12 thoughts on “A Cold Winter’s Night

  1. I love your poem too. That is one area (or one of many) in writing that I am not good at, but I enjoy reading poetry. The variety of people’s posts are just wonderful and I love exploring around and seeing what everyone does. Thanks for this great and creative post!

  2. Mrsdkrebs, I read the post,commented and then looked at your pages. As I had hoped to comment on the page themselve, I could not find anywhere to comment, so I am coming back here to add more. I would love to know what age group students you teach. Do you have a site that you could link to to tell me more about the prairie. It sounds a fascinating area and my geography of USA is just a little better than my poetry writing. Do you have an pics of your school to add. I enjoyed looking at your resources. There are some there that I had not heard of, so will be taking a look at them. I love the page on netiquette. That is such an important one.

  3. Hi Anne, thank you for the comments. I’m at a conference with @angelamaiers right now and learning so many different wonderful things. I have some questions about privacy issues–like why have I not put on my school’s photo? Why do I not have a link to my web page? I’m developing questions for you and the others, so I think I’ll write a post with my questions about privacy.

    Also, can you help me with this question about links? On my extra pages, the box is marked that says to allow comments. Can you think of any reason why my readers aren’t allowed to leave comments there? Thanks!

  4. You are very lucky to be at a session with @angelamaiers. I would love to hear her speak. Privacy vs transparecny is a personal decision and I guess in all the three and a half years that I have been online I have had no issues. But I do understand those who may prefer not to divulge information such as the school etc. However, schools do have websites of their own which usually show photos and other pertinent information. When I read about people I do like to know what they are teaching and what age group the students so if they taught in a special needs school, other teachers who taught in a similar school might connect further with each other. However, the blogger needs to feel comfortable with the information that they are giving out.
    As to the comments, I am not sure why they don’t show on the pages. They do on the posts so that is the most important thing. It would be good if you do write up questions, add them to a post and seek out responses. We all have different opinions and that makes for good discussion.

  5. I loved your poem and blog overall. I teach high school music
    in New Jersey – and I also teach a class called Arts Business & Technology. Really enjoyed your blog and your “multi-arts” approach. Your students’ work online is amazing – what’s your approach to getting kids writing on their blogs. Do you have assignments or is it open to their choice? Do they blog in school or at home?

    I’m new to blogging and have been trying to get my band students to blog for the past few months. I’m trying to get them to write about their practice and rehearsal sessions – a sort of online practice journal. I’d love to hear any advice you might have.

  6. Serge, I have to explain…most of my students’ online work was “published” on their blogs. I started them a year ago when I thought it was time for me to explore blogging. I teach an exploratory class called “Publishing.” We do a yearbook and edit our novel we wrote in November (NaNoWriMo.org) and blog. They post poems, photography, fiction and nonfiction that they have written in English class. That’s most of it! Since I began the challenge, though, I am on a mission to reach out to the worldwide community and grow our blogging to become a conversation with others.

    Besides assignments of posting a poem or speech, we do have some journaling blog entries assigned too–topics of their choice. We mostly blog in school, but I’m always thrilled to see them log on at home and add a video or some other post. I would just say that if you can connect with other high school music programs and let them write for a larger audience, it will be more successful. Don’t wait a year to start, like I did. Thanks for your comments and questions and for visiting.

  7. Thanks for the advice – I think that’s what I’ve been missing – the connections to other students – you’ve given quite a few ideas – thanks! I really liked the NaNoWriMo.org link – I have a few writers in my arts class that will be interested in this – thanks!

  8. I wrote a really nice long post but didn’t fill out the required information to have it post. Sorry! I’ll sum it up by saying your post is amazing. I can imagine how excited the students get as you tackle each challenge. Your poem is engaging and made me chuckle to myself. I look forward to watching your blog grow and grow!

    1. Thanks, Jenn, for coming to visit! I’ve had that happen to me with comments! Don’t you hate it, but I appreciate your giving it another go.

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