The rules:

• Register by 27 Nov. on her site, bhuti.wordpress.com or by email: blog[ät]bhuti[punkt]de
• Soon after she’ll be sending you the address of the blog to write for
• Man sollte Deutsch schreiben können, sonst fällt es halt doch sehr auf!!
• Your blog contribution must be handed in to Frau Bhuti by 11 Dec.
• All contributions are published on 15 Dec.

Na, wer macht mit? Dolcevita, Du?

As I was walking through the exhibition I came across artwork for Alice in Wonderland (1951) by Mary Blair (1911-1978), the Disney background artist who gave that film its distinctive “new look”. (Illustration by Mary Blair taken from the catalog, Walt Disneys wunderbare Welt und ihre Wurzeln in der europäischen Kunst, Hirmer, 25 Euros at the exhibition.)

I’m thinking back on my first year as a blogger and writing for online readers, which is just coming to an end. And so, looking at these pictures, I find myself identifying with Alice. She knows what it’s like. On unfamiliar terrain, always trying out whatever is available as she goes through quite a few changes – just like me this year. There’s so much to see on the other side of the Looking Glass. You can make mistakes and get into trouble, sure, but for the most part it’s a great adventure. And you know, in the end, all that amazing technology, all those exciting tools are just a … “a pack of cards!” Alice will always remain Alice. Thank you, dear reader, for sticking with me on my trip down the rabbit hole.

Here is a song from Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” which resonnates with a backend beginner like me. It’s called “Painting the roses red”.

Thank you Dolce for the initial spark and for hours and hours of work (!) and Dolcevita for your encouragement. Thank you Eamonn for taking me on based on almost nothing. Thank you Helmut for dragging me away from the computer. Thanks, everyone, for your ideas and comments.

Liebe Anne, or should I say
dear Anne?

Your lovely Blogwichtel war ja schon ein bisschen estonished, als mir Dein Blog – I have to admit I didn’t know it bis dato – zugelost wurde.

Doch frei nach dem Motto der kommenden re:publica dachte ich mir “Shift happens” und löste das Sprachproblem kurzerhand mixing the languages. Nicht ohne errors in der einen oder other language einzubauen, what your heart as an english teacher sicherlich höher schlagen lässt, as you can count the Fehler an kreid them to me on.

From the first moment, als ich mich in dieses mir unbekannte Blog einlass, I knew that yo are a very nice person. Du hast Dir sogar die Mühe gemacht, den Blogwichtel, also mich, mit einem eigenen Blogartikel zu begrüßen. (O that was a long part in german, I will compensate that with a nearly egual long english part, but please don’t put this on the Goldwaage). Back to what I wanted to say: Nett von Dir, Dich in die Situation des Blogwichtels (also in meine) hineinzudenken. Mit Deinen Worten hast Du genau das getroffen, was in mir vorging, als ich auf ein englischsprachiges Blog stieß:

If a blogwichtel kommt daher and reads this blog and thinks “o, jemine, o graus, das ist ja ois änglisch” please don’t worry, I can also read German.

Doch frei nach dem Motto, don’t use a joke for too long, verlasse ich nach diesem Satz auch schon wieder den intercultural language mix, denn man kann’s ja auch übertreiben and it’s never good to ride too long on a joke. Abschließend möchte ich Dir aber noch ein kleines Geschenk machen, das Dir Dein Blog so vor Augen führen soll, wie Du es vielleicht bis jetzt noch nicht gesehen hast, nämlich als Wortwolke, sozusagen als Wichtel-Wordle:

So sehen sie aus die Worte, die Du mehrheitlich – die einen mehr, die anderen weniger – seit etwas mehr als vier Monaten, seit August 2008, in Dein Blog geschrieben hast. Vier Monate “The Island Weekly” in eine Wichtel-Wordle-Wolke (WWW) verwandelt. Dies ist die handgearbeitete Version mit dem Text Deiner Artikel (bei Wordle auch in groß zu sehen!), und jenes ist der eher schnöde eingewordlete Feed, der viel weniger aussagt. Kein Vergleich, deine Wichtel-Wordle-Wolke ist doch viel aussagekräftiger, oder was meinst Du?

Dein unbekannter Blogwichtel

P.S. Versuche gar nicht erst herauszubekommen, wer Dich bewichtelt hat, das kriegst Du – zumindest nicht ohne den Hollemann zu bestechen – nie raus. Ich hoffe aber, Du und Deine Leser haben ein bisschen Freude mit diesem Blogwichtel-Artikel.

Dear Blogwichtel,

Ein großes Dankeschön for your lovely and gracious blog entry, dear Blogwichtel. And yes, the handmade version (and I do love handmade things) is far more meaningful. It proves that you need to go into detail if you want to get the big picture.

Warm regards and season’s greetings,

Anne

This makes me think of my father. And my mother. Would be great to portray her. I still have my dad’s old Voigtländer. Lots of guesswork, but it gets beautiful results.  I’ve shied away from digital cameras because of the wait between click and snap. OK, dear Voigtländer, you can go back into the museum now.

A Mr Hollemann - Nice to meet you, I’m Anne – is organizing “Blogwichteln“, a blog Secret Santa. You write an entry for another blogger, and someone else does the same for you. Interesting bloggers are involved, and it’s a lovely challenge, so I’ve been boldfaced enough to sign up. You too? Register by 8 December. Write to hollemann[ät]gmail[dot]com.

First of all, I think that personal, subjective thoughts on professional life and the world we live in are a legitimate, necessary corrective to the mass media. After 9-11 the American media went through a dramatic change. Noone was saying anything critical about the American government. In hindsight it was collective self-censorship rather than any one Big Brother. Back then I started reading blogs to see what educated people back home were talking about. It was a reality check for an expat like me, wondering what the hell had got into my country. And it reconciled me to my homeland. I’m glad that the mainstream media have cleaned up their act. But that’s what turned me on to blogs in the first place.

Then I’m a fan of professional notebooks. I sort out my own thoughts by writing them down. For this blog I then edit what I have written to make it fit for general consumption and to protect my client’s privacy. I’m thinking about and documenting the classes I have given, the didactics I have applied, and how successful they have been; the media I have used, what I can improve and how my field is changing.

And then I’m a fan of real language, of the stuff my clients are really interested in: the theories they are thinking about, how it applies to their future language needs and what I can do to better serve them. I summarize what we’ve been talking about. or sometimes I prepare material and then post something related to it in this blog. I post little extras, too, like smiling at someone over a cup of coffee. I try to simplify the language and include translations so we can communicate.

So I am currently writing for myself, for my trainer colleagues, for my clients, for my friends and family, for like-minded people. I’m like a fisherwoman hanging my bait in the water waiting for a fish to bite. I don’t expect a monster fish will come my way and take me on a high-speed ride in one direction. This is my open-door blog. Anne at work. I’m thrilled when I get comments. That’s like someone dropping by for a visit.

Actually, I do have a motor on this boat, and I’d like to kick it and include my readers more actively. Blogs are fabulous learning tools if you use them to reflect on what you are doing.  Writing in a language makes you really learn it. I invite you to comment in English on this blog. If you like I can correct your English – but that needs to be agreed between the two of us. You can even become a member of this blog and post your own original contents. Again, I can offer to discuss and correct your work. Or we can prepare a text together and then publish it.

I’m not using the Moodle part of this website at all except for closed off courses. Moodle allows you to have a blog, too, that can only be read by people who are using the platform.   It’s an option for people who want more privacy – but it deprives you of the fun of building an online community related to your ideas.

So that’s where I am. And where are you?

• Blogs as communication platforms for students, trainers, and projects? I had one for a company course, but it was just a course log and pinboard, which we didn’t really need, so it died a natural death. There’s so much more that you can do with learning technology as people become more accustomed to going online for everything. Read Nick Peachey for EFL and Larry Ferlazzo for good sites.
• Wikis may be a better teaching tool, because they are collaborative. But I like the moment of publication a blog allows, and the linear structure of comments that follow. That’s like a presentation and discussion.
• I am convinced that the only written homework worth doing is writing that gets both peer feedback and teacher feedback. That’s true in the classroom and online.
• Ergo: This blog would be a good place for student/client “Abschlussarbeiten”, even collaborative podcasts. I’d like that.
  
• Are all bloggers exhibitionists? What do you think?

Lee LeFever on Blogs: