A blog of thought

In 2011 I was a struggling teacher looking for a full-time contract job like so many of my fellow education majors. If you graduated colleges with an education degree in the 2000s, most likely you were granted the promised retirement boom that was expected and getting a job was a lot harder than you even expected. Due to that, many of us are finally in positions that we have fought for and are ready to make a difference in classrooms we are grateful to teach.

When trying to search for a job, I had an online portfolio, twitter accounts, linked-in, and even an education blog trying to search for the sign that would led me to my career in a school district. It turned out that social media played no part in my experience, but instead I gained success through making face-to-face contact at a job fair and traveling to Virginia for interviews. My job in Virginia subsequently led me back to New Jersey as the superintendent of schools in Alexandria used to be the superintendent of school of Cherry Hill. My work in Alexandria gave me the credentials to be recommended for a position and after 16 interviews at various districts in South Jersey, I found my home in a middle school as a special education resource teacher.

Now that I am entering my third year in Cherry Hill and my fifth overall year teaching in the public sector, I feel the need to get back to my social media roots to connect with the ever changing, ever growing world of education. The urge to start this today was sparked by my needing to change my old accounts from my maiden name to my new married name, but more than that I find that I do best when I am reflective in my practice. I need a place to empty the thoughts of the day so that I can enjoy quiet time with my husband.

I found myself this past year reading great passages and books on education. I write down these great ideas in notebooks and soon I cannot retrieve my original thoughts as the notebooks get "put away in a safe place." Or I have great conversations with colleagues about things we want to change and how we can make our school better only to leave the meeting to attend to our personal lives and never make that idea a reality. I don't want to lose sight of what can sometimes be buried deep in my thoughts.

I also want this to be used as a forum for me to improve my own writing. Taking a graduate class online is making me realize I want to become better at forming my thoughts. I tend to brain dump, such as in this post, without having a clear beginning, middle, end. I find in our fast paced world people want you to get the point. My students want me to get to the point. I tend to ramble and it is an area I want to improve upon.

This will be a place for me to consolidate my notebooks, notes on my phone, google docs of ideas, and document my growth as an educator.

 Even if no one ever reads this blog, I feel it is important for me to get out my thoughts. I want to surround myself in research, best practice, and reflection. The best way to do this is in a journal.