Although it's mid-July and I'm still focusing on decompressing from the school year, I find myself excited and motivated as I plan for the upcoming academic year by attending "Get Your Blog On" with Michelle Haseltine. I've threatened to start a blog for quite a few years now, but that desire never quite made it off the "To Do" list ... until now. This two day professional development has been inspiring, interesting, and informative. I'm officially ready to enter the blogging world and to make connections to other bloggers, particularly in the Middle School Language Arts world.
The most fascinating part of this experience has been to fully understand that blogging is simply an extension of my personal writing. Prior to this training, I categorized it as a "classroom only activity". I believed my role in the blog was to instruct and guide students, not to simply write. It never occurred to me that I could, and should, blog about topics of interest, blog on a weekly basis, and take the time to fully immerse myself in this experience before attempting to extend this practice into the classroom at some point in the future.
One more important piece of information is the knowledge that blogging is often described as "first draft writing" which allows me the freedom to simply write without fear of judgment about my grammar errors or incoherent thoughts. This is a completely new experience for me and one I'm ready to embrace. Stay tuned for further updates on this journey.
