Blog talk
I think I chose this picture because this is how I'm beginning to feel - a shy plant beginning to flower. I can see all the wonderful possibilities of this great tool and ideas are budding, but the challenge remains the same. How do I get people interested and participating? These are the same concerns I see voiced by my colleagues and I have also seen lots of great suggestions in answer, but something Carla posted on my blog nudged my own thoughts. She spoke of how at first her writing had been for her students but now the writing itself was a source of pleasure. Idea, then.
Like fishermen, we teachers throw out our nets in hope that our students will be caught in the process of learning. Sometimes our nets come back full, sometimes (more often than I'd like to think) depressingly light. Still, the process of casting our nets is an experience in itself. Writing and preparing a blog, thinking of your objectives and your audience, choosing what will be most useful, most inviting - all of this is a growth process for the teacher and even if no one else reads or reacts, the need to organize yourself to the point of reflecting, writing, choosing, preparing, re-vamping, and maybe ultimately moving on to something else will serve to raise your awareness and thus improve your teaching.
And as I think Carla experienced, writing is addictive. There is something very satisfying about putting your thoughts into words. It becomes a passion, and there is nothing as seductive as passion. I guess what I'm trying to say is blogging, like most things, will reach some, will serve those willing to give it a try, and that includes us, teachers, for even if it ends up being just for us, someone is profiting from this wonderful tool. Like the flowers, some will see their beauty and in seeing it, make their own world more beautiful. But all flowers really do is exist.
