Another blog post in after the deadline. Typical. While we were walking back down to Bundy, Sydney brought up the class blog, to which I responded, "Oh no! I totally forgot!" I wish this wasn't normal, but for some reason I always remember to write my blog post, forget, and then realize it's late. After writing my self-grade paper this past week and reading through all my pasts posts, it's clear when I was feeling inspired and when I was just posting for the purpose of posting. Sometimes I just don't have anything to say! Yet we have to post weekly because it's part of our syllabus, and we all know how our lives our dictated by our syllabi.
Now that I'm done venting, I think it's important to note how we're manipulated to post and comment on this blog. We have no other motivation to write here except that our grade is dependent on it, and again, we all know how our lives are dictated by our grades. I am up later than usual this evening because I was working on a paper for another class, which is highly personal and very thought-provoking to work on. In the midst of challenging myself through writing that paper, I completely forgot about posting on the blog. I then dug deep within the tired folds of my brain to find something to post about. During my struggle for a topic I realized how pressured I felt to write about something compelling and pertinent to the class, which happens to fit nicely with our theme. This post is a representation of my compliance to follow directions, however manipulative they may be, and never question.
I feel the exact same way about this. There are certain Monday nights where I feel inspired and compelled to write an insightful and thought-provoking blog post, but there are other Monday nights where I do not feel so inclined and end up producing a half-ass post that I'm not too proud of. If it became a rule that you only had to blog when you felt inspired and motivated, though, it would be hard to monitor whether students actually don't have anything to write about or whether they are just being lazy. I'm glad you used a late blog post to write a well-written and insightful post!
ReplyDeleteI remember talking to you about the blog when we, as a class, were trying to decide the due date for the blog-self grade. We both were saying how we wrote almost all of our posts and comments late (for example, this comment). I agree with you that there have been nights where this is the last thing I do, and I just kind of bullshit a post. On the contrary, I'm sure we've all had nights where we have felt strongly about class discussion, and this is the perfect place to continue class discussion.
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