Sunday 31 August 2014

And the journey begins.........

Right now I am sitting at the crest of a magnificent "West Coast" wave (metaphorically speaking) and can no longer resist taking the plunge down the exhilarating face of the blogasphere wave. I may wipe out but it also might be the ride of my life......... As with anything new there a is degree of trepidation however, I remind myself of a favourite quote "feel the fear and do it anyway". So here I am!

My concerns are varied; ranging from "how on earth will I find the time to write a regular post?" through to "who, in their right mind, is going to find my posts interesting?".  And, as my non-teaching husband quite rightly pointed out, my students in front of me each day are the number one priority and that anything else MUST come after being prepared for my students.  I wholeheartedly agree, yet by sharing and organising my thoughts on a blog I might just strike a
chord with another teacher somewhere else in our global network and indirectly be helping many more students.........grand visions and high aspirations perhaps but a real possibility in today's digitally connected world. 

Also of concern:-
What if.........my musings aren't academic enough?
What if.........I struggle to maintain a steady flow of posts?
What if.........my writing style is rubbish?
What if.........I run out of things to say? (highly unlikely as those who know me will attest)
What if.........blogging takes over my life? (also highly unlikely)

Why do I feel compelled to start blogging?
Well it's a convergence of happenings over the past 10 days, most specifically.........


A Skype conversation (see blog post) with my Year 13 Product Design class and Grant Lichtman (author of The Falconer) and his urge for us (students and teachers alike) to be sharing our work via blogs or website.

An article from TeachThought to encourage teachers to reflect and blog every day throughout September.What"s more, to assist, they have formulated a question a day to respond to. To me this like taking the plunge down the face of that "West Coast" wave with water wings! An ideal way to start blogging. Of course keeping up the daily intensity past 30th Sept may be a challenge but hopefully by then I will have developed some positive blogging habits.

At mindlab yesterday morning our class (post-graduate diploma in applied practice) were introduced to the most amazing app - booktrack which is being developing right here in NZ - Takapuna to be precise. Booktrack enables the reader to listen to a soundtrack as they read an e-book. The classroom version enables class and individual student log-ons. Teachers and students can add their own soundtrack to text, be it a chapter of a book being studied, a poem, or something the students have written.....  I'm pondering whether this could be an engaging way to introduce the requirements of an externally assessed achievement standard - worth a try I say....... When Chas and Craig were taking us through the very user-friendly programme we were admiring their t-shirts. Craig's challenge to us was that  "if we blogged about them we'd get a free t-shirt". How could I resist such a challenge? Craig, I'm looking forward to wearing that t-shirt with pride. perhaps down that metaphorical "West Coast" wave!!! 

And lastly.........I can't write my first ever blog post without mentioning Steve Mouldey, inspirational teacher extraordinaire, and also thanking him for his advice and suggestions on starting to blog......

Until tomorrow: Day 1 of the September challenge.........

PS. I'd love some feedback/feed-forward.