Many teachers find technology difficult or frustrating. Many technologists, like myself, find expressing ourselves eloquently and effectively challenging or intimidating. In either case, improving is a matter of practice and approach.
As a graduate student coming back to school after many years away, I experienced a bit of a shock to the system because of the sheer amount of writing required. Academia is writing. Write and write some more. Then, reflect on what you wrote. In writing, please.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2017 was to write more. Writing in many different forms, for different audiences, getting practice. To sharpen those skills. This will only help me to succeed in academics, professionally, and in my own personal growth, and hopefully provide some fun and satisfaction. Here are a few of the other things I’m doing outside of this blog to keep on writin’.
At Work
Last year I took over and relaunched the Teaching & Learning blog at the University of Portland. I view as a chance to participate in a small community of teachers and those who support them at UP. I contribute thoughts there fairly regularly, and also publish #uptechtips which are aimed at the very specific audience of UP faculty. A goal of Teacher With Tech is to extend what I’m doing at UP to a broader audience.
Just For Me
I started using Day One to write privately. I need a free space to practice away from likes, comments, grades or feedback. It’s not a journal exactly but it is just for me, and there’s some power to that. I also love the way this app can pull in photos, GPS data, etc for inspiration.
For Fun
Balancing school, work, and life doesn’t leave a ton of time to read for pleasure. A joy I have re-discovered in the last year is in reading comic books (or graphic novels if you prefer). There are definitely some negative stereotypes about comics that I won’t spend the time to debunk here – but I personally love them and think they are worth writing about. If you’re interested in my reflections on the best of the creator-owned comics I’m reading, you can find them my new Tumblr, Trade Waiter. I’ve always wanted to explore Tumblr and this seemed like a good fit. I’m aiming for one post a month for 2017.
