Blogging Begins

This morning's blogging tutorial at Hercules High School took place in the pouring rain. Fortunately, we were situated inside a warm computer room. I arrived at Hercules, along with Mariko Whitenack, about twenty minutes early and ready to learn all about how to blog. 

At 9:00 AM, after everyone had arrived safely, Don's tutorial began. He covered an extensive range of topics related to the ILC, including the blog, the dinners that we will be attending later this spring, and the actual trips themselves. He discussed what he was expecting of us as participants in the program. We spent most of the time learning from Don about the best way to format our blogs, how to take good-quality photos, and how to manipulate our photos so that they turn out looking polished and attractive. 

The most helpful part of the tutorial, for me, was the hands-on experience in the last hour, where everyone got a chance to practice drafting blogs and uploading photos. I am not especially tech-savvy, so I was grateful to have help from people at neighboring computers. During this time, we also learned from Don about how our presentation of our blogs would affect people's perceptions of what we wrote. I have never kept a consistent written record of any of my life experiences before, so blogging will be quite interesting and educational for me. 

Another part of the tutorial that I enjoyed were the short breaks that we took, where everyone had a chance to mingle and meet each other. I met several other ILC students, and talked to two other girls who are going to be at Brown University with me. I also got to meet the chaperones for Brown II, and we all spent several minutes discussing the future trip. I am so grateful and excited that I have this opportunity, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone in the program.