Bringing “Balance” to
My Life...
So, my ship has sailed on 2012 and it was an awesome year of
learning for me. The true professional
growth in becoming a writer started this year-really! My growth began when I took the Slice of
Life Challenge in March of 2012 at Two Writing Teachers. I have so many great people to thank for
encouraging words and kindness during that month. I want to personally thank Ruth, Stacey, Michelle, Linda, Dana, Maria, Terje, Anita, Lynn, Cathy
, Donna and Diana and so many others as well. The month
of writing, posting and commenting each day was challenging and rewarding at
the same time. I didn’t meet the goal of
posting each day for the month-as life sometimes happens…but I did learn so much
about myself as a writer (weaknesses and strengths). I also learned a great deal from the writing community
as a whole and continued to add stories through the Weekly Slice of Life here on my blog, The "Rudd"er!
During the month of April, with use of my rudder, I learned
more about and becoming a user of Twitter. Fellow slicers Michelle
and Cathy
posted Twitter advice on their blogs that helped me to understand it better and
how to use it. I am still learning but
it’s been a great tool to further my professional growth. After I attended digi-camp in the summer,
where I learned even more about Twitter, I also became involved in learning
about TweetChats! I learned how to join
in and participate in chats to gain even more knowledge about teaching and
learning with varying topics. I now try
to participate weekly in the #1stchat TweetChat on Sunday nights. Through the chats, I met even more great twitter
peeps-great teachers like Karen,
Kristen, Kathy, Laura, Val, Kristin, Kathy and Jenni to name a few tweeps there…
Then, came Pinterest.
With signing up for Pinterest, again, thanks to Michelle I had to increase the
need for even more balance in my life. I
love Pinterest and could literally be lost for hours looking at all of the
great ideas that people have pinned and shared with it. I now set a timer for 15 minutes and after
that I have to sign out-unless it’s on a night when I can’t sleep at which time
there will be no timer set! J
The big push in becoming even better at writing and teaching
writing came when I got involved with Teachers Write-a virtual summer writing
camp for teachers and librarians via Kate
Messner’s Blog. I learned so much by
participating in the writing I did via prompts posted throughout the summer. I feel
fortunate that I was introduced to more authors of great children’s literature and
even started following some of them on Twitter.
I finally worked to keep the writers notebook I started with the Slice
of Life Challenge and referred to it as I started Writer’s Workshop with my
students.
It’s been such a year of learning for me-but my one little
word has to be balance. I need to balance
all of this professional learning with my personal life too, as I have a great
husband, son and daughter who need me as well.
Oh, and one more little part of balance, I hope to read more as
well. As 2012 is now history, this
reflective slice on the sailing that occurred is to remind me that in 2013, I
must remember “balance” in my life! What’s
your one little word for 2013?
Here's my post in wordle...I think it's interesting that Learning came out to be one of the biggest words!
Here's my post in wordle...I think it's interesting that Learning came out to be one of the biggest words!
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