Back again

I’m sorry for this long absence. I’m still hanging around, still reading blogs and thinking about blogging. Actually, I’ve been experimenting with my second year students, trying to share my enthusiasm for learning and for English. (You can read the posts that I shared with my students here.)
Unfortunately, I’m not very successful at making students blog. I took them to the computing lab three times, and they seemed to like it. The majority was proud of their blogs. However, the number of posts in their blogs is really small.
I know that I should have demanded that they respected the deadlines for the individual posts. Instead I tried to attract them to writing by giving them a reason to write. Obviously, this wasn’t a good idea. It’s difficult to motivate students if they are not motivated themselves. The computing lab was also closed for students too often. Under such circumstances the process of making students blog takes longer, I guess. But I’m not giving in. There’s another semester in October and I’ll make sure we’ll start blogging on the very first day. And I’ll introduce deadlines and book the computing lab for them at least twice a week. Perhaps that’ll do the trick.

Life goes on so fast. There’s so much to do. One thing is really important to me: I need to take time off on a regular (that is daily) basis to enjoy my children. Spring is here, so we go for a walk by the sea, work in the garden (my daffodils are in bloom), draw, play games, bake cakes ... and argue loudly about their duties (tidying their room, putting things back to where they belong and other daily trivia). And when I tuck them in their beds in the evening, I’m exhausted. But they’re worth it. I think I’ve become a better person because of them.