What will I write? Am I up to the challenge? Will I be able to continue till the end?…
Those were the thoughts with which I began participating in this challenge. I could never have guessed how much I would enjoy the challenge and how much I would learn from it.
The Student Blogging Challenge officially began on 4th March, 2018
Since then, I have written 9 posts, including this one, all of which were based on the challenge : The Country Heart, Guidelines to “Commenting“, See this is life!!!, Development of Democracy, Voices from the World War II, Book-Review: The Necklace of the Gods, Visiting Blogs Around The World, Money: Charitable Giving for Weeks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9 respectively. Reading these posts all over again, I could realize the many ways in which I could improve my blog post – write with more feelings, include more illustrations, improve my English and make my blog posts more reader- friendly with bold headings and colors.
I fondly remember how every time I published a new post, I’d make it a point to login everyday to check out what comments I received. I received a total of 32 comments, out of which 14 were from the commenters and 17 were from overseas students. 1 was from Miss W. The post which received the most comments was ” Voices from the World War II ” with 9 comments, closely followed by “See, this is life!!! ” with 6 comments. I think this happened because these posts were featured in the Flipboard magazine – both had relevant pictures, were unique and clearly reflected my mind. In case of “Voices from the World War II”, the quotes were systematically arranged and the poem, ” See, this is life!!! “ was very unique.
One of the things I enjoyed the most was commenting on other students’ blogs. I commented on more than 15 blogs. I checked the Flipboard magazine regularly. In the blogs I went to, I usually commented on posts which were ambitious and dedicatedly created, which were about something I’m interested in or something I’m curious about. For example, when I went to Victoria’s blog, I commented on her post, ‘Kinds of quotes‘. Naturally, the title made my mind think ‘What kind of quotes can be there?’ and as I always liked quotes, I was interested and really liked the post.
I enjoyed writing every post. Every post took me to a virtual world where I am a professional who writes and shares my knowledge with others. But, I enjoyed writing ‘See this is life!!!’ the most. It was filled with originality, inspiration and when I completed writing the poem, it gave me a sense of achievement I didn’t get from the others. The post I enjoyed writing second most was the free choice activity, “Book review: The Necklace of the Gods” because I could write about something which was my passion and pleasure.
I didn’t change my blog theme. A new theme will refresh my blog and improve it in many ways. However, I didn’t change it as I would have to reorder my blog all over again and I was unsure that my blog would be ready in time for potential readers.
I have 8 widgets : Recent comments, recent posts, archives, links, categories, meta, image and search. This is quite enough but I want to include a tag cloud as well. Categories and Tags would be helpful in making my site more reader- friendly.
On my blogroll, I have 8 overseas students. I chose these blogs because they were active on the challenge and kept beautiful blogs which I’d like to visit regularly. These blogs gave me important lessons and inspirations for improving my blog. Also, having a blogroll helped me to check out great posts with half the effort. It was great for my lazy days. 😉
I did not use any web tool except for creating my avatar. For the next challenge, I’d try to use more web tools and create picturesque illustrations, pictures, videos etc. I’d challenge myself to do this… Soon…
And finally,
Sometimes things are most beautiful when they’re coming to an end.Kyra Jackson
G’day Rajyashori,
Thanks for being such a regular participant in this set of challenges. I enjoyed reading your posts, even though I didn’t comment on them all.
Are there any ways you think I could improve the challenge as it has now been going in a similar format for 10 years? This though was the first year we had formal commenters. Was filling in the Google form each week a good idea and having the spreadsheet links on the sidebar of the challenge blog useful for you?
Good day Ms W
Thanks for the comment. This is the second time I have participated in this challenge. Compared to the previous one, I found having a Google form and spreadsheet links in the sidebar more useful in finding great posts to read about. Having formal commenters was also a great idea because I could get useful comments on each post.
I feel that change is inevitable and this challenge needs to evolve with time.
For a change,there should be new activities to make students familiar with various ways of writing posts like listicles, tutorials, media stories or personal reflections. Also I feel that dividing the age groups and giving appropriate posts would be great. Since writing prompts are quite popular nowadays, it might be great to have some activities in the form of prompts. The prompts would give us inspiration and help us create great posts in a way that doesn’t undermine our creativity.
I really enjoyed this challenge and I would like to participate again.
Best regards,
Rajyashori
G’day again Rajyashori,
I notice you have registered as a student again for the upcoming challenge. As one of the older students who have taken part in two sets of challenges, I am personally inviting you to also be a commenter if you have the time.
I have handed over the reins of the challenge to an Australian teacher who has lots of great ideas for improving the challenge. I will still be there in the background helping with the commenting, rather than writing posts.
Hello Miss W
I am sorry for my late reply.
Thank you for inviting me to take part in the challenge as a commenter. I’d really love to help the new bloggers by giving constructive feedback for their posts. However, I’m quite unsure of the various responsibilities of a commenter and I’d really appreciate your guidance. How may I get in touch with you? And, must I register as a commenter by using the Google form?
Rajyashori
Here is a link to the page explaining a bit more. I rarely invite students to be commenters so I am sure you will be very capable of visiting blog posts, reading them, commenting on the post and trying to add to conversations within the posts.
https://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2018/09/04/commenters/
Thank you. I will try my best.