My Students are Smarter than Your Students, Neener, Neener, Neener!

No pics, no links, just a quick gush about the students in English 105:

This is the time in the semester I love the most: when the students in my class start blogging! I think I learn more about them from their blogs than I do even from their autobiographical essays. What I love about their blogs--and what I can't perceive from their autobiographical essays--is how they choose to represent themselves publicly. An essay for a teacher is one thing, a blog with a potential public audience (and a conformed audience of peers) is another.

I learn about them from the color schemes they chose, from the pictures they post, and from the directions they (feel at liberty to) take with their blogs.

It's also a nice signal to me -- how much do they trust me? How much do they believe that I am really looking for an expression of ideas? I want them all to jump right in and type up all of the intellectual thoughts swirling in their heads, but I know they are not all ready for that yet. What is so great to see (as the teacher of the class) is that a few of them do feel ready to jump into the blogosphere with a full swan dive!