It started when a fellow Halton colleague tweeted my blog out to the world - this scared me, and to be honest, it still scares me. I had only shared it out selectively to a few colleagues to get their input and to see if I was even any good at this whole blogging thing! I hadn't yet convinced myself that I was brave enough to put it out there for more people to read, especially if they knew me!
Well, the cat's out of the bag - and many people have reached out to me about it. It amazes me how afraid I was of people reading these thoughts/reflections about teaching. I always try to do my best, but I also recognize that I am nowhere near perfect, and that I make mistakes just like any other human being. I think I was afraid that people would concentrate on the things that I struggle with and that they would then form an opinion that I'm a terrible educator. Thankfully, the feedback has been really positive, and it has made me feel like maybe I don't have to be so scared!
In a previous post, I mentioned that I was a guest on the podcast "Que Sera Sarah?" - well it was also posted for the public to listen to on Soundcloud, and on the iOS podcast app. For those interested, here is the link!
That podcast appearance was also tweeted to the world, and a few of my colleagues saw me tagged on Twitter, and retweeted and shared it! So, I suppose that you could say that this past week or so has been quite important for personal and professional growth!
As if that wasn't enough, I shared some strategies that I use in my own classroom at our subject-specific PD Day. I was still nervous, and quite fearful of screwing up, but it felt good to share! I was sharing how I use Guided Reading, which is typically an elementary reading program/strategy, in my secondary ESL classroom. I could, and likely will, do a whole blog post just about guided reading, so I won't go into details here, but if you have students that struggle with reading and writing, you should definitely check it out! Guided reading has been phenomenal for my English language learners. While it was intimidating and scary to share in front of colleagues, it was also amazing to share with like-minded colleagues who want to find solutions to help their struggling students.
Overall, this has caused a whirlwind of emotions. I am still super nervous presenting, but I think it'll get a little easier every time. And while I do worry about how people will react to this blog or my podcast episode, I'm also starting to realize that there will always be negative people out there (not always intentional), and that I just need to keep being me - keep doing my thing and working towards improving who I am and what I do. At the end of the day, I'm the one who has to live with myself and the decisions I make.
And so, I will continue on this crazy adventure of blogging and making myself uncomfortable! If you are reading this, and if you are on the fence about whether you should start to blog or podcast or even start sharing your knowledge in front of peers, I hope that you just go for it! Life's too short - and we all have something that we can offer this world.
So - share! Get out there! Be uncomfortable!
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