One of the Five Star courses I decided to take to help kickstart my transition to a "tech-ier" teaching world involved a portion on the role of blogging for educators. I have a teacher friend who blogs regularly. I very much enjoy spending hours looking at the blogs of other kindergarten teachers, gaining many new ideas for my own classroom. One of the articles I read for the class was "Why Teachers Should Blog," by Shelly Blake-Plock. It was a great read, and hit the nail on the head why it's so difficult for me to blog. At times, it's difficult for me to put my thoughts and opinions down on paper, or in this case, the Internet for the whole world to see and comment on. In addition, the author makes the fabulous point that "to blog is to teach yourself what you think." This is powerful stuff! When you blog, it forces you to take ownership of your thoughts and feelings. I love the reflection aspect of blogging. It is my goal to use it more effectively as the year progresses and refer to my blog in upcoming years as a tool to determine what worked and what didn't in my classroom.
I also feel that blogging is a terrific tool to be used for collaboration with other teachers. I know have access to thought-provoking, educational, meaningful activities going on in other states that I would never have had access to in the past. With the decrease in funding for professional development, the opportunity to read the thoughts and ideas of other educators has been a true blessing! In conclusion, my goal is to make a smooth transition from "reader of blogs" to "contributor to blogs" by the beginning of our next school year!
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