Monday, August 22, 2016

#CelebrateMonday with an Inaugural Blog Post

So I have decided to #celebratemonday by being bold and launching my blog. This is a big step for me as I am finally putting my musings out there publicly instead of "secretly" writing posts that are being saved in a private folder of an unpublished blog. Yes, this has been a slow process, but I know I need to model what I encourage my students to do ... put themselves out there. So this is me putting myself out there. I will admit this new-found courage did not happen over night. Nope, this summer I took another first step when I stopped lurking on twitter chats and started engaging. So what had been holding me back? As I recently shared in a #kidsdeserveit chat, I wasn't confident that my contributions would be helpful or add value to the discussion. Now let me tell you, I would never tolerate this kind of self doubt from my students or my colleagues, so why would I accept it from myself? Well, I don't and so I decided it was time to rip off the twitter chat bandaid.

When I finally joined the twitter chat world, I went all in. [Full disclosure...I have an index card listing all the chats I want to participate in by day.] I have already mentioned a couple of the chats in which I participate. Well, a few others on my weekly calendar are: #TLAP, #resiliencechat, #daretobe, TedEdChat, #superyoufun, #makeitreal, #isedchat, #educolor, #engagechat, #leadupchat....just to name a few. What I have found most valuable about these chats is the information sharing amongst all the participants. So much wisdom, innovation, and inspiration on these chats. This engagement reminded me that it's time be a little vulnerable and, of course, stay real.

So here I am, going all in.