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?
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?
