dozen more times over a very short period of time - why wasn't he answering??? Finally he sent me a text saying he was in a meeting with his boss.
ReplyDelete