Honestly, I've had a lot on my plate. I could cut myself some slack there. There's a lot going on for me personally and professionally and I could go into detail - but I'll bore you. Well maybe not, but it makes me mysterious - no?
I think in order to reboot myself I'll have to give myself some permission, some leeway to just hit #pushsend and let the entire internet see my thoughts with only a little bit of editing. I think that's where I get lost. I can't speak for anyone else but I can say that I want my posts to have some good substance in them. I want my blog to be something more.
If you could have only see what my blog used to look like. I tweaked the HTML code to have some beautiful features. Then there was an update and I never went back to add them back in. Maybe I'll do that, but maybe I won't. See what I'm talking about? Permission. It's ok not to have every single feature that I used to have. It's ok not to make every single blog post a huge production and have a billion or so links to everything. It's ok and I have to give myself that permission.
I didn't get to go to TMC. Oh how I wish I could go. Especially back in time ;). It seems really fun to go and get ideas. Those in attendance do such a great job documenting their experience that sometimes it feels like I'm there. But there is a difference between going to something and just gleaming from others experiences. But that #pushsend - whoa. It really did hit Twitter like a ton of bricks. Well maybe just #mtbos - but that's the community I feel like I belong to.
Do I participate in every twitter chat? No.
Do I blog about every lesson I teach? No.
Do I consistently blog? or tweet? No.
I'm probably one of the worst at being consistent. I'm the worst at sending out content. I read and I comment every once in a great while but mostly I read. I read, have an opinion, read more, change my opinion, read more, change back, and the cycle continues. I find something, want to try it in my classroom, find it works, keep doing it, find it doesn't work, tweak, keep going until the end of the school year, reflect, plan, rinse, repeat.
But I still feel like I can search up #mtbos and read about things other people are trying and doing. These are other people who are like me who are doing stuff and documenting it. Are some of them better at documenting than I am? Sure they are! Are some of them strongly-opinion-ed about some things? Yes! Do I sometimes feel like a fly on the wall about things? Certainly. But I've found some sort of kinship with this group and I love it.
I'm intrigued by this #iteachmath vs. #mtbos
I certainly do teach math. I think anyone who explains in any depth some relational and rational reasoning skills teaches math. To me math and logic go hand and hand. If you use reasoning in any argumentation you somehow tangentially are teaching critical thinking to your audience. Maybe this stretches the definition a little too much for some people but bear with me here.
I have a blog, am on twitter and sometimes pose questions via the #mtbos. I'm not sure what it means to be "part" of the community exactly. Once I found out about #mtbos I did spend some time lurking (just a bit) but the reality was that I also just jumped right in.
My very first tweet:
My very first use of #mtbos (and it was a retweet nonetheless!):putting together some elements for my teaching portfolio; anyone have any inspiration for me?— Vanessa Garcia (@Vanes63) June 9, 2009
I'd say first authentic use of #mtbos:Easter is Sunday... How many Peeps are made & sold each year? Lets do the math: http://t.co/bniFWvUBRs #mathchat #mtbos #5thchat #pblchat— Brian Marks (@Yummymath) April 17, 2014
Help! Writing a Q where I want Ss 2 sketch a function & verbally explain trans. - it's transformed from a parent function. #MTBoS #mathchat— Vanessa Garcia (@Vanes63) October 24, 2014
So I can see there's a long history there. As with some families, if you go for a while you can come back and they will welcome your return. So this is my return to blogging. Took a long time to get to my point (as I'm often long-winded) but my goal for this year is to consistently blog. Even if it's once a week. I'm going to make sure to #pushsend and give myself permission to not be perfect and not always make sense and not always have substantial amounts of information or whatever. So here's to making blogging a consistent habit.
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