The Competition

Dear Readers,

Happy Monday everybody! This is a special non-art post. Surprising, right?!

I was curious about The Competition, aka other blogs by teachers-in-training. One of the most interesting blogs is called The Absolutely True Blog of an Almost Teacher. I'm already in love with the title, it reminds me of another excellent blog...

Shameless self-promotion is not illegal in this state

So, back to the blog review. Right off the bat, I must point out a few things that distinguish Emmy's blog from mine. The excellent title is a little misleading because the "almost teacher" is currently a first-year teacher, whereas I am a student teacher like my title suggests.

Also, Emmy's students are seventh graders in middle school while I am surrounded by elementary kids of varying grades. Her posts are about school life and her personal life, complete with personal information, but I am very focused on school alone and careful about not leaking my info.

That's a rundown of our differences, but the main similarity I am focusing on is our devotion to technology. Most young teachers (and almost teachers) are adamant about finding and getting the newest tech for the classroom. One of the easiest things to create is a website.

Which is why I have made and abandoned at least 10 sites, all in the name of education. At least.

These are just the ones I have on Blogger

But one of the things I do each time I make a website is see what features certain providers have and how I can use multimedia (text, audio, still images, animations, videos, and interactive components) to make an engaging site.

The easiest way for me to figure out what is available is to look at other well-established websites, like Emmy's blog, and decide how I can incorporate (steal) their features and adapt them to suit my needs. The purpose of the review is to go a step beyond and grade this lovely teacher's use of multimedia.

Text: A-
Emmy's posts are interesting and written in a very captivating style. But some of the paragraphs seem too chunked and would benefit from being split up or pared down.

Images: A+
Oh, the use of still images is breathtaking! She uses personal photos rather than stock photos, appropriately editing out information that's too personal and captioning/describing everything in the images.

Interactivity: A+ 
There are several links to social media and other sites conveniently located on every page to keep tabs on the blog and its eloquent writer. She welcomes readers to share their advice, ideas, etc. and responds to most every comment.

Audio, Animations, & Video: Incomplete
I didn't find any posts or other features containing audio or video clips. I don't really have room to complain here, since you won't find those things on my blog either (yet!).

From this report card, it's clear Emmy has a high quality blog that could be made even better with a few minor changes. Her site is easy to navigate and seems inviting to readers. On top of everything, the blog is simply beautiful!

I am suffering from design envy

The page is colorful yet simple, and shows just how a minimalist theme is best for blogging. That's definitely something I'm considering appropriating for my own blog.

It's clear The Competition is a strong competitor, though perhaps having a different blog purpose and audience from Emmy helps save my bacon.

That's it for this post. What do you thing about The Competition? I'd love hearing your input about my blog, Emmy's blog, or even your blogs! Until next time...
 

Ms. Fisher

 Image credits: The Absolutely True Blog of an Almost Teacher and me!