Chiming in a little late, but I wanted to share my journey into blogging . . .
I still remember the day when I discovered math teacher blogs. I had been teaching for maybe eight years and I was in a rut. I had gotten to the point where I pulled out the folder of unit whatever from last year and wash, rinse, repeat. I was doing an adequate job, but I was bored.
On THE day I was sitting at my computer and I wondered if there were any math teachers out there blogging about teaching math. I started to search. I found Kate’s blog and Sam’s and a few others. Their blogrolls lead me to others. I started reading and I could not get enough. I tried log war and row games and other stuff. I got creative inspiration and I started to enjoy teaching again. My learning of new things was no longer limited to a rare conference here or there or from conversations with my two colleagues.
I started to recognize that I was a pretty mediocre teacher, and I stopped being content with mediocrity.
It was less than a year later that I started a blog of my own. Initially, I felt that I had gained so much from others that I wanted to contribute something to the community. It didn’t take me long to realize that what I had to share was just a drop in the pool of resources out there, but some people seemed to find what I had shared to be helpful and that felt great. I also wrote about what was on my mind and I was able to solidify many of my thoughts about teaching and learning through thinking them out in writing.
The real hook for me came when I started receiving feedback from others who were reading. I found that even when I posted something that I thought was super amazing, someone would give me an idea to make it even better. I asked questions when I wasn’t sure where to go with a topic, and I got answers. I am so very thankful to those commenters who have made me a better teacher.
I have subscribed to Sam’s philosophy about blogging – it shouldn’t be a chore. But while I refuse to let blogging be stressful, it has provided me with some motivation to produce share-worthy moments in my classroom.
I still mess things up all the time. I still spend too much time talking at the front of the room. I still have so much to learn . . . but there is no question that I am a better teacher than the blog-less version of myself.
And I’m definitely having more fun.