The other day, I read a fantastic blog post by @sram_socrates on why he blogs. I follow Shawn on Twitter, and I always enjoy reading his blogs and tweets and learning along with him. This post though really inspired me to comment, and in Shawn’s follow-up comment, he said that he would be interested to read my post on why I blog. This got me thinking, so Shawn, this blog post is for you.

I wanted to try something a little different with this post though, and I’m going to do it in the style of @whatedsaid. This teacher keeps a fantastic professional blog where she often provides a “top 10 list” of her thoughts. Here is my Top 10 List (in no particular order) of Why I Blog:

1. I blog to reflect. I like to think about my teaching practices and find ways to improve on them. What worked and what didn’t work?

2. I blog to write. When I was growing up, I always used to say that I wanted to be a teacher and a writer. Thanks to blogging, I can be both!

3. I blog to share my thoughts with an audience. In teaching, I have learned a lot about the value of purposeful writing for an audience, and I believe in this purposeful writing for me too. I like to share what I do with others, and hear their responses too.

4. I blog to communicate with the community. I have two different blogs: this one, that is more of a professional one, and my Grade 1 Blog that is more of a parent blog. In both blogs, I want to keep people informed of what is happening in my classroom. I believe very strongly in parent communication, and blogging has certainly helped me with that. It has also helped me with communicating with colleagues too: both the ones that I work with and my wonderful online PLN.

5. I blog to model blogging for my students. Last year, I blogged with my Grade 1 students through a group blog and through their own individual blogs. I plan on doing the same thing this year, and I feel that if I expect my students to blog, I should show them the value in this type of writing by blogging too.

6. I blog to get feedback from others. I think that all bloggers enjoy the comments that they receive, and I can say that I definitely do. I have learned a lot from these comments, and I even made some great professional connections through the people that have commented on my blog posts. I love hearing what others have to say and engaging in good professional dialogue online: blogging lets me do that!

7. I blog to create an online portfolio of my work. I know that this is why a lot of teachers have their students blog, but this is why I blog too. When I look back at my first blog posts and then onto my more recent ones, I can see my growth as a blogger. I think that my language has changed, and what I can do on my blog has changed too. Now I know how to embed videos on my blog, upload photographs, and really share everything that I do online and in my classroom in one place. I can look at my blog and see how I’ve grown as a teacher, and I think that is important.

8. I blog to ask questions, and sometimes, answer questions too. Teachers constantly have questions to ask, and sometimes others will know the answers to them, and sometimes they won’t, but often the process of blogging lets me see the issues in a whole new way. Sometimes I can answer my own questions too through the blogging process, and sometimes, others pose questions to me that I want to answer in a blog post. The perfect example of this is Shawn’s question about why I blog.

9. I blog because other educators that I know and admire, blog. It was fantastic educators and bloggers such as @zbpipe, @gcouros, @thecleversheep, and @dougpete that got me blogging on a professional level. I read their blog posts and saw what they were talking about and the feedback that they were receiving, and I thought that it was time for me to reflect on my practices in the same way. Thank you for inspiring me to blog!

10. I blog because I love to blog! I may have started blogging for a variety of reasons, but the reason that I continue blogging is that I truly do love it. I like this time that I can sit in front of my computer, contemplate what I’m going to write about, and think about what I can ask here to receive feedback on my writing too. Blogging is fun, and I can definitely understand why many of my Grade 1 students said that it was the highlight of their year. I think that it is one of my favourite things to do too!

This may be my list, but I would love for you to share your list too. Why do you blog? Let’s see just how long a list we can make together!

Aviva