I was lucky enough to spend some time discussing Contemporary Learning with fellow teachers recently. One subject was blogging and a teacher from another school described their path towards starting blogging at their school. A very detailled, inclusive and planned process is underway, where they are engaging students, staff and parents in the process before the creation of their first blog. Other schools, like mine, had ‘jumped in the deep end’, created blogs, experimented and now very much working on fine-tuning the purposes and goals of our blogs.
I was very impressed with the process of the other school – taking the time to work through the issues and potential and found myself reflecting on our process and, at first, wondering if we had done the right thing. The schools I am comparing are very different by nature, geographically, physicically and historically. They are very different as are their pathways. In reality, each result will be a reflection of the schools creating them.
After reflection, I returned to being happy with where we are and how we got there. I will watch the other pathway with great interest and see where it leads them.
Well said! I think sometimes jumping in the deep end certainly makes you learn to swim faster. We are now quite competent blog swimmers, but there have certainly been challenges along the way. When discussing taking action that matters, today with my students, their first response was, “Tell the world! Put in on the blog!” What ever your journey is into blogging, it will always have a powerful impact.
Verona Gridley
http://www.juniorsblackburn.edublogs.org
Definitely wouldn’t have it any other way! Raise the bar first and practise later works for me and keeps the excitement and challenge there. I also hate measured planning- I like to think of myself as a more spontaneous teacher!! That’s not to say planning isn’t very useful and necessary. But it provides the skeleton.The action happens daily I hope!
Marg Yore
Hi Celia,
I have just subscribed to your blog and love it. Like you, I jumped in the deep end and would not have it any other way. I had the freedom to do this as I was one of a few at my school taking the leap. This gave me a huge sense of ownership because I had an interest, the necessary skills and most importantly the enthusiasm to create my class blog. To be told to slow down, hold on – wait, ‘let’s write a policy’ would have killed my enthusiasm to no end. It was even suggested at one point but thankfully my Principal didn’t go for that.
Sue