Introduction

Welcome to those of you who may have stumbled across my blog... I am a high school science teacher going into my 6th year of teaching and have been thinking about starting a blog for a long time.  But, as with many ideas, I was fighting against inertia and needed a push to get going!  That push came in the form of a workshop that I am just finishing up.  During the workshop ("Global Education"), we were presented with a post from another blogger, Ingvi Hrannar Ómarsson-- a teacher in Iceland, of all places!  In his post 14 Things that are Obsolete in 21st Century Schools, Ingvi mentions, "We should all be tweeting, blogging and sharing what works and doesn’t work, get and give advice to and from co-workers around the world."  As if I didn't feel guilty enough already about perusing the vast expanse of resources on the net and unabashedly stealing lessons and ideas from other teachers who are generously sharing, and not giving anything in return!  This guilt trip in conjunction with the free-flowing of ideas and chunk of time given to work (a hallmark of a great PD workshop) gave rise to the blog that you are now reading.

In order to start anything, I need to find some way to make it into a more manageable undertaking.  All along I'd been thinking, "there's so much I could share, where do I start?"  If I can't think of where to start, usually starting never happens.  And of course the reservation always entered my head "is what I have good enough to share?" or "will people even care?"  Through my thought process I have overcome these roadblocks to get going on this bloggy thing.  I decided that I will start by blogging about workshop experiences.  So, here I present my rationale for my blog endeavor.

1.  Organization

I will admit it, I am a piler.  By the end of a semester (ok, if I'm really being honest, the end of the first few weeks), I have piles of papers and books all over my desk.  Likewise, my computer desktop is covered with icons.  I like organization and I like filing, but I tend to lose things when they are filed away.  My natural inclination is to pile, but I can generally find things when I need them.  My workshop materials are living in piles and I want to give them a home where I can revisit them all in one tidy place!

2.  Reflection

This blog endeavor will force me to reflect on my learning. Reflection is a very important part of solidifying these new experiences and ideas.  This will be a space where I can take the time to look back on my learning and work more deliberately on developing plans for the future.

3.  Memory

It has happened to all of us.  You learn some awesome stuff, you come up with some great ideas.  Maybe you try some of them, maybe you share some of them, but most of it gets lost in the mix.  Not because they weren't great ideas, but your focus shifts and other things creep in, taking precious storage space in your memory.  This space will be a place for me to document ideas to be able to access them easily later.  

4.  Accountability

Having a space to collect my ideas will help encourage me to actually collect and record them.  And if I get some of you lovely teachers out there reading and using what I share, that will be a bigger push to get me to get content out there.  Which leads me to...

5.  Helping other teachers

I don't have delusions of grandeur, but I know that there is someone out there that can benefit from me sharing my learning.  I know how lucky I am to have amazing professional development opportunities available to me.  I know that not all teachers are as lucky as I am, but most teachers I know have a strong desire to learn and develop.  Even teachers that do have access to awesome professional development may find something here that they wouldn't have found otherwise.  In helping myself, I hope to be helping you too.  I have learned something from nearly every teacher I've ever encountered, either in person or online.  I have for sure stolen a whole lot of materials that other teachers have shared (beg, borrow, and steal--the mantra of teachers everywhere!) and it is time for me to give back.

Meredith Jacques