How to comment like a king (or queen!) Commenting has truly been the fuel that has fired readership for my blog and opportunity for me.
It is also part of being a responsible blogger in general. If one is an expert, I guess they may just want to keep their "wisdom" on their own blog, but the true conversation participants are those who contribute to the discussion wherever the blog posting is. There are several techniques for effective commenting that I try to follow. 1) Write a meaningful comment. "Yeah" or "Right on" may make the author feel good, but of more interest to conversation participants is "Why do you think it is right on? " You show the blog author that "you hear them" Sometimes authors (like me) feel like they are only posting to themselves. You cast a vote on the importance of a topic I think that as an edublogger, I think commenting is one of the most meaningful tools that we have to show experts where they need to focus.
You draw attention to your own blog I love knowing who people are. Top 50 Elementary Teacher Blogs. What if every teacher blogged? Let’s just say for a moment that in teaching, we value concepts such as: Fostering relationshipsEnhancing resilience & staff wellbeingEncouraging deep reflectionSharing of best practice and visionEngagement in our professionEnhancing teacher qualityCross-curricular linksLinks to the “real” world*Peer-to-peer coachingThe development of a body of workThe ability to stay “current” with social & technological trends Which one of these would blogging NOT address?
I believe that blogging is the simplest, cheapest but also the most effective way to enhance teacher quality in your school… without the need to fire or hire anyone. I suggest that as a start, school leaders could create a school-based blog and allocate 1hr every one or two weeks for staff to blog. You can keep it completely “in-house” or use it as a window into your learning community – whatever suits your school. If your school is devoid of bloggers, this link gives you the 101 on what’s needed to get a blog up and running. I think, therefore I blog. 100 High School Teacher Blogs To Start Reading. No matter what grade you teach, high school teacher blogs are some of the most important resources for teachers and school administrators. They feature insight, in-depth discussion, and usually quite a few bits of humor and personal experiences. What could be better? The following list courtesy of Online Degrees should get you more than started on finding some fascinating new educators to add to your RSS reader!
Confessions from the Couch - This history teacher and cheerleading coach uses her blog to discuss her thoughts and opinions on the state of education in America’s urban schools. Recommended posts: “Problems of Urban Education ” and “ Bellwork Success .” Failing Schools – This political blog is written by three different authors, all of whom have experience in teaching as well as opinions on educational reform. MathNotations – This blogger posts numerous math, algebra, geometry, and calculus problems that any middle or high school teacher could use in their classroom.
Mr. Mr. Mr. Why Should Teachers Blog? by Henrietta Miller on Prezi. …and this is why teachers should have blogs. I have been a big advocate of blogging for teachers, but not until I started doing it myself.
Personally, I realized that the time I take to sit down and reflect on what I do, what I read, or what I observe has really helped my own path as an educator and an administrator. Sometimes, for my own clarification, I go back and read my own blog to look at what I have done and how I can continuously work on it to improve. This transparent way of learning is something that I believe can not only improve the teaching profession as a whole (for example, take a look at the conversation on this Pernille Ripp post from today), but is something that could really improve learning for our students. Dean Shareski talked about this in his article entitled, “How to Make Better Teachers“, and the one word he used for his answer was “blogging”.
Dean pushes this concept and shares how blogging mirrors some of the same objectives of Professional Learning Communities: One of my favourite things is Pokemon.