At first I was very skeptical of using a blog for reflection on practice. Over the last year, I have learned positives and negatives about blogging.
Communicating with a partner through a blog is an effective way to quickly share ideas about practice. Blogging with Emily has given me many different ideas about the classroom and a different opinion on certain topics. Being able to read about her opinion allows me to think about topics from a different perspective. Also, Emily is in the same educational position so it is nice to be able to share ideas with someone who is familiar with situations I am experiencing. I feel very comfortable sharing my blog posts with Emily.
If I was not comfortable sharing my ideas about certain topics with a partner I do not think I would have a positive experience blogging. This is one of the negatives about blogging. When you post something on the internet it can never be erased. If something is posted that is taken in the wrong context it can significantly impact the person who posted the blog. I know that I will never blog with a large group of people. Posting ideas, comments, or situations on the internet to a large group of people (personally I view more than 5 people as a large group) could negatively impact someone in the blogging group. Every person must be very aware of what they are posting and trust the people who view their blog.
In the future, blogging with faculty can be beneficial if different blogs are created for different faculty members. If each individual teacher has their own personal blog with the principal then it would be an effective way for the teachers and principal to communicate privately. This may be similar to email but the blog allows for the bloggers to keep a log of their conversations. Teachers in a school can also create a blog for the different grades and for different subjects.
Emily- In your future career will you use blogging to communicate with faculty/staff?
