Good Habits Are Hard to Start

My exchange with Sheri Edwards of the What Else blog about our mutual love of crocheting and how we learned was featured as part of Edublog’s round up for week two of the #blogging28 challenge. While I basked in the glory, I also forgot to blog yesterday.

Have I already run out of things to write about? No…but I have moved further into the new year with its work demands and I haven’t quite gotten the habit in place yet. I have thought about potential topics but not made any notes so they die on the vine, as it were. I could expand on the twitter conversation I had with a few folks about our process:

I hope this didn’t sound flippant. I take my audience seriously but as I went on to share on Twitter:

 

The #blogging28 challenge allows time for posts to percolate by suggesting doing one blog post each week. And, by encouraging participants to comment on others’ blogs, connections are made that can lead from comments to full blown posts in the same way these Twitter posts led to this post.

I think I am behind on commenting on blog posts and want to explore some new writers. The Edublogs week two round up has a list of participants at the end of the update.

5 thoughts on “Good Habits Are Hard to Start

  1. Karen,
    I enjoy the connections that I make with people that lead to blog posts. I had one of those with Sheri myself! It’s easy to write these kinds of posts, aren’t they? It is a little slice of life in our PLN’s.

    Thank you for visiting my blog today too. All the best!

    Denise

    1. Thanks for stopping by! I think making the connections is part of the blogging process: linking and thinking together.

  2. Hi Karen,

    You’re off to a great start this year! I really enjoyed your explanation of how you blog. I like the idea of publishing something unpolished.
    I saw Theresa Christensen share this post on Twitter recently https://shaelynnfarnsworth.com/2017/11/19/embrace-your-vulnerability-write-in-front-of-your-students/?utm_sq=fyuy3136z6

    It talks about the power of writing in front of your students. I’m sure it’s also powerful to show students that you can press publish on work that may not be the best thing you’ve ever written. I think many teachers and students alike are nervous about this.

    Kathleen

    1. I used a writing workshop approach with my middle school students and always wrote along with them. I think, if I were back in that workshop now, I would give students the option of when to publish with *some* guidelines. I don’t want to give the impression that I just write and press publish without any editing, but I do give myself permission to publish something I know isn’t a final draft. One caveat as well: I try to make sure even rough writing is grammatically correct, and I would require that as part of the guidelines for students, I think. That may sound inconsistent with the rough draft idea, but it can be a barrier to reading and understanding if words are incorrectly spelled and sentences don’t make sense.

      Thanks for sharing Theresa’s post…heading there now.

      1. Hi Karen,

        I agree with you about spelling and grammar. Some may disagree but I do feel like too many mistakes can be a barrier to reading. In a crowded space with so many blog posts and articles online, we don’t want to dissuade our potential audience from reading by something that’s easily avoidable.

        I think George Couros is a good example of someone who has a huge following but doesn’t always publish polished work. For example, in this post he published just the other day, he started off by saying, “I am wrestling with some ideas in my head…bear with me as I try to write to learn.” I think his approach could be a nice example to share with (older) students too https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/8754

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