Teachers-as-Bloggers

The best teachers are reflective practitioners. Every day, inside and outside the classroom, on the Internet, at professional development seminars, with our colleagues, we find grist for the mill. We ponder what worked, what we need to revise, how we can deepen our understanding and experience of curriculum and pedagogy.

What better exercise for teachers than to write it. Maybe you keep a journal or diary of your reflections. Maybe you wish you had the time, always a precious commodity for teachers. Let me suggest that our research into educational standards last week highlighted how important writing is for our students, no matter what the classroom subject. And, for us to assess and guide our students as they write, we need to increase our mastery of the art of writing.

Let me suggest that rather than just write it, blog it. Even if you’re not ready to turn your students on to the Wild West Show that is Internet blogging, as adults we should be ready to join in the conversation. We can write for publication every day, a condition that engages our students and should engage us. We will get feedback from other thoughtful practitioners. We can maintain contact with each other once the virtual doors of our Lesley Discussion Board have closed.

Visit the Interviews, Blog Entries of Note, and/or Will Richardson’s blog to the left, each of which has something to say about the idea of teacher-as-blogger. Then, reflect and comment on the following:

Could you see yourself as a regular blogger? Would you want to blog on a variety of topics, or would you want to focus on a particular topic? What would prevent you from blogging: time? training? comfort with putting your viewpoint out there?



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