The End of a Challenge...the Beginning of a Blog

Image: 'Virtuality in the Clouds'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97651299@N00/3756064931

As the Kick Start Your Blog Teacher Challenge wraps up, I am sad to see the challenges end but excited about what I have learned and how my blog will continue to grow and be improved based on what I have learned.

Connections
Blogging has opened up a whole new world.  I have been introduced to fabulous bloggers who have interesting and relevant things to share.  Here is a list of some of the reflections on the challenges that have really spoken to me about making connections:

• Kevin's Meandering Mind "Dear Reader, We Write the Book of our Times"
• Writing a poem to your readers is a very unique way to connect, especially with the author reading the poem to you. I love Kevin's concept of "writing the book of our times" together through reading each others blogs and commenting to add to the story.  Without the reader and the reader making a connection through commenting, the story is incomplete.
• Russell's Classroom Blog Board "My blog - teaching tool or voice to the world?"
•  Russell questioned what the purpose of his blog was to be in the future after participating in the Teacher Challenge and if there was a reason to build an audience.  Then he shared what he learned and how he connected to a wider world: role models provided by other bloggers, positive feedback gained in comments, and the countless things he learned from other bloggers.  Without that connection, where would his blog have been?  I truly believe that a blog grows because of the feedback given by its readers.  I hope my readers continue to provide that vital service.
• Britt Gow's Technoscience "Building your Personal Learning Network, not just your readership"
•  Britt's post made me think about what I wanted from my blog in regards to PLN.  I believe that by building a readership, I build my PLN.  My readers are the perfect people to network with and learn from.  They provide a different viewpoint, another way to use what I am writing about, and stories about how it did or didn't work in their classrooms/schools/lives.  Without my readers, I wouldn't grow personally or professionally.

Content Learned
Not only have I met new people, I have learned more than I could have dreamed.  As a beginning blogger, I knew virtually nothing about the ins and outs of blogging.  My blog was just a place to put resources but now it is growing into a place to share and reflect on how I (or the teachers I work with) use those resources.  I wish that I could share what I have learned from this challenge as well as the following bloggers did:

• Nancy Carroll's PhotoPeach Slideshow "30 Day Teacher Blog Challenge"
• Shawn Urban's Digital Substitute "Design of my Blog"

I end the Teacher Challenge with a word cloud (created a Tagxedo) of all the posts I tagged #ksyb.

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