One Blog

So...it's taken a few years of experimenting, exploring and reflecting to finally settle on just one blog to share my thoughts, stories, curiosities, wonderings.  I follow and am inspired by the messages in many blogs and also realize the personal benefits of blogging for my own reflective practice.   But to start out blogging was a huge leap.  Like I've heard from so many, it's hard to take the risk of putting your own thinking out there, particularly in writing, for all the world to see.  Yet, isn't it those kinds of risks that I ask of students and even expect from my colleagues?

So, after attempting to create several blogs....fast forward two years and here I am- starting another one.  What's the saying?  "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again?"  My hope is that this will be my final blog and that this is one I will stick with.

When I first attempting blogging, I wasn't really sure how to just share randomly and openly about any topic at all.  I felt it easier to focus on one passion or theme or idea and I couldn't comprehend how to bring them all together.   So, instead, I made separate blogs for each one of my passions and learning journeys.  As you can imagine, this became unmanageable and some of these didn't even make it past the 'design' of the site or the first post.

I'm sharing what I call my 'failed' attempts at blogging here because it's all been a necessary part of my journey to get to where I am today.    My Play-Think-Wonder blog was focused on my love for play-based learning and passion for the early years.  Bruce-Grey Catholic DSB Learns was created with the hope that our system might use the collaborative space for our study of George Couros' book The Innovator's Mindset. Designer Classrooms was created in the hope of capturing stories of design thinking and Inquiry Learning Redefined was created to capture a my journey and reflections about a project in a Grade 5/6 classroom. This blog would be my best attempt at blogging but was set-up to capture one learning journey specifically rather than a general blog for sharing all of my learning.

Over time, I have become less and less 'fearful' about blogging and sharing my thoughts publicly- even when not completely polished. This has been a process- but recognizing the importance of blogging for my own reflections has made me less reserved.

As I move forward in my career, my One Blog seems like a make-sense place to continue to share. Regardless of the focus in my work or my role in education I will use this space to reflect on all I learn-think-wonder. Looking forward to this next chapter of blogging!