Blogging for yourself

Where do you record your thoughts about your teaching?  Have you considered using a blog?  Blogs don’t have to be open to the whole world – you can make your blog very private – only viewable by the blog author, i.e., you.

Reader settings for a Blogger blog

Using a blogging platform for your reflection enables you to create an easily accessible, richly tagged, linked, illustrated journal of your professional growth, and at the same time lets you become familiar with a tool you might be considering for your students. As Aristotle pointed out, we learn by doing.

In his excellent blog post, The Reflective Teacher: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part 3), Peter Pappas describes a Bloom’s Taxonomy of reflection which he has developed:

Click this link to read his thoughtful post.

Having thought about what to write, you might want to look at several blogging platforms.

There are several free, popular sites to choose from, and many reviews and comparisons of them to help you choose. You might start with this one: How to choose the best platform for your blog.

If you would like to see what other teachers are writing (and sharing with the world) visit these blogs:

• Reflections on Teaching by a 6th Grade teacher in California
• Blogush is written by a Middle School teacher in Connecticut
• Bianca Hewes is a High School English teacher
• Teaching: Leading Learning is written by a Deputyhead Teacher, who teaches English and Media Studies at a Performing Arts College in Bristol UK
• The Reflective Teacher teaches in the Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts
• Biororz is by an IB  Biology teacher in  Mumbai
• No Frills is written by a PYP teacher in Jakarta
• PYP PE with Andy is written by a PYP PE teacher in Nanjing
• What Ed Said is by the Teaching and Learning Coordinator at a PYP School in Melbourne.
• Making Thinking Visible is the blog of a PYP Coordinator and Tech Facilitator  in Dhaka
• Reflections of a Passionate Educator is written by an MYP Drama, English, ESL, and Humanities teacher in Australia
• My Journey as an IB Educator is by an IB teacher in Calcutta