Sunday, September 11, 2011

10 Things I Have Learned as an EduBlogger

1. Reflection makes me a better teacher.
2. Making the time to come to my blog and write is always invigorating and rewarding.
3. Blogging will be sporadic unless you make yourself a blogging goal. I have to admit I have not made blogging regular in my life, despite having years of posts. I envy those bloggers who set weekly or even daily blogging goals. Imagine the reflection and growth they achieve ...
4. Sharing links to your posts in other forums (Twitter, Facebook, blogs you comment on) may feel like bragging, but instead it is inviting conversation.
5. My students are intrigued when they learn I blog about my teaching and therefore them. I think this helps them see that I really care about what I am asking them to do with me in class.
6. The first thing your students will do when they learn that you blog is go on your blog and look for mentions of themselves. They will laugh when they admit this to you.
7. An EduBlog is not a personal blog, but that does not mean it does not get personal (see my last post for evidence of that). You will need to decide for yourself, just as you do in your classroom, how personal you are comfortable going.
8. Link to other blogs and sites that you enjoy and learn from. The collaborative web is as much (if not more so) about who you link to as it is about who links to you.
9. Use visuals and videos and try to condense your writing (I fail regularly at this, but I know that people are more apt to read my and your posts when they are not scrolling down and down and down.)
back going back through your posts and seeing the history of yourself as a teacher is powerful and often surprising.

What have you learned as a blogger? [#11: ending with a question is always inviting to your readers :)]

2 comments:

  1. #11 - Just starting, but realize there are some impressive blogs out there. The big challenge is selecting the blogs to follow. I really admire this one and hope to find time to read more frequently.

    Thanks for sharing

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  2. I have learned by blogging that I can quite literally put my thoughts down and just let them loose into cyber space, without (thus far anyways) criticism and I can just be me, uninterrupted.

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