Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Edublogs Inspiration:Starting Again



Starting Again: After writing a few school-related blogs and not finding the time to put good effort into writing, I put the blog on the back-burner. I feel like I can write, but I don't have the natural, creative talent that I see in many blogs I follow.  In December, I received an email from Edublogs inspiring educators to take up blogging and offering a weekly prompt to get us typing.  I love a good challenge, saw this as an opportunity to grow myself professionally, and promptly signed up to be part of the #EdublogsClub.  The #Edublogsclub is a year-long weekly series where educators will blog together. Here is how it works- every Tuesday you get an email with a blog prompt. After writing to this prompt, we are encouraged to share our writing.  (Want to join the club? Click here.)

Week One: My Blog Story: I began blogging about 10 years ago when my first daughter was only a few years old as a way to share her experiences with family near and far. I kept this up for a while... until baby #2 arrived. Suddenly I was short on time and blogging fell to the wayside. I tried to restart a few years ago, but never found the time to keep it up.  Last year, I began a blog to chronicle some education highs, not only to share them with fellow educators, but also to keep a log of activities I wanted to use from year to year. Again, I found that time was short and I didn't do a good job of writing regularly. This year, I have found myself in a new role at school. I shifted from a self-contained classroom teacher to the whole school technology teacher.  I began blogging again to journal about my new adventures after 20 years in a regular classroom. I started strong, but didn't keep up the writing when life got busy! So, I guess I'm not an experienced veteran, but also not a new blogger! 

I do find time to read many blogs. Although I read them often, I can't list them because I'm subscribed to email notifications and often just read them when I get an email with the blog's summary.  I not only read blogs related to education, but also blogs with family life topics.

My goal for the #EdublogsClub are to  use this platform to regularly reflect on my teaching practices.  I have found over my years of teaching that reflecting on teaching is one of the best ways to improve it. I often don't spend enough time thinking about the good and bad points of a lesson unless I force myself to sit and think about it (like I have to do when I blog!) My biggest fear is that I'm not a super-star writer, so my writing will not have the character and charm that I often see in popular educators' blogs.  I also worry that with time being short, I won't have time to edit my writing to make it flow better.  However, I know that if we don't stretch ourselves, we may never learn our strengths. So, here I am, blogging. 



3 comments:

  1. Hi Joanna

    Thanks for sharing your reflection! Blogging is one of the best ways of reflecting. I'm also not a super star writer. I feel envious of those that are able to write posts quickly. However, it does become easier the more you blog! I'm very goal driven so having a goal helps me.

    Sue Waters
    @suewaters

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  2. I love the reflective element of blogging because it's a natural extension of what I do each day after each lesson, interaction, or activity I do in the school library. Could I have made that lesson stronger? Could that activity have been done differently? Was I effective in getting my point across in that conversation?

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  3. Hi Joanna,
    As a technology teacher, you could also use a blog with your lesson plans so they are out there for the students to use at home or if they are sick and miss a lesson. You could have students reflect on the instructions through the comments.

    I agree with Sue that writing both posts and comments becomes easier the more you do it!

    Sue @tasteach

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