I’m amazed at how different I feel about bringing weblogs to my students this year, primarily because of the difference Manila brings in terms of layers and conversations. I’m really wondering what this is all going to look like nine weeks from now. Did I bite off more than I could chew? Did my students take as easily to Manila as to Blogger? Did I figure out how to get gems working? (I still haven’t, much to my chagrin.) Will the teachers begin to see the benefits? (The Bees site has them talking…) Did my collaborations with Barbara live up to our expecations? Did the parents of my students watch our portfolios grow? Did my ed tech group see the potential? (One member of the group actually posted today!) Did I get the newspaper template from Pat? (And if not, did “Plan B” work?) Did I get to start a weblog for my department? Will I get the teacher portfolio template finished? Will Tess make it through her first day of kindergarten tomorrow? (The most important question of all.)
Even though I feel like I got a grip, I also feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. That’s what makes it so fun.
Will,
What type of “gems” problems are you having – a server problem or otherwise? When we moved over to our Windows box, we struggled with getting gems set up on the server side. The Userland docs weren’t much help (big surprise) and in fact contradicted each other. Our sys admin figured it out in the end, though, so let me know and I’ll send you the info!
Good luck with the start of the school year, your sites look great. Interesting to see how things will unfold!
Sarah