I’m late to the party by a week for the 2016 blogging initiative, but here’s my post nonetheless. After looking at how my 2015 ended, it feels strange just sitting at my computer and writing once more. Participating in this will be a good chance for me to get back in touch with my forlorn teacher-blogger side, and pave the way for the different way in which I’ll have to write for 2016 and beyond.

Looking back at 2015

Just how did my 2015 end? Here’s an image from “Your site in 2015“, a colorful summary of my blog posts generated by WordPress. It shows a grid representing the days of the year and green squares to show that one or two posts were made on that day. Looking at it I immediately noticed and wondered a couple things.

Posting Patterns2

What I first noticed was that the left hand side of the grid has more green squares. It’s like looking down on earth from space and comparing an urban area and a desert. Well, the dearth of posts has a lot to do with what happened on two dates, whose squares are sloppily circled with Microsoft Paint. The first circle was May 31st the birth of my daughter, Julianne, and the second circle August 31st, my first day as an Assistant Principal. Both things require a great deal of effort, and mental energy, things that I also needed for blogging.

I still wondered about why I stopped blogging. On one hand, taking care of Julianne and learning a new job is time consuming, so I physically couldn’t write because I was doing other stuff. On the other hand, I wasn’t teaching math, and I wasn’t even a teacher, so even if I could write, I might not come up with relevant things to say. Technically I was teaching a computer science class, but it just wasn’t the same. (Starting in February I am going to be teaching a math class, which you’ll hear more about in upcoming blog posts!)

Blogging was important to me, and I did try to keep it up. Over the summer I did lot of personal with 750 words, and on another blog focused on developing systems. Despite all these efforts I haven’t been able to get into a regular system of writing, I still think I have some relevant things to say here, and I miss blogging and reading blogs. After thinking about it for perhaps a few more days than I should have, it seems like time I get back on the blog again.

Kicking Off the Blog

I, Carl Oliver, resolve to blog in 2016 in order to open my classroom (and office) up and share my thoughts with other teachers (and administrators). I hope to accomplish this goal by participating in the January Blogging Initiation hosted by Explore MTBoS.

You, too, could join in on this exciting adventure. All you have to do is dust off your blog and get ready for the first prompt to arrive January 10th! click here!

MTBoS Blogging Initiative