Great question! The answer--not very much. I still hesitate to blog and constantly feel as if I have no audience. I still grasp at ideas to blog about. But some things have changed.
Some of the topics I blog about are different. This last spring I was not in a real classroom with real students, so I could only blog about myself and my ideas. Now I can blog about my actual experiences with working with kids.
I've also decided to focus my blog more on professional development rather than a place to rant and rave about whatever is bugging me at that moment. I did this by changing my profile, changing my name, and changing my idea about what blogging is. It helped to read those blogs at the beginning of fall quarter about blogging.
I've tried to comment on multiple blogs, but failed to get any replies. However, I did fail to return to those blogs to see if there was a response not directly linked to mine, so it could be my own fault. I also commented on various people's blogs hoping that it would lead them to mine and I could get some feedback on my own blog, but this didn't work very well either. I have gotten some generous feedback this last week from one person, which I appreciated. Though, I am assuming that I'm only just now starting to get comments because people are trying to meet the commenting requirements before the grading deadline.
The post that got the most comments (2 whole comments!) was the presentation of my eighth graders' visual metaphors. I was so proud of them and I was glad that others appreciated their work as well. Its always great to see student work across a spectrum.
So my growth is slow, but it is growth nonetheless.
Growth is growth! Writing about day to day in the classroom is a way to do focused reflection. Writing about what you're thinking about on the way home is focused reflection. Commenting on something that you read that pushes your thinking about kids in your class is good. Commenting on others' blogs is always good, and yes, checking back is good, too (and sometimes, you can get notifications of others are carrying on the conversation).
ReplyDeleteKeep thinking about using this medium to grow as a teacher. What are your questions? What are your insights? What are you learning about? What can you ask others to think about with you?
You have a huge amount to offer. Keep writing!