Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday I helped my co-teacher Cielo teach her Business Administration students how to start a web log, at least those who haven’t done so before. This was part of their elective, which focused on communication in the technological age.

The school director for Business Administration, Sir Joel, had talked to me about helping out after he found out sometime last term that I had a blog I consistently wrote in. He became interested in this type of self-expression, particularly since it has the potential to reach everyone, it can be found by anyone who uses the right keywords of similar interest in the search engines, and it is not bogged down by the need to find meaning in reacting to others’ posts or looking for reactions from others in public message forums or newsgroups.

I told him and Cielo about my personal experiences with blogs, that for the first time I could keep all my far-away friends up-to-date about my life without having to tell them the same story several times when I meet them separately, and vice versa. I also said that being tied in with online communities that list blogs and giving a few keywords that would help people with similar interests or in the same profession find my blog makes for more meaningful net acquaintances.

Similarly, looking at the blogs of others in those online communities talking about subjects that we are both fascinated in turn inspires me (and hopefully will inspire the students) to write more, more creatively and more personally.

This is also part of the multi-facet intelligence acknowledgment on the part of the student, that maybe they all write well when talking about something that really catches their attention, and not just what the teacher wants them to write about, and only if they talk about it in a certain way (ex. analytically, poetically or accurately).

Sir Joel, of course, also tried to look at the business application of the practice, particularly in terms of getting a growing number of readers and ways of finding out what exactly drew them to the blog.

I wasn’t really supposed to appear in their class today, though. Xerxes, the computer science teacher who was supposed to show them how to make their blogs in the space in the school’s server he provided (for consistency and proper management of content) reported having a flu early this morning. Besides, his design and program had some glitches when they last met in class that, of course, he had no time to correct.

So I went in a day early, or a meeting early when I was supposed to be on call in three days’ time. Part of the problem was also that only a few of the students showed up at the computer lab. Cielo was worried they may have gone to their regular classroom instead. That meant instead of talking in front of them as I was supposed to, repeat everything for each student that would arrive late (and given they were also preoccupied with the NBA Finals up-to-the-minute updates) I just did what I usually do in the computer lab, which was to write the instructions on the whiteboard and let them deal with it anytime they want within the hour and a half framework.

They were supposed to register for a free blog, write their first post and tell Cielo what their site address was.

And that’s all I have time for today. I’ll relate the rest tomorrow.