Thing #12 Commenting on blogs

I've been reading Cool Cat Teacher's various blogs. In one she write about the
online predators act that she coments about. She refers to Darren Kuropatwa in another one of her posts and refers to his guidelines for appropriate blogging and how he compared his methods of teaching regarding how his use of technology emerged. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/06/darren-kuropatwas-class-inspection-and.html

I LOVE Vicki Davis' description of her calling on her blog: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-comment-like-king-or-queen.html

My Calling God (I cannot pull out my beliefs here) has given me a calling to share the things I'm learning in technology and other aspects of my life.

I believe in the importance of every child and the importance of every teacher.

I believe that teaching is a noble calling and that educators need to be encouraged in a world of people who really do want to zap us with their
light sabers.

Never in history have teachers been expected to do so much and afforded so little respect and that has got to change. We will create our own respect because we are professionals here to do a job.

It is time for us to share across boundaries, continents, and hemispheres. It is time for us to put our collective heads together and learn from the pockets of innovation that spring up in the strangest places. And it is time for me to be a part of it!

She also mentions CoCommenter as a way to track comments from your blog. It sounds like it could be very useful.

I read Darren Rowse blog @ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/03/problogger-comments-policy/ I enjoyed reading his comment's policy.

Brown Thought's comments were also very common sense. http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/2007/07/17/the-ten-commandments-of-blog-commenting/

I enjoy Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. Reading his coments about how it's usually OK to post relevant comments to older blog posts is nice to hear. I'm adding him to my Blogreader.

At http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2008/05/edublogger-etiquette-responding-to.html in the comments:

Sarah Hanawald said... May 1, 2008 7:23 PM
To the question "are there rules. . ." I think yes, but
simple ones. My students started blogging in January. I told them that they just needed to remember two things. First was that behind every post and comment was a real person. Secondly, that whatever they wrote to a classmate (it's a closed circle with us) they needed to make sure they wrote with a tone of kindness. My students are 11, but I think the same concept applies to adults, although I might use the word respect instead. Although I still appreciate the two kind comments I've gotten on my insignificant, personal reflection blog. Even when we disagree, the (sort of) permanent nature of blogging and commenting means that what one said sticks around and represents the author long after the heat of debate is over. Tone and attitude matter, and I've really think the
edublogosphere sets an example others could follow.

I really agree with the comment that behind every post and comment was a real person, and to remember to write with a tone of kindness (and respect.) When you do those things, nearly everything else would seem to take care of itself.

I left a comment on InfoGoddesses' blog for thing # 11 about using LibraryThing to track what students have been reading. That's an awesome idea.