Blogging is Hard Fun

Blogging Questions Challenge

My friend Sarah Honeychurch is responding to a blogging challenge that asks, “Why Blog?” She wrote her answers, Blogging Challenge Questions, and passed the questions on to me.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

The thing is, I think “writing is hard fun,” as Donald Murray says. So I write. But why blog?

I started to blog in 2007 because I taught middle school. 

The internet and technology were developing rapidly, and I knew that part of my responsibility as an educator was to bring the use of both of those into the classroom so students could learn and benefit from both the information and the tools that would soon be available to them. Digital literacy was key; apply those tools to communicate with others clearly and fairly is part of the writing expectations.

Besides, writing helps you think, to sort things out, to just write your heart out until you find your own message. On paper, a Google doc, or in your mind, you’re “seeing” the topic, and as you write, the ideas begin to sort themselves out as one thing leads to and connects to another. You circle back and head back into the idea.

We know that, and we know that kids need a reason to write– and to be able to share your ideas with the world? Well, that’s a reason, especially if you have blogging partners in another school in another part of the world. There’s a reason to do all that thinking– and writing.

So blogging would help students think and write and connect with others with whom they are sharing and communicating with. A good reason to start blogging.

Of course, we didn’t have technology in the classroom, so I began to tinker with what I could access. I started a family wiki and blog, an educator blog, and more. 

My lesson plans were on the Blogger platform before the school had Google Apps. I wrote reflective blogs about education as a teacher and, for our school, documented our process and progress for acquiring and using technology. 

Personally, I started one blog to capture important “tweets” and another [See-Frame_Focus] to document my participation with a group of teachers sharing reflections each Friday on Flickr.

So, why did I start to blog? To share, connect, and collaborate with stories, reflections, poems, and lessons with family, friends, teachers, guardians, administration, and students. One thing led to another.

And now— I blog because one day I won’t be here. It just feels like I’ll have left something behind that can be seen and enjoyed or simply deleted. It will be the last bit of me.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why do you use it?

My preferred platform is WordPress. I started two education blogs, one at WordPress.com [Ask What Else] and one at Edublogs [What Else], where my students also blogged long ago. 

With WordPress, you can ask yourself, “What else does my blog need?” and you can easily choose or switch a theme and widgets to create a website that fits your needs, updating easily as needed. 

Note: “What else?” is the question my students and I would often ask to inspire us to do more and better. Hence, the names of my blogs.

WordPress and especially Edublogs [built on WordPress] have excellent support and service when a user is stumped on learning updated elements of the platform. I’ve also taken some of their free classes. So, I like WordPress.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Oh my gosh: remember Posterous? I had one there too, but I transferred it to WordPress easily. 

I’ve mentioned Blogger, and I do have a Tumblr blog that reposts my blog and social media.

How about Substack?  Of course, my artist friends are there, so yeah, I’ve one there to connect easily with them since I’ve been retired for nine years this July and write mostly for my art career on this blog: Sheri42 [ also on WordPress].

I blogged on different platforms to try them out, and to differentiate audiences.

It seems being internationally connected means being part of more than one online blogging or other platform.

How do you write your posts?

Start with inspiration: a prompt, an event, a photograph, writing strategy, now— my art.

Gather resources online, whatever fits the topic to dig deeper and find clarifying links for the reader, should they choose. I use my Notes App for this. 

As I’m gathering and adding to the Notes for the topic, I’m organizing, putting ideas in an order in the app, making connections and conclusions, figuring out the story to tell.

So for various prompts, like October’s #WriteOut— I choose a prompt and let it drive my imagination for poetry, photography, illustrations, links, and history to share in a post. I research, take notes in the Notes App on my computer, note links, and then compose in WordPress. By then my ideas have coalesced into categories that make the organization and writing flow to fit the “idea” in my head.

Whatever the topic is, I try to research for clarification and links for the reader and myself, to help enhance the information and story in the post. For instance, I often take photos or create art about my local area, so I link to the relevant website [about a flower, park, geological event, etc.].

The process could take five minutes of gathering [like for the Flickr 21 Challenge] or all day! I learn and share it with the reader. Learning is hard fun.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

For about five years every day, I doodled, wrote a poem with picture, and often completed a Daily Create — those were my inspiration and could be inspired by the news or a photo of something interesting around me.

Now, I wait until a project for art or photography inspires a topic. I might share the process for the project as its progression, initial sketches, or just the finished illustration. 

I try to post something every day, and I try to write a “WrapUp” each Wednesday.

But there’s only so much time in the day, and I have a dog who must run twice a day.  🙂

I would just draw and write, if I didn’t have to eat and sleep and walk the dog. 

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

I should let it simmer, but tomorrow is another day, another project. So I publish right away after checking that I’ve included featured image, tags, categories, and social media blurb. Then, I read it and see all the errors I need to edit, just like my friend Sarah Honeychurch!

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

I think the one that is most important is the one about letting students write — the experience with students participating in NaNoWriMo demonstrates how important it is for relevance and purpose and student interest in order for students to engage. And not just engage, but to learn together in a community. The experience confirmed my support for providing students with choice and a chance to share their own voice: Let Them Write.

Other posts that are favorites on my education/personal blog include writing strategies for the students and teachers. Some were for WriteOut; I wrote the main part at AskWhatElse and directed the reader to the process and strategies on the WhatElse blog on Edublogs in two categories: Writing Tips and Writing Strategies.

So this post “And Still it Flows” with a poem about the Columbia River links to the writing strategies used here “And Still It Flows” on Edublogs.

• Writing Strategies — AskWhatElse
• Writing Strategies— WhatElse
• Writing Tips — WhatElse
• Why I Write

Any future plans for the blog?

I’ll just continue writing for my retirement with art and photography as the driver. I’m pretty proud of my current project, though I have many more to add to it: Coulee Country Series. 

Silent Sunday photos have been in my plans for a while— so easy to do, but a habit is not yet formed! I’ll work on that that reconnect with my #CLmooc friends, which Sarah and Kevin are.

So Let’s Make Art

Blogging is an art to share with the world and hopefully better the world, one blog and one blog post at a time.

“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Who will participate next?

Thank you, Sarah, for the chance to review where I’ve been and where I’m at and where I’m going. There’s so much experience, reflection, and questions on those blogs, on all our blogs. We’re all doing the best we can.

I’d like to know how @Dogtrax — Kevin Hodgson — keeps up with his blog— he’s got so much going on in poetry, writing, music, teaching, reflecting. I so enjoyed the new song he composed and recording, which you can find on his blog: Hoping and Praying like Hell.

So, here’s a request to Kevin. Short and sweet is fine, or dive in!

Update

Update: My friend Kevin had already responded to the #Blogging4Life questions. Take a look; I especially like the one about his morning routine, which is a hopeful strategy to center oneself in these strange times.

So I’m tossing the ball to another CLmooc friend, Daniel Bassil.

Daniel Bassill has been developing and sharing tutor/mentor programs since 1972! He understands the need for a community of resources and volunteers to support our precious children from birth to career.

Read his blog! Tutor Mentor Institute and search both his blog and his websites: Tutor/Mentor Connection  and  Tutor Mentor Exchange

Daniel’s work has helped thousands of children in the Chicago area, and his work is replicable to any community.  Here’s a scribe document of the strategies.

He “sticks his neck out,” and was named a Giraffe: Hero Story Daniel Bassill.

I hope he shares his responses so we learn from another successful blogger!