Taking Time Off

I am struggling with what to write right now. I don’t want to write about politics, but everything other than politics feels unimportant. While I enjoy looking back at my journals from twenty years ago, they feel so personal, specific, and interesting only to me. It is a fun project – for me. Writing about an education world that has shifted since COVID feels presumptuous since I am no longer in the classroom. Perhaps I will try fiction again. Maybe. 

When I started this blog it was to both practice writing and share my view of the world. I am no longer a writing teacher, so this writing no longer serves that function. And what brings me to the computer to write is either too narrow or too hot. 

So, I am taking some time away this blog. It might be a month or two or four or six. It might not. It might be forever. It might not. If I feel moved to write, I will. If I think it is worth your attention, I will put it here. I am sure I will return to writing, but it may not be here. 

Thanks for reading. 

See you later. 

A Ten Year Blog

Ten years ago I was writing regularly. However, I wanted a venue where I had to think about audience. I wanted to write as if someone was actually reading. Just writing was not enough. If I was going to be a good writing teacher, I had to really write. I had to go through the process like my students.

So I did what many people have done: I created a blog. It took me a year or three to figure out a focus, even if I depart from it once in a while. My parents read my blog. A few of you read my blog. More people read my blog if I post it on Facebook. Readership matters, but the practice is what really matters more.

So what about now? It has been ten years since I decided to write a letter to the void and talk to myself. Soon, I will no longer be a writing teacher. Do I still need writing practice?

My blog has become far more than writing practice or a way for me to share my ideas. It has also become a way for me to work out my thinking and try out ideas for writing in other venues. It has forced me to realize, as my old colleague Sally said often, that audience is everything. By publishing my writing on this blog, anyone may see it. What will they think? How might my words be received?

My daughter reads some of my posts and quips, “Dad, you are going to make me unelectable!” That is not my intention (although I am not sure how I feel about siring a politician). I never want to embarrass anyone, certainly not my family and least of all myself. Yet I don’t want to simply play it safe either. I want to test my skills and push my writing limits. I want to grow!

I have discovered that photos are important accompaniments. For the most part, all the photos on the blog are mine. There are a few that come from other sources. I have left a few posts photoless when I could not find a good match for them. I have sometimes written with photos in mind. Sometimes the photos come first!

I now schedule my blog posts. I have a calendar and a list of posts that are ready, those that need a little more work, and ideas to be developed. I have written timely posts (like this one) and posts that could be plugged in regardless of the date.

One of my goals is to “get out there” and get more readership for this blog. Frankly, that scares me a little. I am always humbled when someone says they read one of my posts. I don’t know my audience entirely. Hi, Mom! Hello, Dad!

When I am not in the classroom, how will that change this blog and my writing? I think I will go further out on the political limb. As I do in class, I have tried to limit my partisan discussions on the blog. I have made clear political statements about guns and schools and the standards to which we hold our elected officials, but I have avoided being overtly political beyond that focus. I am considering giving myself more latitude now.

I also have a new subject to write about: life after being a public school teacher. I don’t know much about it yet, but I am getting ready to learn! Writing will be a great way to explore and chronicle my new life.

I may increase my production. I have thought about posting some good articles, adding a third essay each month, posting works I am reading, or expanding other aspects of my blog.

I am retiring, but I am not retiring my “neighborhood.” Having the blog keeps me writing and thinking about how my voice is part of the chorus of public discourse. Stay tuned!

A Class That Blogs Together…

After almost thirty years, one would think that teaching has become routine. It is the opposite. When I began, I met teachers who ran classes by binder: each unit was carefully scheduled and sequenced. Each year, it went the same way; if this was the third day of the fourth week of the second quarter, then we were studying participles. It was that simple. They had the script down, and the students were merely audience.

I cannot teach that way. Each year is different. Every class is unique. Over the summer, I set up units, lessons, activities, and, yes, schedules. I have tried to be a teacher with a perfect plan, but something always gets in the way. Whether it is because of a new book, a great opportunity, or the most aggravating factor of all, the individual  needs of the students in the class, I end up rewriting, changing, and adapting my summer plans all over again during the year.

A few years ago, I decided to embrace that process. I acknowledge my need to plan, but I am not married to those plans. I also find that experimenting in the classroom is beneficial to everyone. After hearing about a new technique, text, or technology, I will come to my class and we’ll play with it. A year later, I’ll try again a new way. It is messy and challenging, and it is anything but rote and routine.

This year, I started blogging with my students. A few years ago, I began asking seniors to blog as they pursued their individualized research projects in their last quarter of high school. These blogs turned into more than learning logs, but became communication vehicles between the students and the many people helping them on their research journeys. They were also a lot lighter to take home than the manila folders I had used for that purpose in the past.

I am trying to incorporate more and more student autonomy and choice into Senior English. In addition, our “thematic” focus with my seniors this year is finding our passions. It thought it appropriate to give them a public vehicle to express what was important to them.

So my students and I have started our own blog. Several times a week, we publish one to three short entries about topics that are important to us. The topics are as far ranging as the students in the class: we discuss make-up, basketball, fantasy football, food, college, and gender. We give advice, review, and rant.

It is a little frightening; I like to be in charge. I am a little bit of a perfectionist. The blog posts are not always completely polished and they are being written and edited by the students. I read them, but they are not “mine.”

I have also taken the little, yet scary, step of telling my Senior English students about this blog, and I am planning on doing some writing that will appear on both blogs! I want to participate, too!

So I invite you to click over to my students’ new blog, Why So Seniorous. Some entries are serious, some are not. Everything is written by seniors at Deerfield High School – with a little help from their teacher, who is still learning right beside them.

100 Essays Later

In May, 2009, I published my first blog entry. I’d been journaling for many years prior to starting the blog, and I wrote both fiction and non-fiction in various forms for much of my adult life. My blog, however, was my foray into making my writing regularly available to an unknown readership. It was scary and exciting. It was a brand new experience.

Although this is technically my 102^nd posting, it is my 100^th piece of writing. I have written 100 short pieces about topics from education to parenting, manners to technology. Why am I still doing it? I ask myself that about twice a month!

When I started this blog, it was an experiment. I have never actively promoted it beyond posts on Facebook and Twitter. I have received positive and constructive feedback, which I have found useful and rewarding. I titled my first entry, “ Talking to Each Other, Talking to Myself.” This blog is as much a writing practice platform for me as it has been a publishing vehicle.

And now, 100 pieces later, I am debating going further. This blog has been a great way for me to keep my writing skills sharp. I teach writing. I evaluate writing. I should write, too – right? People are reading my writing, even if it is only a handful of my friends and family. That is fine with me.

However, if I am to “put myself out there” and play with the grown-ups, I should go further. That is a little scary. I don’t know what will happen. I know I will encounter more discussion and dissent. How does one “promote” one’s blog? That is a research question I need to explore. I have a difficult enough time preparing two entries a month. How much time will “selling” the blog take?

So you see why I have been so comfortable keeping things the way they are. To paraphrase Captain Picard, I need to give myself a kick in my complacency. It is time to move forward and boldly go where my blog has not gone before.

In addition to my usual two posts a month, I am going to try to include more short posts. I will try to share links, articles, videos, photos, and other related topics. At first, you may only see one of these a month. Give me time to make this a new habit.

I don’t know how to move my little neighborhood blog into the wider web world. If you have suggestions, I am open to them. Researching the project is at the top of my free time list.

Blogging has continued to be a great way for me to articulate my thoughts and clarify my views. This cross between public journal and opinion column has been and will continue to be my primary format.

I have not been too strident. I have expressed political views, but I have worked hard to be diplomatic and muted. That is another choice I am reevaluating. What do you think? After 100 essays about the topics listed on the right, I am ready to explore new avenues and ideas.

This piece of writing has asked more questions than it answered. It is more of a reflection than a statement.

Dear reader, thank you for journeying with me this far, and I beg your patience, indulgence, and collaboration on the road ahead! On to the next 100 posts!

Talking to Each Other, Talking To Myself

Hello! How do you do? Welcome to my blog, I am delighted you have found it. I am amazed that you have found it. Wait! Don’t leave. Stick around and see if something interests you. I am hopeful that this blog will be an opportunity for us to converse about the challenges of raising kids, being good neighbors and navigating a world where the issues are never as clear as they appear on the evening news.

Who am I that you should read what I have to say? I am the parent of a teen and a preteen who are teaching me new lessons daily. I am a high school English teacher. I have been teaching since the early ‘80s and, for the past ten years, I have balanced these two important responsibilities by being a full time dad and a part time teacher. I am also a Sunday School teacher, an officer in my local neighborhood association and an active leader in my congregation.

I am writing this blog to explore the issues that only sometimes make headlines. I want to discuss how we navigate in new and uncharted waters. As I move through my community, I find that, because I am both in the school and in the parent pick-up line, I have a different perspective on many of these issues. Whether discussing over programmed children, substance issues, civility, parenting styles, religion or taxes, I see things from many points of view. It is my goal to explore those views and issues here.

I write to explore my own thoughts. I write to help me understand a complex world. I write to exchange ideas with people interested in dialogue. So I invite you to make this blog yours as well. In many ways, it is like my classroom; we will learn together.

Since this blog is not my primary focus, I will do my best to add an entry or two each month. I will write more, if I my schedule allows. Feel free to post comments, questions, suggestions and additions to each of my postings.

I am a participant on Facebook and Twitter and you may certainly contact me through those networks. Please feel free to get in touch with me.

Finally, be patient with me. Writing a blog is new to me. For those of you who have done this before, I thank you in advance for sharing your wisdom. I do not anticipate that there will be many people actively reading this blog and I am well aware that I am talking to myself most of the time. So, dear reader, I am especially grateful that you are generously giving me some of your time and attention. I promise to work hard to deserve it.