Thing #4: Comments Welcome

Commenting is the foundation to the blogging community. It is the means of knowing how your fellow bloggers respond to what you have to say. It is a way of finding out if your voice is heard, and to what extent. That being said, commenting on other people's blogs is of equal importance. Communication is a series of sending, receiving, and giving feedback. That feedback helps the sender determine how their information was interpreted. Though blogs themselves are means of sharing information, how is the worth of that information to be determined with out feedback?

The Edublogger Etiquette post had an interesting debate on the comment section involving whether of not responding to every comment someone leaves on your page is necessary. I saw both sides to the argument understandable, but more importantly I saw the argument itself on the blog as proof that people do take seriously blogger etiquette. This proves that commenting is important to say the least.

One tip on the post 10 Techniques to Get More Comments is to be humble. It states that "readers respond very well to posts that show your own weaknesses, failings and the gaps in your own knowledge rather than those posts where you come across as knowing everything there is to know on a topic."  I think that this is something very important to remember when blogging and commenting. Though at times being a know-it-all may get you comments, the phrase "any press is good press" isn't always true. Showing your readers that you are a real person, may make them feel they can relate and want to comment more.

Upon exploring why commenting was so important, I decided to comment on a few blogs myself.

-Cotton's Reflections gives some inspirational insight into how she views problems as challenges, which is a great outlook for a teacher. I commented on this because I felt her positive attitude towards this subject would truly benefit her in the future.

-The Wright Things discusses the importance of blogs and how they can be used as a mean to find ideas and tips from other teachers. She made some great points in this and I felt it was extremely important to learn from more experienced educators as teachers-in-training or new teachers.

-LClark's Educational Summer posts a cartoon that mixes math and fun that would be very useful for an attention getter for a math teacher. I love any time that learning and fun can be combined into one and I thought this was a wonderful example.

-A Summer Full of Technology discusses how having confidence in herself was one of her hardest habits to fulfill, which I completely related with. I wanted her to know many people in her position feel the same and that hopefully our confidence will come with furthering time and experience.

-Irwin Reclaiming the Classroom brings to attention how commenting on blogs calls upon room for debate, which I had to add to because I believe debate and seeing different viewpoints are important parts of continual learning. 

I wanted to give feedback to these blogs because I enjoyed what they had to say and had points to add that I felt were valid and relevant.