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 :)]

Blog Partners

I heard a great idea at this year's NCTE conference in a session on teaching the Holocaust: blog partners. I decided to adapt it for my students study of Elie Wiesel's novel Night. You can read their blogs here, and here is my assignment sheet.

I asked my students to reflect a little on this new format for our blogging, and here is what one of them wrote: "Doing what we're doing now, with the interactive posting/commenting, is also a new way of doing things and, unlike some assignments using sites like this, you have to actually think about what you're posting." Another student wrote: "It helps me improve my knowledge on the material we are learning because when I write a blog post it allows me to test myself and to see what I do or don't know about the material."

This has always been one of my favorite works to teach, and now I think I have a blogging system that is equally strong.

Summer ...

I am in my third week of summer, and here is my first visit to my blog. This is probably a good thing overall, although not so good for my blog's currency. I blogged quite a bit last summer -- in fact, last summer got my blog and I cemented in a good relationship with each other! This summer though has started differently. I have a deeper set of connections on Twitter (snobles) plus love spending time on the English Companion ning (many of my Twitter connections came from this ning). I am also trying to visit my school's new private ning as much as I can -- we are trying to get it off the ground. My online life has spread in new ways, competing with this blog.

This article on the possible demise of blogging got me back here. I started this blog for me. I was a journal writer growing up but had not written in my journal for too many years. My blog has become my teacher's journal. The fact that others can read it, maybe learn from it, and definitely teach me things in their comments is an added bonus. But I can see that if I had started this blog with the hope of being famous in the blogsphere, I would not still be here. The blogosphere is too diffuse for that. I would also not still be here if I did not have readers who write back to me -- the idea that someone might just be waiting for a new post reminds me to write. I am curious to see where the world of blogs is heading, and I am glad I have this one. I am a better teacher by reflecting, and this blog is my tangible reminder to do that.

So, what have my early weeks of summer entailed?

• READING -- I am plowing through books like I have not in a long time. Both personal choices and professional ones are grabbing me, and I find myself already worrying if there will be enough time this summer to read everything I want to read! I am trying to keep my LibraryThing library up to date.
• Getting better versed with Diigo as both a social bookmarking site and a powerful annotating tool. Steve Shann is one person who inspires me to keep blogging, and per his request, I will be sure to write about what I do with Diigo and my 9th graders next year.
• Working in my yard. One VERY rainy spring later, and our blackberry vines are full, my first tomato literally fell off its vine ready to eat, and we found even more places to plant flowers.
• Being with my kids and my husband. This is the first summer in many that my husband is not away for a month directing the Virginia Governor's Latin Academy, and the rest of us family couldn't be happier. We swim, walk, bike, garden, read, laugh ...

I read about a saying Suzy Welch lives by -- 10-10-10. She says she makes decisions by thinking about what will matter most in 10 minutes, in 10 months, and in 10 years. I can't think of a better way to regain perspective on life and what matters most. I am off to pack a picnic right now to meet my kids and husband at a local park for an outdoor lunch concert. I think I know this will matter!