April Blog a Day

After learning and sharing on Twitter for the past school year, I'll proudly admit that it's had a big impact on not only my teaching, but my professional philosophy.  Reading blogs of other educators has been a big part of that.  Recently I've been noticing a theme of encouraging blogging from teachers.  The chance to openly reflect and share with countless other educators is an amazing opportunity.

As social media coordinator for our district, I keep reminding others that if we don't share our story, then someone else will.  I'm not sure why it took so long to click for me, but blogging is a way for me to share my story.  Nobody but me might ever read it, but it will provide me another avenue to be a more reflective educator.

I published my first blog post in early March.  I adapted a write-up that I did for MSBOA's monthly publication and put it out there to give it a try.  Clicking "publish" was a scary moment, by the way.  My hat is off to those who have been doing this much longer than I.  It's hard putting yourself out there for so many strangers.  I may never get feedback from the MSBOA article, but feedback from a blog post can be instantaneous.  

I did a couple more after that, but then I came across April Blog A Day.  I started late and missed posting on Easter, but it's been a good motivator to know I'm joining the journey with many others.  Being off of school for Spring Break this week will make it a bit more challenging, but thankfully there's a prompt for ideas to help.  

Today's was to write about a an awe-inspiring moment.  The first that came to mind was the first day that we did playing tests in Junior High band a few years ago.  After the first 7th grade student of the morning played his test, all of the 8th graders in the class clapped.  It wasn't the obligatory "we're doing this because we have to clap" either.  They were really genuinely happy for him.  Thinking it was just because he had recently switched instruments and they were just trying to be encouraging, I went on to the next student.  Again they clapped.  The 8th grade students applauded every single 7th grade student after they played, no matter how well it may have gone.  

After we were done, I asked why they decided to do that.  They seemed surprised I'd even asked.  They said that playing your first test in junior high can be a little scary and they just wanted everybody to feel good after they were done.  I was so proud of them.  They'd organized this among themselves with no prompting from me.  It was a great reminder of just how awesome kids can be.

I'm looking forward to posting, sharing, learning, and gaining inspiration from everybody as we work at this together!