Toot Your Own Darn Horn: Why Teachers Should Blog !
Why Blog?
I have a couple of reasons I blog. First and foremost, I’m a wordy girl. Blogging allows me to keep talking even when no one is listening. And apparently, I think what I have to say is pretty darn important, so much so that I publish my random thoughts in hope someone out there will read them. In my rambling, however, I manage to also use it as an organizational tool for all the fluff going on in my head. I have lots of ideas, some helpful, some not so helpful. If I don’t write them down, often they’ll just go away. This way, I get to organize all the multiple things going on in my head.
Secondly, it really does help me with metacognition. I think about my thinking. Paradoxical? I dunno, I guess, but it really works for me. I have strong opinions, usually based on pre-programmed ways of thinking. It helps me actually digest what I think and truly understand what is driving my thought process. It surprising how much ego-based thinking I have (although my husband would beg to differ). What’s even better is I get to see and change that thinking when I do blog. Once I get out my thoughts, I can rearrange the mess and I can start to see where the ideas and beliefs originated. So, after all that above, I feel blogging makes me a better person. I’m good with that.
What about you? Why would you blog? How could it help you? Lots of educators are blogging nowadays. It’s great to see teachers using technology to have a platform. Many of us claim we lack the time, the resources, or ingenuity. All to which I say, “NAY”! There are far many smarter peers than myself who could be using a blog to spread their educators’ voice. If we want things to change, if we want people to hear what educators need/want/desire, we must let people know instead of letting lawmakers (who generally have NO EDUCATIONAL background whatsoever) continue making uneducated guesses and rules about our profession. The easiest way, IMO, is to put your voice out in a public forum. Show people what good you are doing. Toot your own darn horn, because if you don’t, who else will?
Blogging has many benefits, including forcing one to find the time to reflect. Conversation is an easy way to vent, share ideas, collect new ideas, or to develop your thoughts if you can find someone to converse with when you need someone. So, unless you have a handy partner on speed dial or an instant friend stored in your pocket, blogging allows you the outlet you need as a professional and as a human.
I believe there are many teachers and other professional educators out there who need to “toot their own horn” so they can feel heard and feed off of the interaction, but there are other motivations to blogging. Some professionals, with an overabundance of ideas, need an outlet to share and in turn to receive feedback on ways to improve their idea/activity or its effectiveness. Some are natural communicators who utilize the blog format to counsel, share, and the respond to followers.
The process of writing forces the writer to organize the thoughts bubbling in their head into a clear organized (and occasionally concise) communication. Unlike conversations, the writer has time to contemplate their words before they become public. Many blog sites will even allow the author to edit or remove the blog. So even if damage has been done, the author has the option of stemming the damage and possible preventing it from proliferating any further.
Whatever your reason for blogging, it is a good tool for educators and education in general. History is the spread of ideas. Perhaps it is time for education to be revolutionized through the spread of ideas.
I can see why blogging would be very intriguing for people younger than myself who grew up in a very technology driven world of self expression. I wasn’t one of those. I was raised in a world where if someone wanted to pour out their souls, they did it in a personal diary the\at stayed tucked away and private. I understand why a lot of teachers like blogging- from using it to organize their thoughts, to expressing themselves, to sharing ideas. Personally, the only part that I found appealing was the sharing ideas part of it. I have found Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers to both be great sources of inspiration for new and student appealing lesson plans. I could see following some teacher’s blogs to be a similar usefulness as an educator. I don’t think I would use a blog of my own in any way other than to help other educators come up with useful ideas for their classroom.
I think blogging would be a good thing for me if I really put my mind to it! I am a very wordy person also, so it would help my husband from going crazy. I try to talk to him about things I do in school, but he just doesn’t understand! One of my weaknesses is organization, so I see how blogging could possibly help me organize my thoughts and think about what I am doing, what I need to be doing and what I want to do. I love to tell people about the awesome things my students are doing, so what better way than blogging about it!
I think if I was to blog, I could eventually have my kids do the same, which could help with their writing skills and their organization, metacognition, etc. Then if we are all blogging we could read what our class has written and respond!
Blogging is a great way not only to open up dialogue with other professionals, but also with oneself, in the sense that it provides a record of our thought processes as they evolve. It’s not enough just to think what we think; sometimes we need to untangle the knots and work out the kinks through writing as well. Some of my best-phrased teaching dialogues have come about through the process of expressing and then honing, through editing, the thought processes which lie behind. I am always searching for ways to explain difficult concepts in clear, concise ways. A blog can really facilitate that process, as well as providing a collaborative venue through which others can share their suggestions, elaborations, or even constructive criticisms about my posts. In a more conventional classroom setting than mine, it could also provide a forum for student discussion, as well as for sharing student work.
I am a very open person when it comes to speaking, but not so much with putting it on paper for the world to see. I have fears from childhood of a personal note between friends being read aloud to the class or boys getting it and making fun of it. I like to know who I am telling my stories to. I want to trust that person. My fears go on today. Today the fears are not just trusting the person reading my words, but them being taken out of context and used against me, ie. in the legal way. I’m a pretty blunt person and that doesn’t come across well in a reading format. Call me old school.
I can see where younger adults like to get their feelings and ideas out. I have a daughter that I fear puts too much out there for the world to see. That’s the generation that has grown up with these tools of technology. I fear that their mistakes posted will be more embarrassing and more detrimental to their lives, both personal and professional, than my passed note in class.
Blogging is an essential tool that should be utilized in 21st Century Education because of the type of learning community that can be created. Blogging in its simplest form can give anyone the opportunity to demonstrate his or her expertise in any subject matter. Those who create, read and respond to blogs create a unique community where thoughts are shared and valued. By blogging, the educational community is in a continuous learning and teaching cycle. By creating a blog, a teacher and/or administrator continue to use their gifts of research and writing. In the education field we should not stop our willingness to learn and therefore teach. One must admit that teaching our peers and supervisors could be more intimidating that teaching our students. Blogging gives us a voice to share our areas of expertise with others. This shared knowledge keeps our ideas creative and current thus making us stronger educators.
Toot, toot!!
I think blogging is great for educators for two main reasons.
One, the main thing that we push across subjects and grades is reading literacy. If we as teachers can write and promote reading in this medium by our parents and students, we can help “raise the tide” of reading in a more informal setting while introducing academic / higher vocabulary.
Two, this is a good medium to fully develop ideas and announcements that we are trying to communicate. Emails, twitter, Remind 101, and automated phone calls are great for brief reminders but often we communicate in a deeper or richer manner to fully express ourselves. We can also embed photos, videos to fully explain assignments. Blogs are a great forum to encourage direct and timely feedback from parents with announcements and students with course content. We can use comments to push discussion into higher level thinking and student responses.
All said, I’m a big fan of blogging for education.
Blogging is important for 21st century educators because it is a platform to share, create, and discover “new to you” concepts that has the potential to enhance any learning environment. This tangible or concrete format allows for the thought process to become more active and real like the saying goes, “putting words into action!” Once the thoughts are out, you could have the accountability and even feedback to help continue, progress, and enhance original ideas.
There are several concepts of blogging that I can wrap my mind around: platform,record successes and failures, fine tune writing skills, and feedback from others. I totally get the idea of expressing my thoughts on teachers’ salaries and other teacher related issues. Tooting my own horn about my successes is not that difficult – I should say my students’ successes. I do it verbally why not in writing. Receiving feedback from fellow educators will be invaluable for my personal growth. I need to step out of my old chalk and blackboard mindset and grab on to the future of education. Even writing this comment I am revising, editing and fine tuning my own writing. What a great lesson to pass on to my students! Yes, this old dog can learn new tricks.
Why blog? This is something that we all need to be doing because whether we like it or not, any and all industries are about branding. There is really no better way of putting forth your brand than by being able completely explain yourself. In the past, people referred to this as a statement of educational philosophy. The issue with that phrase is the connotation of philosophy, which is not always a positive one for the laity of education. When asked to read a philosophy of education, most will shrink away and wrinkle their nose as if they had uncovered a bad piece of a compost pile. But, if you ask someone to read a blog, the response will be much more affirmative. Branding promotes yourself to the community you are trying to impact. Along with promoting yourself, as Mrs. Martinez puts it, it gives those of us who have plenty to say on a myriad of subjects a vehicle to set those ideas out into the public. The only bad idea is the one not shared or acted upon..or in this case, the blog not written.
“Tooting your own horn” is usually said in a negative way but I love that you presented it in a positive way for educators. You shared some effective ways to use blogging from sharing ideas, expressing yourself, and organizing thought processes. And, yes, we, as educators, need to spread the word about what we are doing to teach, motivate, inspire our students! I teach art which is often overlooked as part of a well rounded education (proud to say it is not overlooked in my district! Yay!). Many schools do not even have an art education program in their schools. It is my opinion that all students need art classes to help them think more creatively in art and in other classes. Blogging can help me spread the importance of my field to parents, administrators, and other educators. Oops! It sounds as if I am starting to blog on this reply!
I feel comfortable sharing my ideas and resources with my colleagues and friends in person, but when it comes to the Internet, I am a very private person.
I have always being one of those people who likes to write in journals and keep them private.
I think blogging can be the space where I can share, not on a personal level, but on a professional level, all the things that go on in the classroom.
It allows for interaction, therefore growth.
Not all the things that work for me or my students will work for everyone, but it would be interesting to see how people change and adapt things to their own needs.
It would definitely help organize my thoughts and it will be the place where I can come back and see which things worked or which need to be change.
You can also reach more people through the web, and if one single person benefits from one little idea, that would be AWESOME!
Blogging…. I resolved a year ago to put more of my thoughts and opinions out there for everyone or no one to see. Two issues kept me from doing so: 1.) I didn’t make it a priority and I fell into the trap of “not having enough time. 2.) I generally have very strong opinions and wanted to keep myself and consequently the school away from controversy.
That being said, I can see the many positives. For me, the biggest would be to use my blog as a forum for information sharing. I could integrate this into my Twitter feed to help spread the information posted on my blog. More than information I could share the rationale behind some of my thoughts and motives. And…..I’ll need to learn to stay away from controversial subjects.
Why would you blog? I created a site last summer, but did not utilize it the best ways I could. I think the main reason I didn’t goes back to the title of the article “tooting your own horn.” I tend to think of it as a form of bragging, instead of seeing how it could help my classroom. I think next year one of my goals is going to be trying to incorporate it more in my reading lesson plans. I want to try and use the blog to discuss my own personal readings, and showing the kiddos what I am currently reading. I could also use it as a platform to discuss what we are reading currently in class. I agree with Cullen, I need to make blogging more of a priority, perhaps setting aside 2 set days of the week dedicated to updating. Setting a schedule, would hopefully form the habit of blogging more regularly.
I enjoy wrting for many of the reasons you mentioned, such as organizing your own thoughts and deciding and stating what you really think about something by putting it “in black and white” so to speak. When it comes to blogging, I also like to try and write in an entertaining way with some sort of an interesting or funny story or a tongue in cheek way of stating things because I am conscious of the audience. In fact, I imagine EVERYONE reading it (I think I tend towards that “ego-based” thinking you mentioned as well).
I have started some blogs before and find that my biggest struggle is maintaining it consistently. I think I need to make it a part of my schedule or routine for it to really work, otherwise, it tends to get lost in the mix quickly be neglected.
Last year during my 5th grade classes, I showed students what blogs are and how to blog, sharing their thoughts and expertise on a subject. I showed them my blog on history and my thoughts on different events that happened in US history. I started the blog as a model for the students, but found that blogging about history helped me understand it better. I was able to reflect on historical data and information. Then, I found myself wanting to find more information about the subject and went back to update my blog about what I found. So, I learned that blogging helped with comprehension and understanding and gave me a further “drive” to find more information about a subject.
Another aspect of blogging that I like is that a blog is not to be written like a text book. It is to share information with a personal touch to it. The author shows their feelings, like an editorial, while sharing information with the public. And it seems that more feeling and personal touches you put into blogging, the more people enjoy to read the blog.
Why Blog? How could it help me? I remember when Facebook and Twitter rolled around. It was so hard for me to figure out why people would even post what they were doing or thinking. Would anybody really care that I just checked in somewhere? Would they roll their eyes? Then, I figured out that my postings could help me start conversations with other people which in turn could open doors to new things like ideas, concepts and even possibly jobs. To make it really simple, blogging can do the same thing. Someone might actually care what I say or think!
I have a friend that I have known since elementary school that started a blog this year about women’s shoes, how uncomfortable they are and how fashion dictates that women be uncomfortable to look pretty. Her thoughts have gotten her noticed and now she has been invited to a major shoe company as a result of her blog!
The same way that my friend was recognized, teachers could be recognized if we banded together and created blogs. It is another tool that we could use to have our voices heard.
Thinking, processing information and writing come very easy for me. This is why I do a lot of it on my own personal time in a personal journal. My challenge with blogging, at this point is the public aspect of it. I still feel pretty uneasy about how easily one can become a public person on social media as I am one that values her privacy greatly. So the thought of making my thoughts public is kind of scary for me. However, I am looking forward to learn how to use blogging to share ideas regarding teaching. I will confess that this will take a great deal of confidence as I tend to think that I don’t have much to offer as a brand new teacher. But I am here to learn! And very willing.
I couldn’t agree more! Blogging can be such powerful tool for educators. This past school year, inspired by our district’s Tech Academy with Jessica Batchko, I created a Facebook page for my class. And after year, I can report that it was a complete success, so much so that I am kicking myself for not creating one sooner! Our page was an incredibly resourceful tool that not only helped improve parent communication but it increased parent, school and community interest and interaction with our classroom. Blogging is now the natural next step to extend the success of our page towards professional development of myself and others and further communication with our CISD family and community. More specifically, the blog will help highlight our successes and focus and organize my planning and research to improve student learning, which in the end is the ultimate goal. I’m excited to see where blogging takes me.
I never thought I could ever be a blogger before this summer. I did not see the benefit or at least not enough benefit to make it worth while. I always had excuses…don’t have time, do not know what to blog about, just not sure I could ever blog on a regular schedule. NOW I believe that blogging can be a very helpful tool. I agree with the idea that you can just toot your own horn and see if anyone pays attention. Does it really matter how many people read it? Not really. If you do finally gain quite a few people that follow your blog all the time; then you might help someone else while you help yourself. I might just have enough to talk about now that I am always trying to learn more about technology and other ways to engage my students. I find myself overwhelmed with everything that I am trying to learn. Maybe blogging is my way to vent or express all of my ideas. I guess that is something that I will find out in the near future.
Collaboration is such an important part of education. I enjoy talking and brainstorming with colleagues, I helps us learn from each other experiences. I can see how blogging can broaden your reach of input. I like the idea of learning from educators from around the world.
I am a private person and I have always been leery of having an internet footprint. I like having control and feel that I have little control on what is posted. My fear is that something may be taken the wrong way.
I’m bad at having to many projects going on at one time, I worry that I would start a blog but not follow through. I admire those that have active blogs and I follow several great teachers blogs. I’m always amazed by those that post blogs regularly and always seam to have something great to share. I worry I would not have much to contribute, but I’m ready to learn!
I have to be honest, I am brand new at blogging. I have never read or posted in a blog before! I am hoping to learn how to implement it in classroom to enhance my lessons. One of my weaknesses as a teacher is that I do not have students using enough technology. I tend to be a little old school in my teaching. I have seen a huge difference in my students now and when I began teaching. I realize the importance of changing my teaching style to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. I think that integrating blogs into my lessons will be a great start! I teach Reading and Writing to ESL students. I am hoping to find some ways to help my students with their language acquisition and reading comprehension.
I agree that blogging can be very beneficial. I blog to for a lot of different reasons, to remember something, to organize my thoughts, to have a place for colleagues or students to access information, to share ideas, just to name a few. My favorite thing about blogs though, is the collaboration aspect. On my teacher Pinterest board I have hundreds of links to teacher’s blogs with so many classroom management and organizational ideas or lessons that I want to try to implement in my own classroom. The professional learning network that blogging has allowed teachers to have is such a great way to help and encourage all of the other teachers in the world. I will be honest that I haven’t used my professional blog like I should or could. However, I do have a personal blog that records the life and activities of my family and I would like to do that on my professional blog in some way. Except, instead of it recording the life and activities of my family, it would record the activities of my classroom.
I’ve always wanted to blog, would always joked that if I actually wrote down what happened in my classroom everyday, someone might categorize it as fiction! However, I do want to blog, been wanting to for a while now. I have a personal blog that I started several years ago, that I fell away from because of life. I’m with you, though, I have so many thoughts going on, writing it down would be very beneficial. I’m very forgetful, so this might just help. I enjoy reading other teacher’s blogs and getting great ideas with them. I do need to share my ideas, especially since each student has a computer. I love to share, this would be the best way. I have professional goals beyond the classroom that blogging could help get my name out. I need a good professional footprint…blogging is a fantastic way to do so.
I understand that blogging is a fabulous way to connect with other professionals and share expertise. I do enjoy reading other teachers’ blogs, but I myself am not a good blogger. I am not a normally wordy person, but I am a good listener. The questions is “Why would I blog?”, but I could much more easily answer why I don’t blog. I am very self-conscious and critical of myself. Instead of allowing my thoughts to flow so that I can organize them, I agonize over every letter I type. (For example, I have already been working on this response for over an hour.) I also teach students who have much difficulty reading and writing. We use a lot of visuals to communicate with one another, so even though we have been using technology more the last two years, blogging is a huge struggle. I know that I should just get over it and let my thoughts go, but that is easier said than done. I do consult with colleagues and answer questions on a daily basis. I will set a goal to write down those questions and blog my answers once a month. Perhaps seeing my solutions in words, will help me see the value in my own ideas.
I’ve always loved the idea of blogging. Writing has always come naturally to me, but it wasn’t until recently that I thought of having my own blog. Last year, I had my students create and utilize blogs, and all the while I was thinking, “I should make one myself.” Sadly, I never got around to it. I think for me, the most beneficial part would be using it as reflection. During student teaching, we always had to write a reflection on our lesson and turn it in after we had received a formal evaluation. Even though we (should) naturally do this on our own after each and every lesson, there’s just something more concrete about writing it out. When it comes time for that lesson the next time around, having something to go back and read is a lot more thorough than thinking, “Hmm, I’m pretty sure I wanted to change something about this…” I also like your point about tooting your own horn. While other educators out there might have similar students and situations, no one is running their classroom exactly like you. Any successes you find while teaching should be celebrated. At the same time, it can also be helpful to talk about things that aren’t working out. Someone might stumble across your writing, and it might save them from that same trouble.
I have been wanting to start up both a professional and personal blog separately for a while now, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. You are right, however; there are lots of peers that have accesses to these publishings that can be used to the benefit of educators everywhere. I believe that to be in Education, that they should really put more emphasis, starting in college with future teachers, on how effective blogging communities and communication is within the profession. Like you, I believe that blogging could help organize my thoughts and let them be spoken into existence, rather than just a thought passing through the mind. I know there are many times where I think to myself after having a really good, detailed thought- “Man, I am definitely going to try/do something like that next time.” And when that next time comes around, I am not able to remember what that really cool idea was.