The Daunting Task of Writing

Hey there! Ever since blogging became a thing in the late 1900s (that's around the year 1999 for you youngsters), I've been a part of it. I started blogging my senior year in high school, but I defeated the purpose of a blog by making it private and no one could read it but me. That's where all my "emo poems" went that I like to tell my students about. However, later in college, I kept a public blog regularly and had a small but loyal readership. The best part of blogging is that now, whenever I feel like it, I can go back through the archives of my blogs and reminisce about the "good ol' days"(more like the emotional roller coaster days).

Sadly, something happened when I became a teacher. I dropped blogging almost all together, save for a handful of posts over the years, and to be honest, I pretty much dropped writing anything that wasn't for school. What happened? I certainly didn't lose my passion for writing! Over the years, instead of writing my own blog, I've been entertained and informed by other teacher blogs.

This summer, I read two blogs (here and here) that made me particularly jealous, and when I get jealous, I get competitive! I love the voices these two talented bloggers have and love the ideas they share even more. One of the most difficult things about writing is knowing where to start, but seeing what these other teachers are doing helped me get over that uncertainty. You start by doing...it really is that simple!

So begins my latest blog "This Week". I plan to use this blog to reflect on and communicate my successes and struggles in the classroom. This year I am challenging myself to post at least twenty-five blogs by May 2015. To help hold me accountable, I'm posting it in my classroom and counting on my students to give me gentle reminders when I'm slacking. Hopefully, over time, I will open the dusty crypt of my blogging skills (cue the creaking sound) and .

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Perception vs. Reality

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Carpe Diem (a philosophical rambling)

Teaching seniors is hard. Teaching seniors during the last month before graduation and attempting to instill some kind of appreciation and enthusiasm for Hamlet is reckless behavior. Yet, that's exactly what I am doing. Kelly Gallagher describes it best: "I have done many difficult things in my life. I have run a marathon. I have eaten escargot to impress a date. I have sat in the middle seat of a cross-country flight, wedged between a snorer and a person in desperate need of Gas-X. Worse, I have sat through an episode of Sex and the City. But all of these pale in comparison to the hardest thing I have ever done: stand in front of thirty-seven teenagers with the expressed purpose of teaching Hamlet. " He defends this seemingly impossible task by saying that if we help students see the reward of the hard work it takes to tackle a complex text, they will surprise you and work hard. I'm not sure how successful I've been at doing that this year. I'm trying, b...

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