Powered By Blogger

Saturday 1 January 2011

Gulp!

My first ever Blog post. It is a terrifying prospect, proposing to reflect my thoughts, feelings ideas, moans and groans about Learning on a Blog but I’ve been putting it off for ages now. Always an admirer of others who Blog freely and effectively, I’ve never found the courage to do so myself. Until now.
The choice of Learning as opposed to Education is a deliberate distinction made. Over the last year or three I’ve begun to sway away from the traditional classroom ideas I’d grown used to and begun to read more on this new fangled thing they call the web. The Worlds I’ve entered have been extraordinary.
I discovered the Professional Development capabilities of Twitter in the summer and have not looked back. To say that Twitter has transformed my approach to my own teaching would be understating the fact. Some of the people I’ve ‘met’, shared ideas with, received advice from and been entertained by have changed my life.
Reading Blogs from, I think, like-minded educators from around the world is not only refreshing and inspiring, but has also shown me that another way is possible. Not any more mere hopes and dreams of transforming my teaching. Others were already doing things I’d only wished for. Now it is my turn.
I intend to use this Blog not only to reflect on my classroom practice as Scottish education changes in light of the Curriculum for Excellence, but also to share my thoughts on professional reading that I’ve done and how that affects my teaching. I’m an English teacher. I read. So forgive me if I mention other books which touch me along the way.
So, it is the first day of a New Year. A line I read in John Williams book, ‘Screw Work, Let’s Play’, I think accredited to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, was, ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ For today and perhaps today only, my answer is, ‘Yes I would.’
Deep breath. Eyes closed. Jump....

4 comments:

  1. Great start!

    Here are a few pieces of advice...

    Blog the first draft (I still struggle with this but important if you wish to blog regularly).

    Find your own narrative style.

    Use a service such as http://twitterfeed.com to autopost your blog posts to Twitter.

    Add an 'about page' explaining what your blog is all about and who you are, it will be one of the items on your blog that people look for the most.

    Enjoy blogging; I find writing about my experiences to be very useful in helping to improve my classroom practice.

    Good luck!

    James.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much, James. Great advice and I look forward to improving as I go. Excited by the positive environment as opposed to the occasionally cynical, negative one I often experience in the Staff Room.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice start. looking forward to your future posts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for making your thoughts about teaching and learning transparent, so we can all learn from you. I look forward to it.

    ReplyDelete