Why I Blog

Kate Nowak writes a blog called, f(t), and is presenting at the NCTM conference.  She is a featured presenter and wanted some feedback from bloggers on some questions.   So, here are my responses.

1. What hooked you on reading the blogs? Was it a particular post or person? Was it an initiative by the nice MTBoS folks? A colleague in your building got you into it? Desperation?

Last summer I was looking for some new ideas for the upcoming school year.  My social media of choice was Pinterest.  I stumbled upon a few things pinned on Pinterest that led me to some blogs.  I started reading those blogs and checked out their recommended blogs.  Pretty soon, I had quite a collection of blogs that I checked regularly.

I was also interested in trying Standards Based Grading for the school year so I started checking out blogs that talked about SBG.  It has been extremely helpful!

2. What keeps you coming back? What's the biggest thing you get out of reading and/or commenting?

What keeps me coming back are bloggers that post good ideas or reflections.  I love finding out about a website, tool, or resource that they have tried in their classroom.  I tend to follow bloggers that post often.  I seem to also be drawn to people that write in a conversational style and include little bits about their life as people as well as their classroom life.

3. If you write, why do you write? What's the biggest thing you get out of it?

I'm pretty new to this-- I've only been blogging for a few weeks.  I am writing for my own reflection and to share my ideas with other teachers (although I don't have many followers yet!)  I went through the National Board Certification process last year and really feel like I benefited from the reflection I had to do for the portfolio entries.  I wanted to keep that reflection going!

4. If you chose to enter a room where I was going to talk about blogging for an hour (or however long you could stand it), what would you hope to be hearing from me? MTBoS cheerleading and/or tourism? How-to's? Stories?

I would like to hear a little about "how-to's" or tips.  I would like to hear about how blogging has impacted you and what you think the overall impact is on education.  Also, any funny or interesting stories you have would be fun too.