It's been a while. Nearly 2 years since my last post!
I think it's fair to say I don't naturally have an urge to journal or write, and I definitely don't have a lot of free time. Balancing work and family life made it pretty difficult to keep the blog going, even if there were things I would have liked to share.
Some things have definitely changed in that time. One of the biggest change would be that I'm no longer teaching. I've embarked on a new chapter of my career. I am now the full time TOSA for my district. My job title is "Instructional Coach," and for the next two years my responsibility will be to support teachers at Los Gatos and Saratoga High Schools.
Transitioning out of the classroom has been an interesting experience. It's exciting because it's a new challenge, and I felt like it is a perfect match of my skill set and the need. I get to help teachers grow as educators by both supporting them with things they want to work on and also showing them things they've never done or even considered. When I went into teaching I did it because I felt like it was the one job that I could have the greatest impact on the world. Educating our youth is an investment in our future. Now when I help teachers, in a way I feel like I'm amplifying my affect. It's pretty cool.
Yet, there's some weird sides to becoming a TOSA. You have to pack up everything in your room, but not get rid of things because you're going to back to teaching. And some people will tell you won't get your room back. Some people think you won't come back at all. I have no aspirations to go into administration, yet many think that's what I'll do.
After a couple months on the job, there have been a few events that have made me consider starting my blog back up again.
1. I read Innovators Mindset by George Couros. He talks about blogging a lot as a form of digital portfolio. I'm totally sold on that as a teacher. See previous posts on the subject. He mentioned a great article from Wired Magazine that made me think that even my bad blog might be beneficial.
2. I stumbled upon this article on Twitter: Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay. The article made me think beyond why we should be having students blog (again, totally on board with it), but the format of it made me think about how I should be writing my own blog stylistically.
3. I participated in a @TOSAChat on the topic of blogging. A lot of the conversation got me thinking about how I could use a blog in my new role. It got me thinking about the title of my blog and the focus of it. My education, and my role in education, is constantly evolving. What started as a blog about an experiment I was trying in class, evolved into a blog about things I was doing in general. Now as a TOSA, I could use this as a platform to share resources with colleagues, and my PLN.
The one thing holding me back has been time. Remember: I HAVE NO TIME. I didn't know how I was going to be able to find the time to blog, and I don't know how my district (and colleagues) would feel about me blogging on the job.
4. Then the final thing tipped me over: my awesome TOSA partner Steph Rothstein sends Traci and me a vox on Friday saying she has started her blog. Check it out here: https://tosatakeaways.
The Next Step in the Evolution of my Blog
Her approach totally pushed me over the edge. She said that she's basically going to copy and paste some of her emails that she sends to staff into her blog. I listen to that and think: "Genius!"
So that's my plan, that hopefully won't take up extra time. I'm just going to post many of the things I share with staff. I've already started a YouTube Channel called 1CoolThing, so just created a page here based on my initial email I sent to staff outlining what it's all about. Check it out here or click it up at the top of this page.
Moving forward I will use this blog to archive topics I email staff about. I'll also use it as a place to embed my videos with a little more explanation on the topic. I also plan to reflect on my role as a TOSA. I hope both educators and TOSAs can get some benefit from this blog.
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| Image by author. |
Picture at top of the page: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Time-Allocation.png
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