Kate’s question, “Why do you blog?” could not have come at a better time.  This Tuesday, I will be talking about social media with the math teacher education students in the Master Teacher Fellow program at at Wake Forest University.  I can’t wait to share all of the responses to Kate’s question with them!  I hope that all of your responses will encourage them to blog as they enter the wonderful world of teaching next fall!

1. What hooked you on reading the blogs? Was it a particular post or person? Was it an initiative by the nice MTBoS folks? A colleague in your building got you into it? Desperation?

After being out of teaching for almost 10 years, I heard about Dan’s blog from a speaker at NCCTM.  Reading his inspirational blog made me want to be a better teacher. I was hooked.  Reading Dan’s blog also led me to many other math teacher blogs.  I was amazed at all of the free resources that I found on every blog I read.  This type of sharing simply did not exist when I first entered teaching.  I was amazed at the generosity of the teacher bloggers. 

2. What keeps you coming back? What’s the biggest thing you get out of reading and/or commenting?

The quality of the resources I find on blogs keep me coming back.  The thing I love the most about blogs is that it isn’t just a lesson like you would find in a book or on a website, but there is a dialog.  Teachers not only share their lesson, but they tell you how tell you how they taught it, how it went, post examples of student work and even pictures, and even tell you how to improve it when you teach it.  This type of dialog is invaluable when you are considering teaching a new lesson for the first time.

3. If you write, why do you write? What’s the biggest thing you get out of it?

I love to write because I want to give back to this community.  I am so appreciative of all of the support I have found and want to share this with as many teachers as possible.  I also write so that I can remember specifically what I did in a lesson and can refer back to it.  I like writing about lessons I need help with.  The teachers that comment on my blog and help me make lessons better are so helpful to my teaching.  I am not a great writer, but I am comforted that mostly math teachers read my blog.  

4. If you chose to enter a room where I was going to talk about blogging for an hour (or however long you could stand it), what would you hope to be hearing from me? MTBoS cheerleading and/or tourism? How-to’s? Stories?

I would love to hear your story Kate.  I think that it would inspire others, as you and so many other bloggers have inspired me.  I could never thank this community enough for all that they have given to me.  They have changed my teaching and thus made my everyday work like so much more enjoyable.  THANK YOU ALL MTBoS!!