Teaching Tip #184

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #184

Best professional development ideas over the summer.  Part 3

Blogging

As an English teacher this is a no brainer.  Thinking is writing; writing is thinking.  So what better way to improve your craft than write about it?

As an English teacher, one of the most effective things I've learned to do is share my writing with my students (almost always in the rough draft stage) and write in front of my students. This isn't something I ever came up with. This is a best practice I stole from the likes of Donal Murray, Tom Romano, Peter Elbow, and Penny Kittle.

Without a doubt, it has transformed my effectiveness as a teacher and, specifically, a teacher of writing. So whether it's on a blog, on your chalk board (well, your white board), or your SMARTboard, write in front of your students and show them your strategies for thinking and revising and polishing your writing.

Even if you just share what is going on in your classroom, you will be opening your practice up to others and engaging them.  The fact that someone just might, must might, read about it is enough to cause you to think critically about it.  I’m living proof of that.

Even if no one is ever going to read it, blogging is still a vital tool for your development.