November 22, 2003
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PICTURE OF THE DAY
This bag had my food for my solo. However, after leaving it unattended, some critters decided to eat a hole through it, and left me w/ 2 m & m’s left, a half eaten orange, and bagel crumbs. Thus, the concept of hanging your food.
TOPIC: WHY BLOG?
I was sitting on the bus from LaGuardia to my sister’s apartment in NYC, and noticed this guy occasionally looking towards me. I wasn’t nervous, more interested. Who is this guy? I didn’t say anything to him, partly because I went out till 5am last night and thus fell asleep on the bus, but the other reason is, how do you talk to a stranger? As kids, we all grow up being told to never talk to strangers. Then, we spend out adult lives trying to figure out how to do what we’d been told not to do, how to make friends with strangers.
On my Outward Bound trip, I was placed with 9 other strangers, and 2 more strangers who were my instructors. The result was amazing teamwork, friendships, and learning. We walk around this world keeping mostly to ourselves. When we do share our ideas and thoughts, we see amazing things develop into realities.
I wonder, how much classroom learning is lost because people hold back thoughts, assuming that what they are thinking might not matter. I think blogging could reduce this problem. Imagine a class where every student was required to blog daily, to write and share with other students and professors what they had learned that day, what was confusing, and any other thoughts on their mind about the class. Imagine a system where students learned how to give good and honest feedback, and could openly give feedback about their own professors. I think this could be beneficial for both the students, who would learn how to express themselves in constructive ways, as well as the teachers, who would have the opportunity to alter their teaching to better meet the needs of all their students.
