One Year Ago

One year ago, on December 13, 2013, I published my first blog post.  After attending a session on educational blogging at the MEMSPA conference facilitated by Ben Gilpin, I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating my own blog.  Luckily for me, another administrator from my district was in the session as well and we agreed to be accountability partners.  By the end of the month, we both had started blogs.  My initial purpose of the blog was to "jazz up" my weekly updates to my staff and to communicate in a more dynamic way. The first several months consisted of trying to navigate the template and the "widgets" of the blog itself and also trying to come up with something interesting to say each week.  To be honest, I think the post itself was probably scrolled through most weeks to get to the important stuff: The calendar of events:).

But as time went by, I started to have staff members come up to me and comment on the blog topic and even had a couple say that they were thinking of starting up their own blog.  By the time the next school year started, I presented a professional development session on how to start up a blog with my accountability partner from the session last winter.  It was great to share with other educators how fun it was to blog and how it has helped me (and hopefully others) grow professionally.  In fact, I now follow some of the people's blogs who were in that session.  The beauty of sharing out is that I also have started following others and have gleaned some wonderful ideas and am often inspired by what I read.

A couple of months ago, I started up an educational Twitter account.  The first month consisted of trying to figure out how to use it in a meaningful way and who to follow (just like my blog).  Now, I have the opportunity to connect with hundreds of educators from around the world and have been participating in educational chat sessions and idea exchanges and also have shared out my blog (and follow many others) through Twitter.  What started out as a tool to enhance my weekly updates has grown into a way for me to reflect on my educational beliefs and experiences and share them out with educators and to grow from other's experiences and hear their stories through their blogs. (check out the great list of blogs I follow on my page)  I would have never dreamed 12 months ago, that I would have been showing others how to set up a blog or that my own blog would have over 4,000 views from places as far away as Australia. I guess it's like anything else that we do to push ourselves to grow as professionals.  Stretching out of our comfort zones, trying something new, and making small changes to our routine can have big results.  Hopefully, one year from now, I will be talking about something new I learned or tried and how it helped me become a better principal and helped others grow professionally as well. What new thing are you going to try today?

Photo Credit: feeco.com.au

Video for this month's habit: "Be Proactive"

PEARLS OF WISDOM:

"A year from now, you may wish you started today." - Karen Lamb

"The most important step of all is the first step. Start something." - Anonymous

"Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try." - Amy Harton


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Monday, December 15: Title 1 Budget Meeting (Wennstrom/Francis) at Rosedale 10:30 am
Tuesday, December 16: IEP (Casucci/Berrelez) 8:15 am
                                       Parent Meeting (Wennstrom/Casucci/Robison) 12:00 pm
                                       Sing-a-Long in the gym with Mr. Murphy 3:05-3:35 pm
                                       Santa Secret Shop in Room 18
Wednesday, December 17: Santa Secret Shop in Room 18
Thursday, December 18: REED (Boggs/Jouppi) 8:15 am
                                         Santa Secret Shop in Room 18
Friday, December 19: Staff Breakfast hosted by Joe and Diane
                                    Last day of school for 2014

Monday, January 5: School Resumes
Thursday, January 8: Title 1 Parent Night 5:45 pm
                                   PTA Meeting at 6:30 pm