10:38 AM

Midterm Pep Talk

Hi everyone!  I just finished catching up on all of your blogs and wanted to note a few things.

First, the quality of the posting has made a dramatic jump.  Several of you have found your blogging "voices" and seem to be getting much more comfortable with the form.  Well done!  Those of you who have been doing well all along continue to do well, and are trying new forms of address and engagement in your writing, which is great.

A small number of you have done a little backsliding and have disappeared from your blog.

Let me encourage you, if you've stepped away from your blog for a while, to return to it. I know some of you are discouraged by your first-period evaluations; some of you are busy with other projects; and some of you may just be losing steam at this point in the semester.  But we have a few weeks until our March 23 evaluation, which is plenty of time to turn things around and do very well on the next grading period.

Continue to keep up your quality, but also think some about quantity.  I'm not assigning particular blog topics you have to write about, which means you have to write about things that interest you.  Short, newsy posts are okay occasionally, but pair these with longer, more reflective or interpretive posts, too.  But try to post regularly.

You're doing great work.  This is a new project and not always an easy project, but hang in there, show up, and you'll see the results you want.  Don't be afraid to change things up and try new things--you have an immediate feedback mechanism (your commenters and me) that will let you know how things are going.

Nice work, everyone!

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