Monday, April 18, 2016

Blog Celebration: 1,000,000 Hits!

In just a week's time, my blog will hit 1,000,000 hits--that's a lot of views. My own children joke that I'm probably responsible for 50% of those hits as they know I love to blog and find that to be a peculiar interest from their viewpoints as young, active men who are mainly socially and athletically driven.

Yet, for me, to blog means to have a voice in the education conversation. It has also been a terrific reflection platform, one that finds me thinking about all the details and big picture ideas that affect the work I do each and every day. Also it's an easy way to share my experiences, ideas, and education work with others. For example if someone wants to understand the steps to making a digital story, I can easily share that post with them as a first step on their path to digital story work.

There have been times that this blog was challenged greatly. "Why do you blog?" administration admonished during a heated meeting once. Mainly I blog to do better, tell my story, and perhaps, help others who may face similar issues, questions, or promising ideas with regard to teaching better. I also blog to challenge many ideas in education and to start conversations about education vision and promise.

I started blogging when my practice was challenged many years ago. An individual began to relay my work in ways that were untrue so I began to tell my own story via the blog. When challenged a few years into blogging, I contemplated taking the blog down, but a longtime supporter and mentor of mine (one who is much younger than me) encouraged me to keep my blog going, and not to be discouraged by the painful challenge.

Yet, I didn't dismiss the challenge. I listened to the words and the intention, and I changed some of the ways I blog. I became more respectful with tone and words. I began to write with greater vision and positivity. Yet, I still tell the truth of the daily ups and downs, and perhaps to some, write too much, but I'm following a strong inner energy to do this work.

Where will the blog take me after 1,000,000 hits and 3,526 posts? I think it will continue to be the place I go to get better at what I do. The daily reflection helps me to think deeply about my work and how I might do a better job with students. I use past posts to inform current work too. Though in the future, I can imagine my blog becoming many short presentations or books. For example, I've written a lot about math learning/teaching, and I'd like to put all of those posts into one book that easy to reference and use as I, and possibly others, teach math. Similarly I've got a lot of posts about running a classroom community including what works and mistakes to avoid--I think those posts would really help teachers in their first five years of teaching since I've learned a lot from teaching in a high quality education system for 30 years. There's lots of posts about the use of technology, writing, process, and communication too--those posts would help others and even help me more if coordinated into short online books.

Do you blog? If so, where is your blog headed? Why do you blog, and what merit does it hold for your practice? There's lots to consider as you begin a blog, however if this intrigues you, my advice is to just get started and see where it takes you. Enjoy!