My mentor
for the last 15 years, Liz Harrington, is retiring this year. She’s the one
who, as our department chairperson, advocated for our weekly collaboration time
and fought each semester to maintain our precious planning time as a
department. Liz is the one I laugh with each Friday when we close our rooms at
lunch and steal away for some caffeine. She’s the one who keeps my venting from
becoming perpetual smog, and the one who swoops in with a last-minute lesson
plan if I have to run and pick up my own sick kid. Liz is the first person I
call to share my small victories and my embarrassing defeats.
Every
teacher needs a Liz, and many have been lucky enough to have one. Mentorship,
you see, is vital in our industry. Mentors aren’t just friends—they are more
than that. They are amazing practitioners who pass on their knowledge through
informal conversation and everyday modelling. They push back and disagree with
you. They help you develop your educational voice. They help hone your academic
blade.
What's on your summer to-do list? Starting your
teacher blog? There's a vibrant online community of educators sharing their
expertise in writing, and the topics that get covered offer insights into just
about everything, including practice, policy, education technology, and many
more. Summer is the perfect time to join that conversation by starting a blog
of your own.
Here are some of the best guides and sources of
inspiration to get you started. And for all of the veteran bloggers out there,
hopefully there's something here for you, too!
Tip and Tools for Getting Started
30 Days to Kick Start Your Blogging: Last year, Edublogs, a great
network of teacher blogs, hosted this 30-day challenge. Each day features a new
activity to get your blog off the ground. This is a great place to start!
24 Steps to Creating an Awesome Teacher Blog: Another post from TeachJunkie.com,
this one provides some valuable advice for jump-starting your teacher blog.
Each lesson links to a useful video, as well, for all of you visual learners.
How to Start a Blog: The Definitive Guide: Although this guide isn't
teacher-specific, it covers all the bases. There's information here about every
aspect of blogging, including choosing a platform, finding free blogging tools
and software, and building an audience.
A Goldmine of Inspiration
With so
many insightful ed blogs out there, this list of examples just scratches the
surface. Truly, it was a challenge to pick only a few, but here are several
roundups of education blogs from around the web.
Top 50
Science Teaching Blogs: There are lots of great examples in this
list, too; and they touch on just about everything, from integrating technology
into the science lab to student-cantered science teaching models. Other, great
"Top 50" lists include rankings for edtech and elementary education.
Words of Advice from Veteran Bloggers
Ready to
get started? These ideas and considerations from fellow ed bloggers might help
get the ball rolling.
"How and Why Teachers Should Start Blogging," by Amy Dominello, via SmartBlog
on Education
"Why All Teachers Should Blog," by David Cutler, via Spin Education
Provide clear expectations. / Develop classroom rules.
Keep your rules alive, a living document. Connect
desired and undesired behaviors to the rules. Point out the positives, “I
noticed everyone is working collaboratively. Wow! Everyone is being
respectful.” Establish expectations early on, but also spend time
developing the exact classroom rules -- perhaps a week, or a couple of weeks
until you really get to know your students. Use rules that state
the desired behavior or actions (and avoid telling students what
NOT to do). Define classroom rules with as much detail as your students
require. Help them understand the meaning of words through discussion.
Model expectations for your students.
Interactively model how to complete an activity or
task. We often offer multiple, repeated opportunities when teaching
“academic” skills (e.g., letter sounds, math computations), but typically
neglect to offer multiple, repeated opportunities for practicing behavioral
routines (e.g., lining up at the door, pushing in their chairs).
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
If you make a request of a student, follow through
with that request. If you cannot follow through, avoid placing the demand or
providing the instruction. Know yourself and adjust expectations (for yourself
and your students) accordingly.
Use visuals or gestures.
Know your students and choose age-appropriate
visuals and gestures. Including students in the development classroom
signals can increase buy-in, particularly for older learners.
Provide directions versus asking questions.
This recommendation can lead to the quickest change.
It may not be all that you need to do, but it’s definitely one of the first 10
things you should try! Remember, if we ask a question, we have to be willing to
accept yes or no as an answer.
In the digital world we live in it seems there are
always more ways we “need” to be connected: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Snapchat, Pinterest….the list goes on. But what about blogs? For a teacher,
creating a blog can be more than just connecting you to others, it can actually
make you a better educator!
For me, blogging started as a means of reflection on
things I had learned and wanted to implement in my classroom. My first blog
post was the turning point! It made me realize just how powerful blogging
can be. As educators, one of the most valuable things we can teach our students
to do is reflect on their growth and learning. It is from this reflection that
additional growth occurs. That is exactly what I found in myself after
beginning to blog. Taking the time to truly think, reflect, and then share made
a profound impact going forward.
It doesn’t have to cost money, but your landing page
is a visitor’s first impression of you. Make it look clean and easy to
navigate. Take out all distractions, such as music playing, moving graphics,
and silly fonts. Your site should be user-friendly and intuitive. If you would
like to spend money, buy a domain name for $10-15 and have your blog redirect
to that. It looks more professional, which helps you look more like a
professional and an expert to readers. In addition, make sure you write well.
There is nothing worse than reading a blog that is poorly written – it’s not
focused, contains grammar mistakes, misspellings, etc. Especially since you are
a teacher! Always use spell check and proofread more than once before
publishing. It’s also not a bad idea to have a friend, spouse or colleague be
your “editor” and second set of eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment