For has long as I can remember, my dad has purchased a Lotto ticket every Friday, and, boy, does he have plans for that money: early retirement, a camper, plane tickets. And when I turned 21, he took me to buy my first ticket, and while he started planning for summers on the coast, I knew that if I won, I would go to school forever!
Unfortunately, neither of us has won more than a few bucks or a few free tickets.
And, as I’m slowly realizing, going to school forever costs a lot of money! At the end of the summer, my graduate degree will be complete, and, to my sorrow, I. cannot. afford. another. I’d love to continue graduate school, but a teacher’s salary is just not enough. So, I’ve started to realize that I’m going to have to find another way to keep learning without student debt.
So I started reading teacher blogs online, and I’ve already learned so much! I have so many new and exciting ideas to try next year. Each idea that I read somewhere else leads me to a new idea of my own. Sometimes that turns into a lesson or a resource or a unit, and I need a place to share all those ideas.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
- The best blogs are genuine. Some blogs I follow for the freebies, but the ones I make a point to read each week are funny, honest, and humble. They tell stories about their successes and their failures.
- No one is perfect! My favorite bloggers are teachers I truly admire and respect (and I would faint if I met some of them in person), but they each have stories about challenging students or lessons that didn’t quite work or weeks that went on forever.
- Creating images and banners is like a challenging, crazy-making puzzle, but it also gets me creative in a visual way that grading papers or studying doesn’t always satisfy. In other words, I am so excited to start this journey, and I hope you’ll come with me so far.
What great lessons have you learned online? What/Who should I follow to keep getting great ideas? Let me know in the comments!
