Welcome to psciwriterscraft

Blogging means that everyone becomes a published writer. Once you publish your post, your thoughts and writings potentially become available to millions of people. I want our class blogs to be posted once a week for the semester which means each of you will have about 18 entries. You must do them once a week, however, because we have a process to follow over the semester.

I want you to post once a week or more, and also respond to a minimum of 5 different blogs each week from your colleagues. 

Your blog is a personal witing space that is aslo public. Being public, it differs, therefore, from personal and private journals.

You can write about anything that you are interested in. Topics may include: HUMOUR, HOBBIES, REFLECTIONS ON JOBS, SCHOOL, COMMENTARIES ON FASHION, MEDIA, FAVOURITE MOVIES, MOVIE TELEVISION REVIEWS, CARS, WORLD ISSUES, ENVIRONMENT, POLITICS, SHORT STORIES, POETRY, AND THE LIST GOES ON.

Find something that you are interested in and would like to comment on.

Here are some links to famous blogs:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/

This is the blog that they based a movie on called : "Julie and Julia". Julie decided to make one recipe from Julia Child's Cookbook every day for a year and she blogged how it went. Obviously some blogs will have swearing. We'll try not to.

http://bloggers.com/melissameginn

From a quick glance, Melissa wants to be a writer and is blogging about her efforts and about life in general.

http://themovieblog.com/

This blog has 5 people blogging their responses and reviews to movies. One of them lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

http://www.stephentaylor.ca/

This guy blogs about Canadian Politics.


http://jackiechan.com/messages

Jackie Chan's website and blog.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message

Michael Moore's website and blog.

http://greenandfreeblog.com/
This person is very introspective and has some novel potography


Web 2.0 began around 2005 and means that we can interact in very powerful and meaningful ways. One way is to publish your thoughts, ideas, feelings, reactions online so that others may read your ideas and respond. Soooooooo, GET TO IT!!!!

Oh, one more thing: here's an article proving the WRITING IS GOOD FOR YOU!!!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type

Mr. J.

Here is an outline of the course:

WORDS ARE POWERFUL, WORDS ARE MAGICAL

As human beings, we think, we feel, and we take actions. That's it- simple, really. And as we think, we use words; and as we feel, we use words; and as we act, we use words. Words can take us to the heights of exhilaration and success- and they can take us to the depths of despair. One word spoken from another to you can have the power to build and connect; or, it can have the power to disconnect and destroy.

Learning how to use words is a lifetime experience. It never ends, and that is the challenge: to continue to learn and grow and change your words, your ideas, your thoughts your attitudes and your actions. If you're always open to change, you'll always be a student of life- you'll avoid getting 'stuck'. As a student of life,  you have a great responsibility: To find the words to make yourself, and others, better.

This is the power of words in our lives. Use them wisely, use them magically.

ISU and Summative

The ISU is valued at 30% and the Summative Assessment is valued at 30%. Therefore the course is worth 40%. That means there is a fairly even distribution of value in each of these 3 aspects of the course.

General Rubric for blogging

Application: Spelling, grammar, paragraphing should be respectable. Who is going to read a blog that appears to be from someone who can't write?

Knowledge. You may have to do a little research to show you know something.

Thinking/Inquiry. You should also show you are thinking: ask questions, become an explorer of life.

Communication: Be aware that you are writng for the PUBLIC (or at least our class) So you need to be interesting and engaging. And when responding to other blogs,be respectful and get a good discussion going if you can. Pictures, links, can be good resources to add to your discussions.
(Please keep blogs free of things that you would judge to be inappropriate. As a grade 12 student you probably have a good sense of this. If unsure, please consult with me. There are sensitivities in others we have to respect.)