Caroline+Blogging+Assignment+1

Assignment #1
Expected time to __complete__ written assignments: 20 - 30 minutes Please note that there are two parts to this assignment.

After you have attended the __webinar__ and read the blog pages about //Blogging: Sharing My Personal Faith Story//, your individual homework assignment this week is to identify one or two blogs that are interesting to you and to share why these ministers blog.

Part 1 : What is their passion?

Using the Catholic Blog Directory ([]), scan through the various titles. Pick three titles that interest you. Read about the author and pick one or two blog posts to read. What are you noticing about the blogs you have scanned? In a paragraph or two, identify what you notice about the author and the mission of the blog. What is their passion?
 * Please remember to include the Name of the blog (and URL) with your comments. If possible, try to pick blogs that others are not commenting on. The main focus of this assignment is to identify WHY these authors are writing their blogs. What is their passion?
 * Name:
 * Blog title + URL
 * Why is this author writing their blog? What is their passion?

Example:
 * Name: Caroline Cerveny
 * Catholic Web Solutions - []
 * Sr. Susan Wolf is a blogger who wants to help religious communities think strategically about integrating the Internet and Social Media into their mission; to develop a plan and then implement it. Using these new media we can enhance our member services, ourmembership recruitment and our outreach.

Another Example from Dave Gruber:

1) Catechist's Journey - [] Joe Paprocki, D.Min.  Joe has been a parish catechist for years and also serves as a catechetical consultant & author with Loyola Press.  He is committed to offering a forum on this blog sharing his journey and experience as a catechist with catechists from all over and invites us to share our experiences & ideas in catechetical ministry. 2) Erin's Blog - [] A clearinghouse of catechetical information for the Diocese of St. Augustine Erin McGeever - Director of Christian Formation, Youth and Young Adult Ministry Diocese of St. Augustine I first met Erin in person a couple of years ago in Atlanta at NCCL after being in contact with one another for some months about a possible position in that Diocese. She has an extremely limited budget and only 1 or 1-1/2 diocesan staff members, therefore she utilizes the blog just as described in the tagline above.

Mary Amore writes: I found three blogs that were interesting to review on CatholicBlogs.com

CanYouDrinktheCup.blogspot.com by Fr. Rob, http://canyoudrinkthecup.blogspot.com/ who is a parish priest that has decided to post all of his homilies. They date back several years.I n ever really considered that a homily was a blog, but in reading his postings, I would guess that they are certainly blog material.

CallHerHappyblogspot.com http://callherhappy.com/ is written by a mother who chronicals her everyday life with her family. The author is savy enough to have paid advertisers on her blog page, with links directly to the advertisers home pages. This allows her to offer a "shopping tab" on her blog.

MacNCheese Chronicles by Lorrie. Written http://themacandcheesechronicles.com/ by a woman in California, this blog also portrays her family life, with the catch phrase, "if you stop by my house at lunch, we most likely will be eating mac n cheese!

Chris Simons: I decided to include two blogs from the perspective of teens: [] Just Shine on by Alexis Grace [] A Catholic Teens Perspective by Abigail Reimel

I liked reading about the issues that teens think are important. These blogs could be earmarked for later use in youth ministry programs.Some of the topics discussed: relationships, movies and do's and don'ts of social media. Alexis has been blogging since 2013 (earliest date I can find); Abigail has been blogging since 2009. Interesting to see the growth of these two. As Abigail is in college, she has more diversity in her topics. Both of these writers post because they are passionate about their faith. And they are noteworthy because of their ages.

Anne Renkes -Here are two blogs I enjoyed:

Footprints in the Sand- http://footprints.wordpress.com Footprints in the Sand is a blog in the Catholic New York newspaper by reporter Julianne Dos Santos. The inspiration came from the popular "Footprints" poem, where a man walking on the beach is wondering where God is at various points in his life. It's one of my favorites! Ms. Dos Santos is writing her blog for young adults at all stages in their journey with Christ, hoping they will realize that God is with them. I think her passion is helping her contemporaries find God in the good, bad and everyday things in life. I really liked a lot of her commentaries even though I am no where near her target audience, but I know people who are and plan to recommend it! I particularly like the way she ends each entry with a related question. Even if it doesn't spark a "comment conversation", it certainly offers some food for thought for her readers.

Catholic Prayer Life Blog-http://catholic-prayer-life.com College Spiro is a wife, mother, grandmother, spiritual director& author. Catholic Prayer Life is a website with everything you need to know about prayer. Included in the website is a link to her blog; Thoughts on Grace-colleenspiro.blogspot.com. Colleen gives talks/retreats on spirituality and her website and blog focus on sharing her experiences of God and prayer with others. It is her passion to share her faith and spiritual life with others. I like this site because it is full of ideas to stimulate my own personal prayer life, and to share with the Catechists and youth I work with as a CRE. There has something for everyone there!

Note: Two of my favorite things are food and crafts. I have followed these two blogs for years and each one focuses on how my love for all things food and crafts tie in with Catholicism! It's a "win - win" for me. @www.catholicicing.com by Lacy. I really admire how she keeps the meaning of faith in her family's life. The multitude of crafts relating to the Catholic faith is truly amazing and creative. You can search by terms such as rosary, ordinary time, Mary, etc. as well as broader searches. Believe me, these ideas aren't just for kids - adults can also find a myriad of creative projects to pursue. http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/ by a group of contributors. Their passion is showing readers what foods can be a part of our faith. Along with recipes for the foods as they relate to saints, liturgical celebrations, etc., I absolutely adore the fact that they teach me things in a fascinating way.
 * Blogs reviewed by Staci Stroud **

Post your comments, then continue on to Part 2, below

// Parrt 2 : Do you agree or disagree?//

//**After listening to Scott Rosenberg's video,**// **10 Myths About Blogs//, do you agree or disagree with what Scott states in the video? Why? Please post your name with your answer//**

//**For example:**// //Scott Rosenberg's video,// 10 Myths About Blogs,// gave a sometimes humorous but pointed critique of the typical arguments against the legitimacy of blogging. I have to admit that some of these Myths have been some of my own! Viewing this video gave me an opportunity to look at some of these arguments and to think about blogs and bloggers differently. As Rosenberg seemed to imply, blogs and bloggers each need to be evaluated on their own merits, just as individual authors or newspaper writers. It was interesting as well to hear him speak of 'lifecycles' of blogs. Whereas blogs seemed before to sometimes to be merely 'flash-in-the-pan' and 'transitory' in nature, perhaps they are more correctly tools which can serve issues of 'immediacy' and of a 'here-and-now' nature which are time-limited. The specific blogs must then be judged against the whole of others on the same topic to discern the authority and legitimacy and veracity of the opinions and thoughts which are discussed. Pat Ruthemeyer

Scott's video was concise and brought up some excellent points. As a novice blogger, I must admit that I have never thought of a blog as an avenue of "going deeper"on a particular subject. He also brought up an interesting point that anonymous bloggers can't be trusted. While I don't agree with that statement, I fail to understand why people do not post their entire names on their blogs. If you write something, shouldn't you own it? What I found most insightful was his comment on the staying power of blogs. He pointed out that most blogs that have staying power are written with the passion of the author. I believe this wholeheartedly. Passion is a great motivator for writing and inspiring others. Mary Amore

Scott's video provided complete "mythbusting" with great arguments for each myth. I think blogs are here to stay, to be used as a tool to share thoughts, ideas and information. I don't think it will replace any form of journalism, but rather accompany it as yet another form. There are a lot of them to sift through, and like anything, some will succeed, some won't. It all depends on the content and consistency of entries. Anne Renkes

Scott seemed to hit the nail-on-the-head when he listed his top 10 myths about blogging. I believe that I may have expressed some on those opinions myself. One of my peeves has been that there are simply too many blogs. I had never thought about comparing it to the number of books and movies released and figuring out which one to read or watch. Probably the only one I did not agree with, however, it the myth that blogging is dead. I never considered it dead; just constantly evolving. Chris Simons

I have had experience with blog-writing in regard to my sponsorship of several children around the world. It is true that blogs really do help us to delve deeper into a subject. At first it seems like there are too many, but as Scott pointed out: we don't have to read them all. Think of how many books there are available to us. Some of those sell, some don't. They're still there as a resource, and some are read much more than others. **~ Staci Stroud**