SUPERBLOG!

     When this blog site was first introduced  at the beginning of the semester, I thought it would be no problem at all to do a small blog every week. Instead it turned into something major. Doing a blog every week was not the first thing on my mind. The first semester of college has many freshmen scatter brained and I would have to admit I was one of them. Being able to complete the blog on time every week is hard because there are so many other things going on that I have little time to sit down and say ok have I done the blog this week. By the time that thought came across it was already thursday afternoon and too late to get the point for that week. Or it would be as I lay down for the night, then hop up to see what time it was usually around 11 which does not give me enough time to read the text then respond with a paragraph to each question. Despite this I do not think the blog should be eliminated altogether, but it should not be required every week.
     Having the blog assigned to maybe once every two weeks, would give first time freshmen a better chance at being able to accomplish this. The required length of the blog would of course increase because there would be more questions, this would not be too much of a load since it would not be every week and can be worked on over the course of two weeks. Students should be assigned the topics that need to be read in advice so if a student has many assignments due that week or the next it will give them time to sit down and read the required text. Every two weeks a student should have four to six questions on a text that was read over that duration of time.
       In class assignments should stay as they were, journals were not particularly tricky unless class was missed a lot in which case, the topic could be received from another classmate who went to class on the day that was missed. Since the journals only had to be one page, it does not need to be shortened unless it was made to be a weekly journal done on friday morning, but this would cause the length requirement to go up and the completion rate to go down. Students who are in 101 usually are not the best with time management, they will tell themselves, I have to go home and finish this and then when they get home a million other things can be happening and they forget. I think the time frame to do the journal should be 10 minutes instead of 5 so that the page will be filled thoroughly.
      Also another way that the blog can be more successful in the future is if it was discussed on facebook. Facebook is used by just about every student, having a page set up that reminds the students of the upcoming blog, and having a place where they can comment and discuss with one another will further the success of the blog. Students will be reminded that the blog is due and try harder to get it done. When they have questions instead of waitin for a reply to an email, or for the next class day, they would receive an automatic response from another student, the page would be in constant use throughout the day allowing the students to freely talk among themselves and even certain days have discussions with their teacher.
       Some may argue that making the blog longer every other week would still be a problem and cause for students not to get it completed, but over the course of two weeks a student will eventually think about the assignment and get it done especially if it is posted all over facebook. These are only a few suggestions in ways that the blog can be improved for future success in class. Freshmen are more prone to get an assignment completed and the contents of their answers with better quality if there is a longer period of time in which the blog can be completed.