Posts tagged ‘dembo’
Net Generation Education Project and Book Club
VERY excited to share with you the latest monstrosity to come from the Davis/Lindsay labs. As you’ll see, they’ve come up with a fantastic collaborative project, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Read, soak it in, and then apply to become a part of it…. and join the book club!!
Net Generation Education Project
Written by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
As announced at the Flat Classroom conference this past Monday, the Net Generation Education Project is the replacement for the Horizon Project and will include approximately 10 schools with 300 students. The application process is now open for schools who wish to participate in the project.
Last year, Don Tapscott keynoted the Horizon Project 2008 which focused on having students envision the future of education via web collaboration and video. The reading documents include the Horizon Report 2009 from the New Media Consortium and Educause. Don Tapscott went on to include this project in his new Book, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World
So, the next level of “flattening” is to not only have classrooms connect but to have the classrooms connect in new and more far-reaching ways with the authors of their books. Recent examples of connected classrooms and authors include Karl Fisch’s Whole New Mind Project as they work with Dan Pink and such as Will Richardson and Anne Davis did with Sue Monk Kidd, author of the Secret Life of Bees.
In the same genre students in this project will interact on a Ning jointly created with Don Tapscott. Don will post weekly questions to the Discussion forum and leave video messages to the students. It will be a read/write project. He will also interact LIVE via a webinar. Don has a vision for improved educational outcomes and is reaching out to interact directly with students through his challenge and this project.
Additionally, the Discovery Educators Network is going to be providing and sharing tips and information on effective video presentations and how-to’s and a book club group for educators. Don Tapscott will keynote and the student keynotes are award winning virtual worlds educator Peggy Sheehy and her middle School students from Suffern Middle School using machinima from their Island in Second Life.
We will be studying this year’s Horizon Report (released January 2009) but adding to it the intro and Chapter 5 from Don’s book, Grown Up Digital: (Rethinking Education) to the reading assignments for students. Students will be divided into groups to analyze some of the key trends in reworking education to create collaborative report written with other students from around the world. Each team will have a project manager and assistant project manager to help facilitate the work on the team. These “managers” will be students with teachers working as facilitators.
Each student will cast their vision for the future of education with a video to be uploaded on our project ning. All videos will be automatically entered into Don Tapscott’s Net Generation Education Challenge competition and could win scholarship money for future educational pursuits.
You do not HAVE to be a part of the project with Julie and I to join the Ning and participate in Don’s challenge competition – so go ahead and do that. But if you are ready to have your students collaborate globally and follow the best practices as used in the award winning Flat Classroom, Horizon, and Digiteen projects fill out this form before February 9th and applynow!.
Our tentative timeline:
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2/1- 2/9 – Application process for classrooms
- 2/1 – 3 pm EST – Information Meeting
- 2/2 – 2/7 – Selection Process (classes will be notified as soon as they are selected)
- 2/6 – Ning, wiki, and google group are “live” by this date
- 2/10 – Final announcements of Classrooms
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2/11 – Greeting from Don posted to the Ning via video – this may be his “author keynote” or he may choose to have a challenge each week and have it be small pieces.
- Weekly- discussions posted to the forum (can we pick a day and a time for this to happen?) Will Don have a blog on the site as well?
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2/11-2/18 – “Handshake process” – Students join Ning – post introductions
- 2/18 – Teams announced
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2/18 – 3/2 – Research phase of project
- 3/2 – Wikis complete
- 3/1 – Suffern Middle School Student Keynote
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Some time in March, there will be a live session with Don Tapscott
- 3/3 – 3/31 – Movie Artifact phase of project (note that there will be some overlap between Research and Movie Artifact)
- *Storyboarding 3/3 – 3/8
- *Outsourced video requests posted to the Ning by 3/10 (we would like students to be able to do this with a blog post on the Ning and tag it outsourced – we can then add a menu item for everything tagged outsource_request and students can sign up with a reply and post a link in the comments, this is a change from the last project but will work better)
- 3/31 – Final Deadline for All Movies to be posted
- 4/1 – 4/8 – Post project reflections, student summits
Net Generation Education Challenge
Written by Kasi Bruno
A crisis is emerging in our schools and universities.
Traditional, one-way broadcast models of education are out-dated. Schools have not evolved as quickly as other institutions, and students are becoming disengaged as a result. Why are connected students at home suddenly disconnected at school?
How can we reinvent education for relevance and effectiveness for the 21st century?
Inspired by the work of Don Tapscott and Grown Up Digital, the Net Gen Education Challenge offers everyone an outlet through which to express their ideas and opinions about their ideal model of education. The challenge community will connect engaged participants all around the world, bringing educators, students, parents and professionals together in a global dialogue on learning. In partnership with the CBC, Flat Classroom Project, the Discovery Channel’s Educator Network and Classroom 2.0, Don Tapscott invites you to share your ideas and help make education engaging, inspiring and relevant.
Discovery Educator Network/Net Generation Book Club
by Steve Dembo
In conjunction with the Net Generation Education (NGE) project, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) will be hosting a weekly book club for Tapscott’s work, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. While the NGE project will be focusing just on the Intro and Chapter 5, we will gather together weekly to discuss the ideas within the book and their implications for education. Best of all, the author himself, Don Tapscott, will sit in on the final week to share his thoughts in a candid conversation with everyone who participates in the book club.
There will be both live and web based discussion options for participants. The live component will take place Monday evenings, 2/9 through 3/23 at 7pm EST. We will be looking for people to lead the weekly discussions as well. If you would be interested in volunteering to lead the discussion for one of the weekly meetings, please mark it on the registration form.
If you are a DEN member and would like to be a part of the book club, please register here. If you are not currently a DEN member and would like to learn more, please contact me !
Don’s publisher has been gracious enough to offer the book for only $18.45, a generous discount, to everybody who participates in the Book Club.
There are three ways to order:
Order directly from website http://www.800CEORead.com
Email Aaron at and let him know you are participating in the DEN / Net Gen Book Club Aaron@800ceoread.com
Call Aaron at 1.414.274.6406, ext. 204 and do the same.
Schedule
Part One: Meet the Net Gen
Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 – 2/9
Chapter 3 & Chapter 4 – 2/16
Part Two: Transforming Institutions
Chapter 5 – 2/23 (chapter on Education)
Chapter 6 & Chapter 7 – 3/2
Chapter 8– 3/9
Part Three: Transforming Society
Chapter 9 & Chapter 10 – 3/16
Chapter 11 – 3/23
Click here to register for the book club
Net Generation Education Webinars
by Steve Dembo
To support teachers and students who are participating in the Net Generation Education Project, the Discovery Educator Network will be hosting four webinars with two of the country’s foremost experts on digital storytelling; Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan. These webinars will be intended for teachers to attend WITH their students so that they may learn ways to create digital stories from the very best. To learn more about Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan, visit the Discovery Education Speakers Bureau.
Webinar 1 with Joe Brennan: Wed, March 4, 1pm EST
Webinar 2 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 11, 1pm EST
Webinar 3 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 18, 1pm EST
Webinar 4 with Joe Brennen: Wed, March 25, 1pm EST
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Is joining a PLN bad for morale?
Image via WikipediaA legal blogger I’m friends with, Dennis Kennedy, once stated that within 18 months of getting a blog, most people will have a new job (here’s the link to Dennis’s actual blog post on the topic).Sort of a spoof on Moore’s law, but I haven’t found it to be too far off. I landed a new job within a couple of years of starting Teach42, and owe the blog 100% of the credit for me being hired. I’ve seen many many fantastic educators transition to technology facilitator positions, or go off into consulting, and more often than not it’s because of the exposure they received from their blog. Bigger and better is a wonderful thing.
There’s a flip side to that though. I also know quite a few educators that are becoming more and more disillusioned with their jobs and are leaving teaching, and I can’t help but wonder how much of the blame falls on being part of an open network. Allow me to explain.
Example #1. Teacher A works in a decent district. It isn’t a dream job, but nor is it a slum. She does her job, does it well and loves working with the kids. Then she joins Classroom 2.0 and Twitter and other related sites. She reads about Chris Lehmann and SLA, she hears the great things that Eric Langhorst is doing with students in Missouri, she watches the amazing projects that Vicki Davis comes up with in Georgia… Then all of a sudden her school doesn’t look so great anymore. Why isn’t her school as tech savvy and ‘with it’ as those other schools? Why aren’t her administrators more on the cutting edge of educational theory, and why aren’t more teachers upset by this? Gradually, she starts to realize that her school is just behind and always will be. It’s not worth the time and effort to make the change there, perhaps she’d be better off trying to find a new school to teach at that ‘gets it’. A school where she can really spread her wings with like minded colleagues. Time to dust off the resume.
Example #2. Teacher B goes to a conference and attends a session about forming a personal learning network. He loves the idea and jumps on board. He registers for Twitter, joins a few communities, creates his own blog. He starts getting all these crazy ideas for doing things differently with his students. However, whenever he brings up an idea to his department head, he gets shot down. The DH is ok with blogging, but wants it to be behind the firewall. He doesn’t understand that you miss out on the ‘magic’ if you don’t do it publicly. Podcasts get shot down entirely, and most Web 2.0 sites that he wants to try are blocked. He requests that some get unblocked but nothing seems to happen for days. Gradually he gets more and more upset that most educators are able to take advantage of these great tools, but he isn’t. He is frustrated with his department head’s lack of support, the IT departments lack of response, and can’t figure out why more teachers won’t raise their voice at the injustice of it all. He feels like he has a better grasp of the needs of technology in education than anyone else he works with. Consequently, when a position opens up for a technology integration specialist, he starts giving it some serious thought…
Those are just two examples cobbled together from several conversations I’ve had with people over the past few months. In a nutshell, the newly-gone-natives are getting restless. Being close to people who are amazing examples of the best integration success stories in the world has led to mountain sized feelings of the grass being greener elsewhere. It’s leading to a great many people to think to themselves either, “Surely other schools are more ‘with it’ than mine” or even worse, “Education is doomed because nobody gets it besides we few.”
These are people that were happy, productive, and doing right by students before they got connected. Could it be that the PLN like the Matrix? Once you’re connected, you can never go back. And education is a lot dirtier than most people realized.
Image by dullhunk via FlickrTake the red pill if you want, but once you go down that rabbit hole, you may wind up depressed, disillusioned, and with a strong desire to seek greener pastures. Is being hyper-connected bad for morale?
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Life on the cutting edge.
Image via WikipediaIt’s not unusual when somebody shares a tip with me and then appends it by saying, “But I’m sure you already knew about that already.” I always find that funny because the only reason that I am familiar with so many sites and applications, is because people have learned about them and taken the time to share them! Rarely would I ever be so bold as to say that I was the ‘first’ person to discover something. It’s like we’re playing a giant game telephone, but in a multi-linear fashion. If I have any secret, it’s that I do my best to stay connected with a rather large group of people that are much more cutting edge than many of them believe themselves to be.
And that’s the other piece that I find absolutely fascinating. It often seems that most people that come up to me and chat after a presentation start up the conversation by saying, “I’m so far behind everyone, but I’m trying to catch up.” I couldn’t disagree more. In my experience, most educators are still FAR ahead of the curve.
Here’s what I mean. Jump onto a public bus or train. How many people on there do you think have ever created a blog? Listening to a podcast? Have created a network on Twitter? Know how to use Google Docs? Have collaborated on a wiki? And so on… What percentage of teachers do you think are adept in all those things? I dare say the overall percentage would be fairly low.
That’s why I truly do believe that the people who are sharing ideas with me on Twitter or staying behind to chat after presentations are more than likely WAY ahead of the majority of educators. They just don’t seem to believe it themselves. Why is it so hard to believe?
So out of curiosity, I’d love to hear where you think you fall on the bell curve. Ahead, behind, right on the top of the wave? And why?
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The Networked Student… in plain English
This CommonCraft inspired video does an excellent job of explaining what a truly networked student looks like. And more importantly, what the teachers role is for them.
Consider it your weekend video break.
Celebrate the Day of the Ninja!
I always look forward to December 5th for two reasons. It happens to be my birthday, but more importantly, it’s also the Day of the Ninja! It’s the day when everybody, everywhere gets to… well… act like a ninja I guess! I’ve always been a big fan of ninjas. I watched a ton of ninja movies, including the Chris Farley classic Beverly Hills Ninja, and have read quite a few books featuring ninjas.
I began to wonder, what sits at the corner of EdTech Boulevard and Ninja Street? And with that, let’s take a look at some of the best Ninja resources for educators!
If we’re talking about Ninja education, I think we need to start with the Dean. Dean Dad is the Dean of a community college and came up with a list of what the Pre-Ninja program would look like at his school. He also expanded that to what the pre-reqs were, graduation requirements and that’s just the beginning. A fine place to start for any budding Technology Ninja.
Image via WikipediaSpeaking of Technology Ninjas, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pay homage to the original Technology Ninja, Tom Woodward. You may know him form his layman’s blog, Bionic Teaching, which just happens to be nominated at the EduBlog Awards. But once he dons his handy Ninja mask, he becomes the Technology Ninjawho is there to silently assassinate your technology problems! Unfortunately he hasn’t posted for quite a while there, but there’s still quite a lot to learn from.
I say that he’s the original, because he seems to have been supplanted by the EdTech Ninja. Who IS the EdTech Ninja? Nobody knows! Could it be Tom under a new guise? Or perhaps he’s a colleague of yours! He could be anybody because Ninjas are so stealthy and sneaky. What I do know is that there’s an incredible amount of information there for any educator, but especially those looking for Smartboard tips and tricks.
Finally, I wanted to share a video that I found. Student Ninjas at Metz Middle School won an honorable mention at the Shortie awards for this video. In it, “Ninjas must use their knowledge of inequalities to know what to do when hit by a negative!” Enjoy!
Hope your Day of the Ninja is full of sneaky fun!
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Nominated
I was debating whether to share that I’ve been nominated for a couple of EduBlog Awards or not. I hate bragging and I certainly don’t want it to look like I’m begging for votes. But I finally decided to mention it because ya know what? I’m pretty darn proud of those nominations. I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to convince teachers that don’t believe they have much of a reason to jump in and contribute to the conversation that they’re actually Rock Stars. I’ve preached that they need to take pride in their accomplishments major or minor and share their experiences with other people. So with that in mind, to heck with being modest!
This year I’ve been nominated for two EduBlog Awards. I’ve never been nominated for an ‘Eddie’ before, and To be completely honest, I’m pretty stoked. Win or lose, I consider it an honor and privileged to be listed with so many people that I consider to be some of the best EduBloggers out there. I’m proud to be able to call many of those people friends and colleagues, and would be absolutely thrilled for them if they won. Of course, I’d prefer to win myself, but that’s the competitive streak I have in me doesn’t even get turned off when I’m playing Candyland with kids!
Regardless, I greatly appreciate everybody that nominated me for the awards. I’ll be proud to add the badges into my sidebar regardless of what happens. If you’ve enjoyed learning with me here at Teach42, then swing by the EduBlog Awards and toss a vote my way in the two categories I’m nominated for: Best Individual Blog and Best EdTech Support Blog. If you look at those lists and find someone more deserving, then vote for them in good conscience. There are no unworthy nominees on that list. And then spend some time on the site exploring the various nominees in the different categories. I’ve often found it to be one of the best ways to discover new blogs for the ol’ aggregator!
ShoutEm is to Twitter as Ning is to Facebook
We’ve all known it was coming, it was just a matter of time. Well, it has finally arrived and I’m thrilled to say that it was worth the wait. ShoutEm is a create-your-own-Twitter platform that works just as easily as Ning does. All you need to do is sign up with the current invite code of “doneright“, and within minutes you’ll be creating your own version of Twitter, as customized as you want it to be. It took me about 10 minutes to create Tweach42, the microblogging community for Teach42 readers!
They have several basic skins to choose from, but if they don’t quite suit you, you can upload images and tweak the settings through their UI. Or if you want more advanced features, just create your own darn CSS, they fully support it. I can only imagine what people are going to come up with down the road. Features include the ability to allow or disable public profiles, anonymous shouts (tweets), control replies, pownce like file sharing features, and even the ability to keep your network private or approve registrations on an individual basis.
What does this mean? It means that we finally have the ability to create our own Twitters for niche purposes. Youth Voices doesn’t need to hack WordPress anymore to simulate Twitter. Teachers can use it for any classroom project, with full privacy or publicity as needed. I plan to use it for backchannels and as an example for how microblogs work in a less crazy setting than Twitter itself. The possibilities are pretty endless.
Mind you, this isn’t a replacement for Edmodo, a site I’m still a fan of. Edmodo is what Twitter would have looked like if it had been designed by educators for classroom purposes. This is for people who like the Twitter format already and just want their own custom version of it.
If you want to play around with it, visit Tweach42 and send off a few shouts. And when you want to create your own, visit ShoutEm and use the invitation code “doneright“.
What kind of uses do you see Shoutem being used for??
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Too much blogging?
Image by mamassage via FlickrIt’s been a long time since I blogged daily for a week, much less a full month. I gotta admit, it has been exhausting to do so. Researching, sketching out and then writing each of those challenges every day was much more work than I’d originally thought it would be. However, as I look back on it, I can’t help but think to myself… was I doing any more work than the average middle school student probably does for homework on a daily basis? And the answer is no.
Has ‘normal’ work and family life spoiled me? I don’t think so. I do think I have a pretty healthy balance in my life right now, but adding that extra hour or two that it took to hammer out those challenges definitely put a strain on things. I can’t help but think that this must be how many students are feeling every night.
The big difference is, I chose to do that challenge. And now I can choose to take a break from blogging if I want to. So my question to you is:
If a student came up to you and told you that s/he was getting burnt out and needed a night off, would you let them take a ‘balance night’ and skip that night’s assignment?
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Day 30: Choose Your Own Adventure
Thirty challenges in thirty days. It all sounded so simple when we first got started. I never would have expected that there would be multiple days when I’m typing furiously at the 11th hour to try to squeeze the entry in before the clock ticks over! Or that nearly 60 people would list themselves on the wiki as participating in the challenge. Additionally, there has been a grand total of nearly 700 comments and trackbacks on challenge posts throughout the last 30 days. It really is pretty humbling to have had so many people participate together. And the best thing about it is that while today is the final post of the challenge, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be ending. Anybody can pick up and start the challenge at any time! People who just learned about the challenge yesterday could very easily start themselves back on Day 1 and work through it. And if they do, they’ll have the benefit of all of your comments and links to learn from.
So how to wrap up a project like this? I think the only proper way is to turn it over to the participants. So today’s challenge, final one in the series, is for you to choose your own adventure. I saw Alec Couros mention the old adventure series in a recent blog post, and so many things clicked in my head. To me the idea, and challenge, really takes on two meanings.
Image by mediafury via FlickrThe first meaning is that this last challenge is completely up to you. At some point, you’ve probably thought to yourself, “Hey, is he going to cover this or that?” Have you had an idea for a challenge that just never got addressed in the last 30 days? Do you have a challenge that you think would help make participants a better blogger that you want to share? Well, this is your chance. What is your challenge for the other participants? Share your ideas as comments. After some time has passed, I’ll feed through them and repost them all in the body of this final blog post. So if you have more than one idea, make it very clear that it’s a separate one or even submit it as a second comment. But think about your own tips and ideas for each other and post them here.
The other meaning of ‘choose your own adventure’ is more of a suggestion than a challenge I suppose. And that’s simply this: Ignore any and all advice that anybody has ever given you about blogging… if it doesn’t feel right to you. There are no hard and fast rules about blogging. It’s still a new frontier much like the wild west expansion, except in this case the coast is still nowhere in site. We are still learning what works and what doesn’t. What is ethical and what isn’t, what makes for good pedagogy and what doesn’t pass muster.
So what IS the best way to blog? I can tell you what I’ve done before, along with what’s been successful and what has failed. I can share with you my ideas, my theories, and my speculations, but in the end it all comes down to my own gut instinct based on my experiences. And at the end of the day, I’m no more an expert than anybody else who chooses to share their thoughts. If my ideas seem to vibe with you, then I say run with them. But if there’s a shadow of doubt, don’t squelch it, explore it. Your blog is exactly that… yours. Only you are going to know what the right voice will be, what the right tone will be, and what the right look and feel will be.
I’ve been very happy to share with you my ideas for how to be a better blogger, but in the end you’ll be the one traveling on down the path. So be assertive and take control of your own journey. Heed the advice of others, but don’t follow it just because you respect them. Evaluate it for yourself, and so long as you are true to yourself, your blog will be a success, regardless of how you define it.
So with that, consider this the conclusion of the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger challenge! Thank you to everyone that participated in it. I’d like to add a special thank you to John, Jenny, and Jason who put together and maintained the 30D2BBB Wiki. Major kudos to them for taking that on!
And now, I’ll leave the challenge into your very capable hands. Throw down the gauntlet and issue a challenge of your own for the group. And once you’ve done that, return to your own blog and choose your own adventure!
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Day 29: Be a Rock Star
With only two days to go, I’ve been struggling with how to wrap this challenge up. The closer I get to the end, the more I realize how much more I’d like to share. Part of the dilemma for me is that this challenge has not really discussed the ‘spiritual’ side of blogging very much. I’ve tried very hard to make each of these challenges an actionable item, something concrete that you can actually DO to improve your blog, your blogging toolbox, and your skills as a blogger. However, there’s certainly more to blogging than widgets, feeds, links and comments. I was very thankful that the tips shared by other bloggers on Day 27 hit on so many other pieces that I thought ought to be covered. However, there’s just a few points that I wanted to share my own spin on.
For lack of a better way to describe it, today’s challenge is to go out there and be a rock star! What’s the difference between a rock star performing in their garage and a rock star performing in a stadium filled to capacity? Absolutely nothing… in their own mind. A true rock star puts as much effort into every rehearsal and every show, regardless of the size of the audience. They do so because they love performing and they want to share it with anyone and everyone.
Blogging is very similar to this. Every blog starts off with an audience of zero. We all started out talking to ourselves. We all tried to figure out how to draw an audience. We were all thrilled and amazed the first time we realized that a few people had visited our blog. We all get a smile on our face when we see that someone has taken the time to leave a comment, and a scowl if we learn that it was spam! But if you were to compare yesterday’s blog posts to many people’s very first blog posts, I don’t think you’d find them all that different.
So with that in mind, consider this carte blanche to go ahead and blog as though you already have an audience of thousands. Go ahead and promote the blog posts you’re proud of in full confidence that they’re worth sharing with anyone and everyone. Be bold enough to ask other people to participate in your surveys, polls and memes, regardless of whether you feel you’re ‘on the same level’ as them. Rankings be damned, we’re all educators who are linked together by our common desire to share and learn with each other.
Educators are not marketers, and I’ve found that more often than not most budding bloggers are almost embarrassed by their blogs. When they tell me about their blogs, they add to their descriptions phrases like, “well, it’s just a first effort” or “it doesn’t have any readers yet” or “I’m just playing around” or “I’m just trying to catch up to everyone else.” I can’t help but think to myself that anybody who is putting themselves out there and blogging should be nothing but proud of their own efforts! It takes time, commitment and confidence to stand up and share your thoughts with the world, and anybody who does so should be applauded.
With that in mind, I truly think you should take pride in your efforts. Don’t be shy about listing it as your URL on social sites. Add it to your signature in emails. Create yourself a set of Moo cards for when you meet other educators. Let your colleagues at school know about it, as well as your administrators (if you don’t feel comfortable sharing it with them, you might want to spend some time thinking about why). Let your parents, friends and relatives know about it so they can check it out too! Announce your blog posts in places like Twitter, Plurk and Ning. If you think somebody specific ought to see a post, email them a link. Share comments linking back to your blog on pertinent posts from other people.
I truly feel that even if you are the 1,000th person to chime in on a specific topic, your thoughts, ideas and opinions are just as valuable as the first person to chime in. Nobody else has your specific set of experience. The lenses through which you see things are completely unique to you and you may have a spin on things that are pertinent to people. Let’s face it, even if there’s only 2 people out there that would benefit from what you have to say, isn’t that worth the time spent sharing it??
Image by AdamNF via FlickrJust as a concrete example of this, think about this 30 Day Challenge in itself. It’s based on Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog challenge. I had the challenge flagged for about a year and a half as something that I was interested in. It took me nearly 18 months to finally be ready to act on it. His challenge has had hundreds of participants along with an immense amount of spin off challenges created from it. I could very easily have just taken his challenge and followed through it step by step and added my name to the list of participants, which was my original intention. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be more valuable to ME to create my own mashup of it, focusing on challenges that would be pertinent to educators. There are plenty of other places to get blogging advce or challenges to participate in, but I was hoping that there might be a few people who would get some benefit from joining me for this one. I’ve been stunned by the turnout.
Point being, this could have been a month long fiasco! Some of my other endeavors have been spectacular failures before. But you have to put yourself out there and give yourself a chance at success. It’s all a learning experience, regardless of the result.
When you get right down to it, the best way to be a successful blogger… is to be one. To put yourself out there, to be bold and promote yourself, to be confident in your worth and quite simply to be the Rock Star you truly are.
So today’s challenge is to give yourself the rock star treatment. The details are entirely up to you. Maybe you’ll direct message a few people on Twitter and ask them to take a look at a recent blog post of yours. Maybe you’ll add your blog to your email signature. Maybe you’ll give some friends a call and ask them to check out your blog. Maybe it’ll just be leaving a comment here and asking people to come visit it and leave a comment. Only you can know what kind of Rock Star you are, so do what feels right for you.
Then take the time to share what being a Rock Star means to you.
And tomorrow, we wrap the whole thing up! Anybody else getting misty eyed?
30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
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