Sunday, September 2, 2012

no try

Welcome young writers, young thinkers, young bloggers. Welcome to your voice, your space, your blog. Welcome to the blogosphere. At the end of 2011 there were 70 million blogs on Wordpress alone. 39 Million more on Tumblr. Many of you have already been tinkering around the internet, sharing photos, status updates, re-blogging animated .gifs, sharing your favorite songs and movie clips.

So why am I grandstanding this introduction to a classblog? Because this year, I am feeling a buzz and excitement, I haven’t felt in years of student blogging. I feel like you get it. You get the need to write and share and explore and inquire and design and draw and sing and question and connect and be heard. I feel you get the need to carve out your space and demand to be noticed. You get the need to create and re-create who you are and demand to be understood. You get the need to prove you matter, that you have ideas that are not being prepared for life, but matter now. You get that poor writing is ignored and poorly designed spaces are abandoned. You get that I am here to guide you and help you and not to evaluate or judge you. You understand the power of a blog. Your blog and you are ready to occupy your space online. You are ready to use your voice to demand change, to add to the global conversation, to create art that exposes injustice, awakens empathy, and challenges thinking.

I am excited to see what you create. Who you choose to become. What you decide to share. In the clip below, Yoda challenges Luke not to give up when a task appears to be impossible.

“Do or do not do. There is no try.”


What will you use your blog to do? How will you take ownership of your tiny space on the internet? How will you use your words, your images, your ideas to dig a bit of depth for your online identity?

22 comments:

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  2. I am quite excited about having a blog, and hopefully using it as a successful platform to share my thoughts/media with those around me.

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  3. I am also looking forward to be able to express myself on blogspot and create new things.

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  5. The quote that you chose “Do or do not do. There is no try.” is great. I think that it should be the way to go at anything because without the will to do, you will never get through it.

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  6. Wow, of all the schools that I have been to, I have never experience learning like this. The Quote" Do or Do not do. There is no try." In my opinion it is a quote which has a lot of meaning and gives us a lot to think about.

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  7. Wise words.

    I will use my blog to joke, to vent, to laugh. I will utilise it as a place to write and blow off some steam. I'll use it as a place to share cool stuff.
    It probably won't be a place where I seriously think about my online identity.

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  8. I think that the idea of expressing oneself through the internet is an excellent idea. Yet, the discrepancy between what one posts and one thinks always have the difference between heaven and earth. This is because poor writing is always judged. Therefore no one wants to post. Yet, this blog is like opening a whole new door. Only if you post, will you get feedback., and through feedback your writing will improve. Therefore blogging is one of the highest forms of expressions.

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  9. I'm not entirely sure what or how I will use my blog yet, but I plan to portray a variety of things via my blog, wether it be writing or artwork or something else altogether. I look forward to getting my blog started.

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  10. I think, that managing our own blog is a good platform to share and discuss the billions of ideas that float around in our heads every day.
    Also, we could use our blogs to inspire people.

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  11. I will use my blog to share my works that I do in class and at home. This way other people can see my ideas and further develop ideas of their own. By using creative and unique means of work, my posts will be more interesting that just posting a bunch of text with an image or two. This all together will help me take ownership of my page and let others see my thoughts and how I express them.

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  12. I will use my blog to share my pieces of writing and my thoughts and ideas. I will take ownership of my own space on the internet by posting things that represent me to make it clear this is my blog. I'll use m words and images to express myself online amongst my friends and to show my online identity.

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  13. I am also looking forward to having a blog this year. It will be fun to post our ideas, images, and thoughts. To be able to share these things with the whole class sounds really great.

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  14. I am excited about having my own blog and will use my blog to publish my ideas, thoughts and interests.

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  15. I like the idea of the class making our own blogs and one class blog altogether. I like the idea of the freedom of speech we are being given, a space to express our ideas and opinions to audiences. My blog is going to be used for anything I feel like writing, things I feel others will be intrigued and interested by. It gives the quietest person in the class an opportunity to be loud. I look forward to listening to everyone's views. -Pavitra

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  16. I don't acctually know how I will use my blog mabye for my thoughts, ideas,videos and work. The idea of having a blog is very interesting.

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  17. I am looking forward to having a class blog where we can all express our ideas and share the things we want to. We also get our own individual blog for us to express our feelings which I think will really help us as a class and bring us closer

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  18. I look forward to creating and expanding my blog. I look forward to learning the gadgets and things you can use on my blog and I extremely look forward to learning through the blog and discovering new things on the internet. My plan is to share points I find interesting in books and commenting on other peoples posts on there blogs. Although I have never made a blog before I feel very confident in this year working with blogger to show of my work to my parents and friends.

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  19. This is like nothing I have done at school before! I like the idea of having a blog to express our opinions and ideas!

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  20. I take this oppurtunity to express my "emotions and feelings".I never got a chance like this before.

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  21. I will use this opportunity to express myself freely and enjoy blogging. I can hardly control my excitement!

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