Project #3 C4T #4

For this C4T assignment, I was instructed to review educator Jabiz's blog, The Intrepid Teacher.

In the first post I read, Jabiz blogs about a “fire” spreading through his school. This “fire” is passion and excitement over his technology class, DC101. He is teaching teachers how to blog. He addresses many issues beginning bloggers experience, such as publishing blog posts with no typos, not receiving responses, what to write about, how often to write, and not having time to write. I responded that I have already experienced the benefits of blogging, seeing firsthand how teachers and students around the world are able to learn from one another and share ideas and suggestions. I said that I can see that some have a genuine issue with not having enough time to keep a current blog going. I agreed with another commenter that it is important to check for typos and try to publish a perfect blog post, with no grammatical, punctuation or spelling errors. For one, it is not good for your students to see errors like this coming from a teacher. Second, it discredits the content of your post because it is not accurately written. Mr. Jabiz has quite a few errors in both of the blog posts I have read. His topics are great and he has a writing style that is enjoyable and easy to follow, but the spelling and grammar errors hold me back from really being able to enjoy his posts. Maybe I am just shallow! But I think a teacher should be posting “perfect” comments and blog posts.

In the next post I read, Jabiz wrote about his new hairstyle - a mohawk. His wife told him, “You can’t go into work like that. It is not professional. That is not a teacher’s haircut.” Luckily, he received positive feedback about his haircut by students, other teachers and even the principal. He says he is expressing his freedom and ditching conformity in order to be a good role model for his students. The point of it was to be light and show others at school they should not take themselves so seriously. He says he had a great week at school with his new style and encourages other teachers to “shake things up a bit” in their schools. I responded by saying that expressing your individuality is a great way to teach children it is OK to be unique, especially when children are often bullied for being different. I understand that some schools look down on teachers not being the model of professionalism, so I think it’s great his principal embraced this new image, to show that you can be professional but have your own sense of style at the same time.