Celebrating baby blogs and a newborn wiki! :-)

Hello all!

Finally, a new entry in my blog! Yay!! :-) I bet most of you had given up on me by now! I know I had! ;-)

Still, I hope you will feel that it was worth the long wait after seeing the newborn weblogs of my Essay Writing Class at Al-Zahra (a.k.a. Azzahra) University. My girls have done a good job, if I say so myself. This year we have gone a step further and have created a classroom wiki, as well! I hope you'll have time to drop by and leave a few comments. I'm sure it will give the class more incentive to continue working on their blogs even now that the term is ending. Thanks! :-)

The classroom wiki:
http://bloggingtips.wikispaces.com

My girls' new weblogs:
http://fereshteebrahimi.blogspot.com
http://maryblessings.blogspot.com
http://frnz-frnz.blogspot.com
http://Aliceinwonderland2006.blogspot.com
http://enchantmentofeast.blogspot.com
http://tootfarangihappyday.blogspot.com
http://itsyourgo.blogspot.com
http://roya-redrose.blogspot.com
http://haveanewview.blogspot.com
http://arianapress.blogspot.com
http://raheleh-h.blogspot.com
http://fhtoosi.blogspot.com
http://Friends-Irandaily.blogspot.com
http://Sheno-Rostampour.blogspot.com
http://desertsstars.blogspot.com
http://thestoryofacomet.blogspot.com
http://fatemehzeynalipoor.blogspot.com
http://mitra-salari.blogspot.com
http://delimo.blogspot.com
http://freesouls.blogfa.com
http://2tnt.blogspot.com
http://leili-gh.blogspot.com
http://1strangeworld.blogspot.com
http://Mojgan.wordpress.com
http://zahralangaroodi2007.blogspot.com
http://niloufar-amini.blogspot.com
http://parisamehran.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Comments

angelesb said…
You have done an excellent work! Congratulations! How old are your students?

regards

angelesb (b4b)
6:34 PM
Nina Liakos said…
Hi, Susan, I've visited some of the blogs and left some comments. They are very interesting. I did not leave comments on posts that appear to have been copied and pasted from another author (without attribution, too). I prefer to read what the students themselves write.
Nina (Maryland)
2:40 AM
Anonymous said…
Oh, Susan!

How can a tester be a poet? A tester is a sadist and a poet a masochist! Are you an eclectic cyborg?
9:01 PM
team said…
Hi, Susan.I'm an English instructor.I've done an Action research in my class speaking class. Using weblog was interesting and useful for them.Good Luck.
11:48 PM
Susana Canelo said…
Hi Susana:
What a day to post your new entrance. May 25th, it's a National Holiday in Argentina, we celebrate the birth of our country and it's my birthday too. But I'm younger.
I've read some of your students blogs. You and they are working hard. Excellent task !!! I'm inviting my students to visit and comment.
Susana Canelo
from Del Valle in Argentina
4:53 AM
C Major said…
Hi Ms. Marandi
Thank you very much for sharing your students' weblogs. I skimmed through all of them, read some of the posts and left a few comments for the ones I liked most.
I also congratulate you for doing a great job of incorporating blogging into teaching of writing.
Your students must like you a lot to have produced such a tremendous output.
It may be worthwhile to get them write instead of copypasting.
I saw your name in BAW07 and meant to write to you sooner, but unfortunately, tied up in the business & caught up in the rat race, I never really got round doing it.
oh by the way, I loved your poem in the previous post. It was really moving.
Good luck
5:39 PM
Anonymous said…
Way to go, Susan and bloggers! Most posts are very interesting and my classes were willing to establish contact. However, many of the blogs only allow people with a Blogger or Google account to post. Is it possible to open the comment area to people blogging on other platforms or is this a Blogger club?:-)
Thanks!
3:03 PM
S. Susan Marandi said…
Dear angelesb, Nina, team, Susana, C Major, and Bee,

Thanks so much for your kind comments, and for leaving comments on my students' weblogs. They were thrilled! :-)

Angelesb, they are college students doing their BAs in English Literature. I would say most of them are around 20-23. Thanks again for your time and kind comments!

Nina and CMajor, you're right about the copy/pasting. :-( I've spoken to them a lot about plagiarism, but we're still having issues. It is lessening, though. Any suggestions on how to handle it? What do you do with your students?

BTW, I'm glad you liked my poem, C Major. :-)

Team, I'm interested! How did you use weblogs for a speaking class?

Susana, happy birthday! And thanks for your kind words! And I'm sure my students would love to see your class blogs!

Bee, you are so right, and I have told them several times to change the settings of their blogs, but lots of them seem to have forgotten to do it. :-( I'll remind them again soon, but right now their off studying for their finals. Oh well ... Anyway, thanks for always being there!

Thanks again, all! :-)
4:47 PM
Mitra said…
MY Dear Professor; Hi! maybe after a long time...

I feel down when I think about the end of the story of blogging in your amazing course since tomorrow is the exam day... and... finish!

But I guess that I have just found an abstract land of joy which brightens my life up! A never land which I owe you all the extraordinary things it brings to me. And I won't stop it so easily, since I have just tasted its delight..

I wanted to ask you to visit my blog from time to time. You don't know how miserable I feel when I see no respond, no audience and no comment! and how glad when see someone concerns about my works...
and of course this is really bold about you, the guide for this great job...

So you would honor me with your visiting and your criticisms and suggestions for improving the job...

Thank you for everything. And see you :)
12:20 PM
Maryam Ahmadzadeh said…
Dearest Dr. Marandi,
Just wanted to thank you for every thing and for the joyful time we had in your class. Wish you all the good.

Hugs,
Maryam
3:35 PM
Anonymous said…
You have nice pictures of yourself on your website. You strike me as younger than your actual age. I wonder why you don't blog anymore since you do a much better job than your own students. I was going through the comments left on some of your posts and figured that you've given rise to mixed feelings. I don't know if I really liked your poem, but that's beside the point. It's important that you can foster dialogue.
5:47 AM
Marjan said…
hi dearest mrs. marandi
it's really appreciating than an iranian teacher has been so innovative in the area of online teaching...
your classes seems to be really attractive while i myself did not have the opportunity to enjoy it.
that's about your weblogs at azzhara, but i just wonder why i could not find a cv of the academic staff on the web, not even an email was provided even by you who are now the head of the english departement which is really rewarding.
from your board of accademic staff and my previous visit to the school i recognized that you and the other dearest mrssss are trying to reduce the literature departement into a teaching one.
and that's a regret. it's not that i hate teaching for i'm a teacher myself but i see that the school is turning to be a place of individual tastes and policies.
i'd really like to know your idea on what i have commented. of course your hingness, the american-born iranian dr. seyyedeh susan marandi, would choose to forgive my straight forward comments and drop me a mail for furthur negotiation.
bybye.
AMESTRISS@gmail.com
9:29 AM
Anonymous said…
hi susan. well. lovely blog.
but here i've got a quastion. i've just tried to have a blog on blogspot. i saw yours & it's beautiful.
i saw a widget on the right hand of your blog. although they've got different contents,but they're in the same widget. what is that widget?

maysam_bagheri@operamail.com

could you just help me with taht by this email address?
thank you very much...
12:44 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi Dr.Marandi

At first I wanna thanked u for your fabulous presentation in the Guilan university and I congratulateb your students on the fantastic "friend" not a teacher!
8:39 PM
azam said…
hi dear miss marandi, i need to contact with my english teacher, miss gahramani, please help me ,here is my e-mail:
mostafavi_azam@yahoo.com
11:18 PM
Race Equality Secret Service said…
WHITE ARYANS vs DARK IRANIANS

BNP (Black National Party)

The BNP (Black National Party) has been created to expedite the work of the Race Equality Secret Service (RESS).

The BNP (Black National Party) gets stronger as "STORMFRONT" gets weaker.

http://raceequalitysecretservice.blogspot.com/2010/02/bnp-black-national-party.html
5:14 PM
H.M said…
Hello Your Highness,

I'm a senior student of Mazandaran University and am in dire dire need of consulting you about my research project on CALL.I'd be really grateful if you'd provide me with your e-mail address.
Here's my ID: hamidmirzaee@rocketmail.com
10:19 AM
Anthea Sapon said…
Hi there,

I hope that I'm not the cheeky ONE now :)

I came across http://nikui.blogspot.com/ and wondered whether you might be interested in mentioning my blog dedicated to "English Speaking" up there?

It is located here --> http://www.englishspeaking.org

Thanks for looking into it!

Sincerely,
Anthea Sapon
7:26 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi, Your blog is blocked! in Iran
2:26 PM
Ali Meghdari said…
Dear Dr. Marandi:

Hi. Taa'aat va Ebaadaate shoma maghbool. I enjoyed your honesty on the American-born Iranian introduction which as you said is the truth. :) I also wanted to thank you for your collaborations with the LLC of Sharif University of Technology. Our students speak very highly of you. Best...

Ali Meghdari
5:06 PM
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