I stumbled across this video tonight as I was taking part in the 31-day Comment Challenge. I was directed to it from a blog that I hadn’t read before called Literacy, Technology, Learning authored by Sarah Hanawal.

The video itself is by Bill Farren. He’s an educator in the Dominican Republic blogging at Education for Well-being. His message is quite simple:

The purpose of education should be to create well-being.

• We should educate in way that places personal well-being at the center of all educational decision-making.
• We cannot achieve personal well-being without also simultaneously promoting economic well-being, social well-being, and
  environmental well-being.
• We must strive to understand the relationships between personal, economic, social and environmental well-being.

This got me thinking about how “green” the teaching and learning is in our school. I wonder how bored my students are with their learning and I worry that some of them will become the “dropouts” in the statistics that Farren mentions. As our school continues along its journey through the Inquiry Learning process, perhaps this is a chance to push for deeper “green” teaching and learning in our classrooms.

How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?
Probably once a week. Most of the time someone’s already made a comment similar to the one I’d like to make, so I tend not to repeat it by adding my comment.

Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?
Not often – sometimes I get email notifications if I’m particularly interested in a conversation. Now because of the 31-day Comment Challenge, I’m using coComment, (which I actually signed up for ages ago, but never got round to doing anything more with it ….) and right now I’m just watching how it works.

Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?
I read certain blogs religiously, then other blogs if I have time – so I tend to comment on the same blogs. I do, however, comment on a new blogger’s blog if someone in my twitter network says “new blogger – please support”
Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments My Self-Review

Stay on topic.
I definitely do this. Comments are short.

Contribute new information to the discussion.
Not something I do all the time and definitely an area I could improve in and want to improve as part of this challenge. As I said above, if someone’s already said what I’m thinking – I don’t usually leave a comment – unless it’s something I feel strongly about.

Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.
Not guilty – I’m too busy reading all the posts in my reader to do this one!!

Know when to comment and when to e-mail.
Yes, I agree with this one – and I appreciate those people who read my blog that know it too. (It’s kinda like the way I treat twitter – somethings are not necessary for every man and his dog to read ………. )

Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.
I certainly do not know it all, not even close. My mother always told me to treat others as I would like to be treat and this definitely applies to what you put in writing too.

Make the tone of your message clear.
Since my comments are relatively short – (aka: lacking substance …….. ) my message is usually one of encouragement or agreement.

Own your comment.
Always. I have never made an anonymous comment – again, something my very wise mother taught me – “if you’re going to say it – own it”

Be succinct.
Short comments usually are! I will keep this in mind though, as I begin to work on improving the substance of my comments.

Cite your sources with links or inline quoting.
Already a habit – comes from all those B.Ed assignments I think!!

Be courteous.
Thanks Mum, another thing you’ve already taught me well.

Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional.
Never done this ….. especially the drunk one – I can’t read when I’ve drunk too much! Plus I don’t think I’ve ever been that incensed at a blog post ……. yet ………

Do not feed or tease the trolls.
I watched a couple of conversations when this happens – and I don’t like it.

This Self-Audit has definitely highlighted a couple of areas for me. The lack of substance to my comments was something that I was aware of already, but didn’t quite know how to move beyond it. I’m hoping that, by taking part in this 31-day comment challenge, this area in particular will improve.

I’m also looking forward to reading some new blogs and taking on the challenge of keeping to Gina’s guide to blog commenting.
And if you are part of The Comment Challenge remember to add the ” comment08 ” tag to your post.