Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Power of Blogging

I used to think blogging was going out of a style and never understood the purpose of it. I remember trying to blog but never keep up with it because I didn't know what to write about. A little over a year ago, I realized it was difficult to share my teaching at school either because of time or because the staff wasn't ready to hear what I had to share. I also learned that intellectual property was difficult to hold on to and blogging is a way to protect it to some extent.

Since I started my personal blog about teaching with technology in innovative and authentic ways, doors have opened for me that I never thought existed. I remember reading somewhere that you need about 8-10 posts before your blog would get noticed. You also want to try and be consistent with posts on your blog so that your audience keeps coming back. I started to share ideas on my blog, tweet them out on my professional twitter account, and tagged people or companies that I mention in my blog posts.

Around January of last year, I received an email from one of my literacy role models, Katie Wood Ray. She had retired from her position and became an editor for Heinemann Publishing. Somehow, she had found my blog and was interested in me writing a book for Heinemann. While it took me a year to finally take her up on the offer, I realized that blogs have a tremendous power for teachers who want to be leaders. You never know who reads it and who you might meet via the web because of a blog!

3 comments:

  1. Katherine,
    I just started a swimming blog for the exact same reasons that you stated. I think it's such a great way to share your teaching and let people know about some of the cool things your're doing. The main thing people kept telling me was that it was hard to keep up with, so I guess we'll see about that. How often do you post in your personal blog?

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  2. Stop. You're going to write a book!? Also I'm loving the twitter feed on the right. How do you separate the personal & work side of things?

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  3. You are doing such amazing things! I would love to know how often you check students blogs and did you get parent permission to have students place personal information to an extent where anyone can find it? What precautions do you take is really what i'm asking.

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