Calling Out Across the World Wide Web: Using Weekly Tumblr Posts in the Classroom
by Pamela Bussey
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Our project idea was simple: have students post a photo and short text on a personal blog each week, with the idea of developing their creative voices. Their teachers, Ms. Filiatrault and Ms. Bussey, would do it, too. It was a project inspired by a colleague and ATEQ Board Member, Tracy Blonder, who had done a similar project with her elementary school students.
We had a few tech issues, as you can imagine. For one, it was exceedingly difficult to find an easy-to-use blog platform that didn’t require a PhD in HTML to get started. Another concern we had was privacy. We wanted students to feel comfortable enough to share their real thoughts and feelings - our worst fear was to have the written equivalent of show-and-tell. The internet can be big and scary but also wonderfully expansive. We wanted our students to use their blog as a weekly journal and we wanted them to feel as safe as possible doing so. Our final decision was to use the platform Tumblr. This came with its own concerns as Tumblr has not had the best reputation. To increase our students’ anonymity, we had three main suggestions: 1) Don’t use your name but rather a randomly generated Tumblr handle (i.e. bananasgonewildandblue) 2) No photos with your face 3) Don’t follow anyone else’s Tumblr page 4) Email us your too-personal posts (which incidentally only happened once all year) For those students who had less than reliable internet access or for whom the idea of being online was too invasive, we gave them the option of creating photoless posts in a notebook, similar to a journal. |
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Each week, students wrote their posts. Each week we checked off those that were done. Full disclosure here: not all students wrote every week. Despite weekly reminders, teacher prompts, class websites, and carrier pigeons, some opted out of doing the assignment. Such is always the way, I suppose.
When the posts started trickling in, we expected good stuff. We expected to enjoy the posts each week. We expected a collection of texts that would reflect our students’ lives.
What we got was much more than that.
What we got was a window into how our students think and feel on a host of topics. We were given glimpses into their homes, their friendships, their passions, their reflections, the moral dilemmas they face, and more. Some posts were funny, some were sad, some were fueled by rage. The posts were - no surprise - as wonderful and varied as our students.
What we also saw was that - despite our suggestion to do otherwise - students were following each other. Students were ‘hearting’ each others’ posts. Students whom I didn’t teach were following my page. I was following students from the other class. People were commenting and communicating - calling out across the wide expanse of the World Wide Web.
This project has now evolved into something else. In early 2019, my teaching partner and I decided that the posts were too good not to share. We couldn’t hog the beauty that was laid at our digital feet.
So, we decided to create a book using the website Blurb. We asked each student to submit their best blog post and we chose the cream of the crop. The result is a 63-page book with over 60 student voices. There are poems, manifestoes, letters, narratives, and philosophical musings.
When the posts started trickling in, we expected good stuff. We expected to enjoy the posts each week. We expected a collection of texts that would reflect our students’ lives.
What we got was much more than that.
What we got was a window into how our students think and feel on a host of topics. We were given glimpses into their homes, their friendships, their passions, their reflections, the moral dilemmas they face, and more. Some posts were funny, some were sad, some were fueled by rage. The posts were - no surprise - as wonderful and varied as our students.
What we also saw was that - despite our suggestion to do otherwise - students were following each other. Students were ‘hearting’ each others’ posts. Students whom I didn’t teach were following my page. I was following students from the other class. People were commenting and communicating - calling out across the wide expanse of the World Wide Web.
This project has now evolved into something else. In early 2019, my teaching partner and I decided that the posts were too good not to share. We couldn’t hog the beauty that was laid at our digital feet.
So, we decided to create a book using the website Blurb. We asked each student to submit their best blog post and we chose the cream of the crop. The result is a 63-page book with over 60 student voices. There are poems, manifestoes, letters, narratives, and philosophical musings.
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Our hearts are full of the pride that is unique to teachers.
If it is feasible, I would encourage you to try a project like this with your students. I can assure you it will be rewarding. It is a learning process, of course. I learned firsthand that even the most enthusiastic student will lose wind around halfway through the school year. This is where prompts are important. Some of my weekly prompts included: ● Nobody knows that I am… ● A lesson that guides me is… ● My _____________ taught me that… ● My best piece of advice is to always… ● Dear _____________, it weighs on me that I never told you… ● Dear younger me, ● Dear future me, Try and write each week, along with your students, so that they can see that you too are doing the work. And, do the work you should. We know, as teachers, that modelling is key. When we are open and vulnerable, students will respond in kind. While only a handful of my students may read my weekly posts, all of my students know that they are there. If they want to know me better - if they want a small window into my life - it is there for them. This is a fair trade, I think. |
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Next year, when we do the project again, we will try to incorporate more sharing. This will be scary for some, of course. There is a real opportunity for exchange here - one I’m not willing to ignore.
My main focus for next year will be to scaffold and frame their sharing in a way that best elicits conversation and builds community. To help students take ownership over the project and ‘call out’ to us and to each other in a way that is empowering, inspiring, and uniquely theirs.
This is what we always want, isn’t it? To plant an idea, hand them the tools, and then step aside and wait to see what happens.
My main focus for next year will be to scaffold and frame their sharing in a way that best elicits conversation and builds community. To help students take ownership over the project and ‘call out’ to us and to each other in a way that is empowering, inspiring, and uniquely theirs.
This is what we always want, isn’t it? To plant an idea, hand them the tools, and then step aside and wait to see what happens.