Buckets and Blogs

 I suppose if you looked at many teacher bucket lists you would find blogging on quite a few of them. That doesn't mean all of the teachers would actually blog, but many of them would like to.

     In the old days of maybe 10 years ago, we might have told ourselves we could write a book. Some teachers did. Most of us knew we would never have the time between lesson plans, grades, and meetings. The needs of our families, students, and life in general overrode our own needs to publish.

     But blogging fulfills many teacher needs. We tend to have narcissistic needs. You can tell that by seeing all of the "sages on the stages" where teachers talk and students listen. We need an audience. I'm not really sure you can be a good teacher unless you can perform for an audience.

     We have the need to clue everyone around us into our thoughts and opinions. If you don't believe me, just spend some time in a teacher's lounge. Toss out a topic, any topic, and just sit back and watch it be ripped to shreds. Of course, if you're a teacher you could never just sit back and watch without joining in.

     We need to be needed. We really, really want someone to care what we say and how we feel. The really good teachers also need to hear what their students say and feel.  We need them to want to tell us. Blogging gives us a stage, an outlet for our opinions, and the potential for followers to give us feedback. At least that's why a blog was in my bucket.

     Moving from bucket to blog meant creating and eliminating many excuses along the way. Would my district hinder my free speech rights? Only an excuse-they won't if I'm responsible and don't place them or students out in a public forum to be ridiculed. Would I be able to think up things to write about? Another excuse- see above about not being able to keep out of the fray.

     Would anyone really care about reading what I write? Big excuse-I talk when no one is listening so why not write what no one reads? I just tell myself someone somewhere needs me to write and it seems to work just fine.

     The biggest obstacle/excuse to overcome turned out to be the name of the darn blog. We all know how important that is. It is the identifier of your ideas and thoughts. It's how people can find you. It's what everything comes after. I just couldn't think of anything that could be both appropriately serious and funny without being snarky.

     So the idea finally came at the end of a long week of snow days; home from school, quiet house, boredom, and trying not to eat everything in the house. Combine a couple of the ideas and use creative grammar! (k)no(w) more.

     I liked the title because it says so much about me and what interests me. Not that I know more than anyone. No, I don't know more- what I want is to keep trying to know more than I do now. Like my students, I am a learner. I want them to leave me understanding that learning should never stop.

     Meanwhile, the no more part of the title fits many frustrations in a teacher's life. No more paperwork, no more meetings, no more little things that keep me from doing what I love- teaching. It also fits with many of the calls for school reform across our country. No more of the same old way of doing things when the world, the students, and the teachers have changed.

     I'll be tossing out topics about education, family life, and the quest for a private life when you have a public job. Let's not rip, let's dialogue.