Over the course of the last few years, I have jumped on and off the blogging bandwagon. In fact, this is my third professional blog. Let’s not count when my roommates and I tried to start a sports blog in college. The other two have disappeared or I didn’t have the confidence to stay with it (when self-hosting, don’t start deleting databases for no reason). Since then, I have come to a few realizations about the purpose and goals I have for blogging.
- It’s not about the size of the audience. Tracking views on my site and blog got to the point where I was most concerned about generating traffic. I found that, over time, it didn’t matter how many people were coming to my site because my blog could demonstrate my growth and thought process.
- Connections with other educators. I find myself getting involved in challenges to post and find it helpful. I then get to connect with other educators and sharing our ideas and connecting with one another. We then take these ideas and impact the teachers and students that we work with.
- A place of reflection. This lines up with the audience. Even if no one else comes, it is still worthwhile as a place where I can reflect on my practice.
I also blog for other reasons. I find it fun to share my thoughts and work on improving my writing. Communicating is an essential skill today, and the more I write the more comfortable I get it. Practicing with my blog posts helps to build my confidence in sharing my ideas.
Besides the internal values for me, if anyone stumbles across my blog and learns something, I’m beyond excited. I am slowly starting to embrace the idea my ideas are of value to others!
I jumped on board with the ISTE EdTech Coaches Blogging Buddies to get myself back into writing for fun. I just finished my Master’s degree and have been very preoccupied with that process. I look forward to connecting, collaborating, and learning from my awesome buddy group moving forward.
4 responses to “Why Blog? Joining #ETCoaches Blogging Buddies”
Daniel, your experiences sound a lot like mine. I had many of the same thoughts and hesitations getting started (and re-started). Most of the benefits have been in areas I didn’t even think about when I first decided to start my own blog, and the professional connections I’ve been able to make as a result have been of incalculable value.
(And, ditto on not deleting self-hosted databases without knowing what they were doing!)
Daniel, It’s great to have you on board with Blogging Buddies! You give some great reasons for blogging, that I think we can all forget sometimes. As tech coaches, we especially understand the importance of blogging… hopefully this initiative will help bring everyone some other coaches to help share, reflect and gain insight from through blogging. Looking forward to learning with you!
Hi Daniel!
I am still following your blog and wanted to stop in and say so on a recent post.
🙂
Thanks for staying around!