Blog Reflection!

Over the course of my 8th grade year, this blog has served the purpose of a lot of stuff (and to save the trees!). It is an interesting way to reflect on books that I've read, and also helped me look at books in a certain way, wether it be philosophical or in a social action lens.

I think I learned a lot about how I think by creating and using this blog. It allowed, I think, more freedom in a targeted area. Instead of just making us write a short story or whatever in our notebook or as a story, we were allowed to write our own way about what we were reading (something we'd WANT to write about), but targeting a specific thinking style (Social action, philosophical, etc.), and I think that made me think about how I think normally as a person.

I think an advantage of writing on a blog is it's faster, for one. I also like the freedom of being able to write a bit more freely and loosely than more "traditional" styles like I think is typical of notebook writing or storywriting. The only real disadvantage that I could see is WHEN we could do it- in school in a notebook is better than at home, I feel. I also think another advantage is that people do try to show their good qualities online, but even some of the qualities they don't want to show also appear in their writing. A lot of a person can be discovered by their writing, and I think the experience of this blog helped me realize that.

Personally, I don't think that I write anything that I couldn't say to another person normally, but I don't always think that's a good thing. Sometimes I think that it's not always bad to express yourself more in writing then you would in front of a person- I think that writing is a way to get feelings across in a less confrontational way, a way that is less mean and harmful to others' feelings.

I think blogs are a cool, more modern, aspect of an ELA class in the 21st century. I feel like I had a lot of fun doing this, even if it was only because I had to do it for school. I don't think I would continue doing this if I didn't have to, because I don't think I need to do it for anything else- I can't think of anything anyways.

It was totally cool to be able to have this experience, and I'm sure it will help me at some point in the future (as most school experiences do, after all).