Why I Think Every Teacher Should Blog!

I was looking back into my archives this past week because I had to put together a little presentation of past projects. I've been blogging for almost 5 years, over 650 posts! I am amazed by that. I can't even remember what made me decide to start blogging one day, but I am so genuinely glad that I did. I love that I can reflect back on past activities and past classes-even with the students' names cropped out I can still remember who wrote what, in many cases. Looking back, I find ideas of my own that I had forgotten about-oh, I have to try that with this class! And my kiddos are quite used to me having to take pics of their work before they go home..."you're not going to take pictures of these"? If I go several days without doing a blog-worthy activity then I am reminded to step up my game as well.

Best of all I think it's been great for collaboration. That's a strand on our evaluations now--and my assessor always laughs at me when I include blogging in my evidence as a form of collaboration; but I think if you do blog, you understand. I find ideas and get feedback on ideas more here than in any other forum including my campus. I follow literally hundreds of blogs and read updates daily, commenting where I feel I can give input. I feel like I actually know some of you guys and am inspired every day by your ideas and opinions.

I think if every teacher had that time to reflect on their practice, to share ideas with others, to get ideas from communicating with other bloggers--they would all benefit from that experience as much as I have! If you don't blog-what's holding you back? Take the plunge-it will definitely be worth it!