Multi-faceted Refractions

Since I was on hiatus from blogging, I missed the 1st anniversary of my committing the the process of blogging. It has been an interesting journey.  Developing my inner voice has taken time to allow the style and rhythm to emerge. Like all creative artists, it is nice to look back and assemble a set of postings in a greatest hits package. Some of the selections were popular as decided by readership, some are selections which generated the greatest amount of conversation after the fact. And there are nuggets which the artist loves which may have gotten buried at the time, but stand the test of time.

So I have taken the opportunity to review my posts and create my top ten greatest hits list. It was difficult to narrow one’s work down into such a small sampling of what I have written, but these represent the best, most popular, and most fun choices. I hope that you will find the selections as interesting as I have while re-reading them.

How Three Cups of Tea Changes My Life (December 9, 2006) - This is one of my most popular posts and the one which solidified the power of the process of blogging. The reply by Greg Mortenson himself and the subsequent face to face meeting that I was able to have really have changed my life, more so that I alluded at the time.

Playing While At School (December 11, 2006) - A person favorite which highlights some of the excitement of my job.

Group Membership and Validation (January 7, 2007) - This is one of my favorite pieces, the one I hold as one of the best that I have ever done.

Creating Global Connections - A Workshop for North Shore’s Lower School Teachers (February 18, 2007) - Includes one of my first podcasts, this presentation has done more for professional development and curricular change than any other workshop I have delivered.

Notes from the PC Roundtable (April 26, 2007) - One of the posts which generated the most traffic to my site. I guess there are many people interested in the power of tablet PCs. We are piloting 26 this academic year.

How Technology Has Changed the Way we Teach at North Shore (May 11, 2007) - Picked up by Will Richardson, this was one of the most hit posts

Understanding Digital Kids - Teaching and Learning in a Digital Landscape (July 16, 2007) - A live blog of a presentation by Ian Jukes at the Laptop Institute in Memphis. A popular choice of people coming to my blog.

Changing My Tune - Internet Safety for Students (August 16, 2007) - This was later picked up by the TechLearning blog as the post for August, which was quite an honor.

The Invisibles are Forgotten (August 31, 2007) - This one was one I loved, and caused others, including Kim Cofino to post her thoughts.

Does the Backchannel Stiffle Those Who Benefit Most from Technology (October 11, 2007) - A post that still resonates, as more and different instantaneous methods of communication move us away from reflective writing.

Just missing the top 10, but important in my development as a writer:

Different Person, Similar Story (October 30, 2006) - My first post was one of the more interesting reflecting on use of visual storytelling for documentary pieces. Rough and incomplete, but a gem nonetheless.

My Online Conference Experiences (November 9, 2006) - An interesting reflections about immersing in the new modes of professional development.

Reflections on Reflections (January 23, 2007) - A story of a collaboration, a great example of partnership

Which Comes First, Aquistion of Skills or the Use of Skills for Deeper Inquiry (February 11, 2007) - A question that I still think is valid and has not been answered

The Frustrations and Exhiliration of my Virtual Presentation (April 11, 2007) - My experience with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s class

Teachers are Found Everywhere (September 18, 2007) - A short sweet reminder to never lose sight of who we can learn from

Reflections from a Diversity Workshop (October 16, 2007) - A post where I learned from multiple sources and experimented with new skills, via the K12 Online Conference.

Each of these posts shows how much I have grown over the past year. I hope to continue to share more great posts next year.

When someone asks me, “Why do you waste your time blogging? How do you know if anyone is reading what you are writing and if they really care?”, I was not sure that I always have a great answer. I know that the process of writing provides an opportunity for me to reflect and forge the fragments of thought into a solid idea. This is a process solely for me and not necessarily meant for others. While this may be helpful to others who are working through similar problems and projects to help shape their ideas and solutions for their unique set of circumstances, this is the narcissistic view of blogging that many harbor. Blogging is solely for self-publication and self-promotion.

An event a few weeks ago has challenged my views of why we blog. On Friday, December 14th, at the end of the day, I received both an email and a voice message from someone at the Gale Group, who have invited me to be a part of an advisory panel for a new project that they are considering. They are wanting to fly me out for a day long meeting. When I inquired why they had chosen me, the responded that they had read a blog post of mine, Eight Random Things about Me that I had written August 13th that stated that I was a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). From this and then consequently finding out that I work with in a school with teachers, they replied

It’s actually been a week or two since I did my initial googling for potential panelists, but I it had to do with you being an educator and having contributed to SABR publications (mentioned on your blog).  I am trying to bring in not just librarians but also faculty members/teachers as well, and I wanted to make sure that whoever I brought in knew a thing or two about baseball.

So blogging is not just about sharing one thoughts, but can also be a way for others to be able to seek you out and locate you based upon your passions. If I had not shared this bit of information, this meeting would have happened and I would not have been invited to participate. I would have lost out on an opportunity.

This has now changed my thinking. We blog so that we can share and allow others the chance to know who we are, what we are passionate about, and what we think. We build up the currency of thoughts and ideas which is becoming more valuable in this information age that we are living. We are establishing our portfolio to share with the world.

If I am involved in interviewing a new teaching candidate for the school, I am going to seek out to see what this person may have created. I will not be doing so to look for faults, but rather to get a better understanding of this person, more in depth and richer than a 45 minute conversation.

So this is why we blog, to celebrate all that we hold important. To share our passions, and share the ways that we think.