Back in December, during Winter Break, I read Hacking Homework by Starr Sackstein and Connie Hamilton. I read it on my phone, thinking it would be great to highlight and screenshot as I read, to be able to go back and document what I learned from the book. I read it on the plane and ABSOLUTELY LOVED it. I must have taken about 30 screenshots, had tons of ideas floating through my head while I read, and I finished the book, cover to cover, in about 2 hours. It completely captivated me. So you’re probably wondering…where’s the blog post???

I never wrote it.

Time passed. School started. Life continued. I shared some of what I learned with my colleagues and launched an activity with my students based on some of what I read. But I never fully captured my learning because I consumed too much too quickly and didn’t properly document my thinking in the moment. You’d think I would learn from my own teaching, that a picture alone is not an authentic artifact of learning. I didn’t allow myself the time to sit with it, think about it, ask questions, and reflect why I even highlighted something in the first place.

Today I began my first Ampeduca course, Step by Step Guide: Learning About Blogging for your Students. Module 1 was an introduction with important terms, and then Module 2 started talking about things teachers will discover once they start reading blogs. I immediately took this screenshot, that teachers who read blog will get better at…

I LOVED this. I thought to myself: This is what excites me most about blogging with my students. How often do I hear my students say, “Mrs. Thompson, I’m done! I’ve written, I’ve edited, I’ve submitted, I’m done.” From now on, I would love to hear, “Mrs. Thompson, I’ve written, I’ve edited, I’ve shared, I’m ready to begin the conversation and get feedback!”

I was about to click the Mark as completed button, to move onto the next lesson. But then thought, WAIT! I have to capture this! Don’t make the same mistake twice! Start a blog post, save it as a draft, annotate the screenshot, DO SOMETHING! But don’t let the time pass with a screenshot sitting amongst millions of others in a folder waiting to become the ghost of lost reflections.

I guess one might say I’m learning 🙂

2 Comments on The Ghost of Lost Reflections

  1. Habits are hard to break, but they are also really hard to start! I realize that as a full-time administrator, I have more flexibility in my daily schedule than a classroom teacher, but I was unable to get off the starting block until I made the public commitment to blog weekly. There are definitely weeks that I don’t, but I’ve gotten into a decent habit. I have also had to let go of the idea that each post has to be really good. Obviously, I want them to be good, perhaps even meaningful, but there is a real danger of letting the great become the enemy of the good – I’d rather risk putting out less-than-great posts for the sake of maintaining the habit.

    Anyway…you’ll get there in your own way. You can always revise and update prior posts…the work is never done…that’s the fun.

  2. Blogging is the glue that can hold it all together… “all” about the now literacies, “all” about documentation… “all” about metacognition, reflection, and connections… “all” about the changes in reading and writing…

    I continue to advocate that we, as educators, must experience new forms for our own learning…

    …AND…
    I am thrilled to see your journey as you are going through… experiencing… struggling… trying… testing… stopping… restarting and LIVING these new experiences!

    Keep going… that is what learning looks like NOW!

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