Blogging Requires Passion and Authority
This morning, Bill Ferriter on Twitter ranted a bit about an e-mail from a disgruntled hater who called his blogging an exercise in self-fellaciating (if that’s even a word). Naturally, Bill was quick to distinguish between those who believe that their blogging not only becomes a central part of the reflective process for their practice and those who simply use it to show off a little. Do edubloggers really reflect in these given venues? How much of it would we consider constructive and fructuous labors that push the national agenda for the teaching profession and how much of it do we see as an exercise in futility and self-serving, looking for pats on the back for doing what they’re supposed to do?
I thought I had a real answer to this question until I finished teaching the morning. Topic: angle relationships with two parallel lines cut by a transversal. Yesterday, I prepared them for the topic by introducing a visual glossary for them to use, reminding them of all the names of the angles they’d seen since 6th grade. They were sharper than I thought they’d be, actually using words like complementary and supplementary to discuss the relationship between some of these adjacent angles. Of course, we had to work through some of the harder problems, like when the sum of two adjacent angles was equal to one whole vertical angle, but then they were steam-rolling through these relationship. Even with the little annoyances, I was rather satisfied with how it went today.
So satisfied, in fact, that I stopped with about 2 minutes to go, where my students started annoying me (in a good way this time). They discussed some of the images they found of me on Google Images, and the social networks I might be on, including Twitter.
One of my smart-asses said, “Yo, Mr. Vilson, I got 100,000 followers.” I told him, “Maybe you should watch your house.” Laughter ensued.
Moments like this make me wonder what teaching was like when we didn’t have to worry about some little curmudgeons and sycophants crunching in numbers, making equations, and churning out pretty pamphlets for mass consumptions trying to establish a firm relationship between standardized test scores and true teacher effectiveness. These moments I share with anyone willing to subscribe to my rants, or accidentally run into this mess through a string of search terms or a click from a referral.
And I guess that’s the whole point of blogging. In spaces where critical feedback and camaraderie may not exist within a school (for various factors), the ability to make one’s own network of professionals willing to discuss critical issues has become paramount for growth.
In other words, blogging isn’t about us specifically.
That’s the whole point of doing what we do. Even when it’s completely non-sequitur, there’s an understanding with edubloggers who take this seriously that there are people of like minds and interest willing to share in their experiences, often hoping they’ll get pushed further in their profession.
Even if the moments are ridiculous. At least I know someone’s reading it. And nodding along.
Mr. Vilson, who has mannerisms even my kids are starting to imitate well. Ugh …
What have I learned from being an “edublogger”:
1. Make sure you have a good schedule for everything.
2. Have a good stable of blogs to read about any and everything so you keep abreast of the latest and greatest.
3. Differentiate between the personal and the professional.
As far as what I believe, we need to have a stronger union on-line as well as off-line. People might find the idea ludicrous because of the impending pressure from higher officials to disband or dilute unions, but I’m being real. We fill our text boxes and comments with facts and praises (usually about ourselves, and how great we are in the classroom) along with derisions and insults (usually at everyone but ourselves), but when will we put our money where our mouth is? We can’t simply depend on massive rallies at our city halls to make our point. We need to strengthen the connections we already have.
Unlike any other niche in the blogosphere, edubloggers really only link themselves. I can’t speak much to that because I write about a diverse set of topics plus have carry-over from other blogging platforms, thus I’m a bit of an aberration. Nonetheless, the majority of us only have each other to turn to when we’re looking for inspiration, empathy, or that, yes, it’s going to be alright. We’ll range from very conservative to anarchist, but all in all, we seem to be the only ones that read each other’s materials, and that’s important to recognize since that sort of networking doesn’t usually take place outside of the Internets.
Edubloggers don’t have a national conference. None of us really get recognized on a national platform except within our own niche the way our political or gossip blogger counterparts do. Very few of us actually get deals to write books, even if we have a triple digit or in some instances quadruple digit following. So maybe our focus shouldn’t be on besting the next edublogger but on seeing where we can find the connections that make our web stronger.
I mean, look at the latest attack on teachers:
So the Center for Union Facts decides to post this right in the heart of the city with the most powerful teachers’ union, and we would be none the wiser. No e-mail blast discussing how detrimental and nonfactual this ad is, and no wondering what ugliness could come next. What is our union going to prepare to handle this crap? As far as the tenure question is concerned, that question is answered. As far as us having special privileges over other professions, great, then why do so many of us leave? That question’s been answered, too.
But of course, it’s easy to try and pit teachers against the world. In a time when teachers get treated like heroes but paid like villians, told to act like professionals but talked down to like children, and overwhelmed with the many roles we take on but humiliated in the national media depending on how close contract negotiations are, we need to find a way to come together, really. I completely agree that we need to make certain tenets of our job more stringent, especially tenure, because a couple of bad apples here and they get away with doing nothing (which believe me, we want them out as badly as you do, because they’re ruining our swag). But to remove it completely would deplete an already exhausted teaching corp, most of whom in my experience are some of the hardest-working, honest, and eager people to walk this Earth.
If we see these efforts to turn everyone against teachers when so many of us agree that we wish we could see some of these benefits for the rest of the populace, then we need to be more effective in communicating those desires. We can worry less about who was included in a blogroll, who is the most technologically advanced, whose blog is the hottest, and maybe more on whether we’ll actually find a collective of folks that will help bring these inconsistencies to light.
jose, who is still taking questions. Shoot them over, please.
