The Third Degree - Shout Out to the Teachers

THE THIRD DEGREE

SHOUT OUT TO THE TEACHERS

Hello teachers, I see you out there! *waves* This post is running in the middle of the day, so I am at school right now too. I thought maybe a post dedicated to you would be nice today.

Reading Vacation gets a good number of visits on weekdays from schools. I imagine this is mostly teachers and school libraries visiting because you are the ones who send me emails with comments and questions. I know some of the visits are students though, because I get those emails too – asking for help with school projects. Those always make me giggle. It’s funny that they would ask me for advice.

The most common questions I get have to do with my classes at school and if I want to be a writer, how they can get their own students to either read or blog, and also how I work blogging into my life. I’ll see if I can answer those here in case anyone was too shy to ask.

I am in seventh grade at a typical suburban Texas middle school. My basic classes are all gifted-talented/pre-AP which means I have a lot of projects. I actually like projects because I have fun planning them out and I like the sense of accomplishment when I am finished. I also have group projects, which bring their own challenges. My favorite classes are language arts and journalism. (surprised? I doubt it) I won’t say what my least favorite class is just in case that teacher is reading here. Ha ha!

Of course I would love to be a writer someday. Do I have the talent for that? I have no idea. What I would REALLY love to do someday is work for a publisher. That would be my dream job. Now, if we could get the publishing companies to move to Texas, we would have a match made in heaven. So, in reality, I don’t know what I want to do.

If you are hoping your students will start their own blogs, I have some advice for you. Most importantly, they must be extremely passionate about what they want to blog about. Blogging is time consuming. If they are passionate about the subject, then spending time blogging about it will be a joy. If they are not, then I can see blogging quickly becoming a drag. I love books and reading. Blogging about them is fun for me! If you asked me to write a blog about soccer, I would be miserable.

My other advice would be to show them blogs about their chosen subject. If their eyes light up and they start ooo-ing and ahhh-ing, then perhaps they have found their inspiration. Sometimes all it takes it to know that you are not alone, and jumping in is not so scary.

Working blogging into my life is all about juggling. During the summer, it’s easy because I am off school and I am too young to have a job. That means I have seemingly endless hours to read and blog. Juggling those two is easy. When the school year starts, it gets trickier. School and homework come before everything else. ALWAYS. After that, it becomes a toss-up between reading and blogging. I will do whichever needs more attention that day. Yes, I have a social life with friends outside of the blog too.

If there’s one thing blogging has taught me, it is to stay organized. I have spreadsheets, to-do lists, calendars, and planners. (just ask my blog partner, HD, at Young Bloggers Unite – he has seen first-hand just how overly organized I can get) The point is, if you keep it all organized to begin with, then you aren’t wasting time trying to remember what you were supposed to be doing that day. Organization is key!

I honestly think the Reading Vacation experience is helping me in ways that are not so obvious. Sure I am reading and writing a lot, building my vocabulary, and learning to organize; although, somehow, I still struggle with spelling. I am also meeting new people from all over the world. What goes unnoticed is that I am practicing skills that kids my age don’t often get to practice. Since I work with publishers, authors, and publicity companies, I am learning how to communicate with adult businesses in a professional way. I am also getting great experience in meeting deadlines and following up with these adults. You don’t get that kind of experience if you spend your days watching TV or playing video games.

There you have it teachers. Hopefully this gives you some motivation to inspire your students to think about blogging. You never know, some of them may give it a try. Thank you for being supportive of me and Reading Vacation. I love when you visit!