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Wow, I sound like my 13 year-old.

Before I get into the activity, I want to say a big thanks to all the wonderful people who have left thoughtful and supportive comments on my blog.  You're awesome, and I'm truly grateful for this community of which I have become a part.

So, the third activity for the Teachers Challenge involves doing a little blog cleaning.  The activity says "spring cleaning" but considering the weather here in Ohio (35 degrees and raining; no sun for days...), I'm just going to call it a blog cleaning. 

This is gonna be a short post. I hate the "About Me" page. I realize it's a necessary evil, but I really do hate it.  It's just so...narcissistic! Even so, I am thankful for this activity because my "About Me" page was in desperate need of an overhaul.  I refuse to put up a picture of myself.  I use one as my avatar on Tweetdeck, and I can't believe I have my numerous followers (15 at last count!) look at a picture of me every time I post something.  I have to change that. I have been reading other people's posts, and they are much more interesting than what I'm writing here.  Why are you even reading this?  Read theirs!

And as far as adding another page, I will do that real soon.  I'm going to add a page about my conference presentations, etc.  But I'm not doing it right now.  I'm both too busy and too lazy (You can be both at the same time, you know.).  So the small updates I've made with have to suffice.  My post will be all the way down at the bottom of the comments section for the activity, so I doubt anyone's going to read it anyway.  If you are reading this right now, welcome!  And good night!

To the left is the header for Will Richardson's amazing blog, weblogg-ed.  I've been reading it pretty regularly for about a year.  Richardson writes about things I wish I could write about, forward-thinking, pedagogical musings and contemplations about the meaning of teaching and technology and where things should be going in education.  I enjoy reading his blog because his ability to create what's next and not just follow what's next is amazing to me.

Here's a link to his latest post.  What's so terrific about it?  I find it, and so many of his posts, thoughtful, thought-provoking, readable, humorous, honest, and most of all, it teaches me something.  I cannot read blog posts about what adorable thing someone's four year-old did that day or how scrapbooking has changed someone's life.  I can't read something that wastes my time.  Will Richardson doesn't waste my time.  He engages me and sends me down a thinking path.

You may find it ridiculous, but I used to love Jeff Jensen's weekly posts about the TV show Lost.  I was a major Lost fan, and every week I looked forward to Doc Jensen's recap of that week's episode.  Why?  Again, he made me think, and he taught me something every time I read one of his posts. He offered not just a "here's what happened this week" recap but a brilliant piece of discourse on the show's religious underpinings, its philosophical roots, and its symbolism. 

So, what is a great blog post?

1. A post with the capacity to shake me from an existence of mindless consumption and get my brain jostling with activity.

2. A post that treats me like I'm smart, too, just like the post's author.

3. A post that leaves me a bit awestruck at the ability of the author to see what I cannot.  I guess that's why I love TED talks, too.  These people are visionary!  Hey, I want to be visionary! When am I gonna be visionary? Is there a blog I can read that'll make me visionary?

Oh, and I also like blog posts with lists.  Everyone loves a good list, right?

    It is my intention to participate in this month's Teacher Challenge, a professional development program of sorts, supported by Edublogs.  The Challenge will offer a month's worth of activities to help bloggers increase their readership, improve their posts, and learn from other edubloggers all over the world.  I have such a busy month ahead, I hope I can keep up.  I'm certainly going to try. 

    I never knew when I got into teaching that the profession would involve so much self-reflection.  Teachers like to think about how things are going and how things can be better in their classrooms and in their schools.  When I was a first-year teacher more than twenty years ago, my school sent me to a new teachers retreat.  I was working in New York City, and this conference was in a very small, very rural town called Rensselaer, New York, not too far from Albany. The conference center sat in the middle of nothing, in the middle of nowhere.  Literally.  The rooms were bare and poorly lit.  No TVs, either.  At night, I felt like Kyle McLaughlin in Twin Peaks.  I fully expected to open my eyes at three in the morning to see a giant at the foot of my bed. 

    But by the end of my three days there, the sterility and starkness of the room made some sense to me.  When not distracted by TV and telephone calls and mini bars, all I did for three days was reflect, reflect, reflect.  I thought about why I had chosen to become a teacher and how I was interacting with my students and where I hoped my career would take me.  Turns out, the conference was one of the best I've ever attended.  I went back to Manhattan feeling profoundly tranquil and thankful to have had the time to turn so much over in my mind.

    Today, the Teacher Challenge asks me to reflect on my life as a blogger.  And I see this as kind of a privilege.  What writing this post and writing this blog in general has made me realize is that I have the time and desire to do this self-reflection.  Teaching is clearly a profession that requires self-reflection, and every time I write a post, I'm doing that, even if it's not a conscious act.  I may appear to be writing a book review or a piece about a tech tool, but what I'm really doing is furthering my understanding of myself: How do I relate to others? What am I hoping to accomplish? What am I really saying here?

    But I have not been consistent about posting, at least, not for several months.  I suppose having cancer and needing major surgery last fall is a pretty good excuse.  I'm healthy now, yet I still haven't returned to posting regularly.  Often, I start a post and suddenly feel like I have nothing to say.  Or I feel that I have nothing original to add to the conversation and I'm just going to be repeating what someone wiser (and with many more readers) has already said.  I get discouraged sometimes, feeling like a very small pebble on a road that is very, very long. I'm hoping that this Challenge will help me overcome some of these doubts I have about my own capabilities.

    Blogging has been good for me.  I always wanted to be a writer, and now I am writing, if only occassionally.  I think I'm building up to something, though.  I realize that I have plenty to say when I