Attempt #109 To Journal

It seems my blog is still residing undercover, I like it. For now I feel like I have the freedom to be open and honest because so far my words are echoing in my ears alone. This will be a welcoming reflective tool for me. I know I have the ability to make this a private resource. However, for some reason I find myself shying away from that idea. It takes all of the fun out of the potential of being discovered in the public world of online journaling. I also realize I could and should simply keep a private journal. The problem is I have yet to make that a habit during the last 25 years of my life. With such strong evidence, I find it hard to believe I have the mindset to pick up a consistent "Dear Diary" type relationship now. Blogging might be my perfect solution to evolving into a faithful recorder of my life. My fear is the phrase "might be". I find it fascinating the mysterious power that blogging has over people. Maybe it will sweep me up too and my motivation to share daily realizations will start to unfold on this computer in this cyber world.

A keynote principle I have learned during my time in the world of elementary education is that a student must have content presented to them in a manner that connects to some form of intrinsic motivation. I had a student who would not engage in any learning activity if it did not relate to the cyber pet toy that he had attached to his pant loop every single day of the school year. It was odd how motivated he was by his fake pet. With the press of some simple buttons on his device it was instantly fed, walked, or played with. My student took immense gratification in this toy. It became his reality and his obsession. As a result, all of my teaching started to revolve around creating methods to build in his reality into the classroom. During one lesson we were practicing antonyms. So, I printed antonym word cards on paper that had his cyber pet toy as the background and the word written on the screen of the toy. He did the entire activity matching pairs of words together simply because of the paper it was printed on. It was amazing to me the instant change in his perception of the underlining objective of what he was really doing. The antonyms were fashioned in a way that adjusted his perception and therefore it became a painless and engaging experience for him. That is what blogging seems to be for me, a mask for the real task of journaling. Blogging is addicting and compelling. It absorbs one's attention. Yet, blogging is a savvy way to hook people into journaling. I need that hook. For now it is working.