To Blog or not to Blog - that is definitely the question!

At the end of last term, I made a conscious decision, which I have felt guilty about since then, to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING related to school for the first 10 days of the holidays, I was tired, a little disillusioned and pretty damn well over a whole lot of things to do with school....hence I am only now getting to the '31days of blogging' being organised by Christchurch Connected Educators!!

I started blogging in 2007 after starting my MEd online at Waikato Uni. My thesis was entitled 'Keeping up with the digital natives: integrating web 2.0 into classroom practice'. 

I blogged - http://blog-mrs-c.blogspot.co.nz/

My class blogged - http://siobhans-bloggy.blogspot.co.nz/ ;  http://heather-addison.blogspot.co.nz/

After 'connecting' with Natalie Cowie, who was at KatiKati then, blogs really took off....

I blogged for my then Department - http://ideas4englishclassrooms.blogspot.co.nz

I got some of my Department blogging - http://chucker.blogspot.co.nz/

I ran a Library Blog - http://mrscsbookblog.blogspot.co.nz/

I ran a blog for parents - http://parentscount.blogspot.co.nz/

By the end of my thesis I was blogged out! But the data created was valuable - the half of the class that blogged about their work and writing gave and received more feedback and took part in more ongoing conversations about their work than the students who kept a logbook, as opposed to a 'blogbook'.

8 years on I still blog, but I run only two. I follow a number of blogs (which I regularly say to myself the number is not going to increase......). 

I blog to record my professional learning – schools visits I have been on; conferences I have attended and courses that I am enrolled in. I am currently enrolled in a PostGrad Dip  - Applied Practice - Collaborative and Digital Learning - run by The MindLab - http://themindlab.com/ I blog as I go – use my phone or tablet and modify and correct errors later. Adding photos and links from the lectures as I go is a breeze and I find working on the iPhone my ‘device of choice’. I find I can process and clarify thoughts as I go. 

I love reading – I still have a strong connection to the English Faculty and Library at my school. I regularly read and review teen fiction on our school library blog – Teen Arotake - https://teenarotake.wordpress.com/ - this is a part of my job that I really enjoy.

So that’s me…..how I got into blogging and why I still blog......

Alison Cleary - Rangiora High School

@AlisonCleary