Confession: Why I stopped blogging

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It has taken me a long time to write this post. In the beginning I was very excited to start blogging and share my experience with other educators. Unexpectedly and noticeably, the blog started to become something else. The focus started to be about view counts and comments. I started to feel like I wasn't this great teacher that I thought I was and I was scared to write about my ups and downs. What would people think if they knew that I found changes and improvements to the units I was teaching?  Would anyone want to read what I was saying if all I had were questions instead of knowing all of the answers? This anxiety got the best of me for a very long time. This is why I stopped blogging. I was scared to show myself, except I started to realize that I got into blogging to show myself... all of it. I am not the most amazing teacher (...yet), but I am a teacher that is constantly learning and evolving. I am a teacher that wants to be honest with my peers so that I can learn from them. Funny thing is that I named this blog "Learning to Teach" which means that I am not perfect, but that I am learning to continually be better. From now on I will start blogging more about my journey and I will hide my view count. I truly believe you can learn a lot from reflecting.

Comments

  1. Melinda Larson-HorneFebruary 04, 2013

    Julie, this is so honest and reflective! At Rushton Hurley's keynote at SLATE, he reminded us: when innovating, be prepared for a certain amount of failure Learn from mistakes! If we have only have successes, we might not be trying hard enough!

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  2. Daina MundtFebruary 08, 2013

    What Melinda said is absolutely true. The sign of a good teacher is that she knows she is not perfect, she knows there is always something to be learned, to be changed, to be added or taken away from what is being taught and how it is taught in her classroom. There is no such thing as a perfect teacher, or a perfect classroom. As our culture and society continue to evolve, so will our students and therefore, our teaching will have to follow suit. We are teachers, but we are also learners.I'm glad you started to blog again. :)

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  3. UnknownFebruary 08, 2013

    Self-reflecting in my estimation may be one of the absolutely necessary trait for a good teacher to possess. I struggle all the time, changing what I do, allowing myself to be influenced by others, and never being married to a practice I've done in the past. Also, openly admitting our areas of weakness is a sign of maturity and security. I come across as over-confident or arrogant, but trust me, I have those same thoughts, so hang in there!

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