The Blonde Blogger

A Lunch has struck again.  As I've stated before, there is a distinct difference between the characters at the table in the faculty room at each of the three scheduled lunches.  I'm preferential to A Lunch -- initially because I happen to have prep 3rd period, and am often scurrying off to another building immediately following lunch, meaning that breaking up the period with a later lunch would cause me to either miss lunch entirely while being sidetracked by something else, or leaving something incomplete in one building while heading off to another group of gifted people.  So yes, personal schedule was my original reason for choosing A Lunch, but the people are the reason that I stay.

Dave, who is the resident wrestling maniac -- and by wrestling I mean "Let's get ready to rummmmmmmbbbblllleeee" wrestling, has offered lovely new wrestling names to those of us at the table.  I bristled at mine, The Blonde Blogger, but my objections have fallen on deaf ears so far.  Meanwhile, The BOWTIE, aka Khembonder,   has finally had his pristinely-tied neckwear acknowledged for the daily work of art that it has become.

Oh, and The Bowtie, Seth, has been absent from A Lunch for the last two days, upsetting the chi of the otherwise-healthy conversation.  Apparently he's been hanging out with the techie folks, who motivated him to write not one, but TWO, blog postings today.  

Talk about tossing a gauntlet.

 The gloves are off...

It's nearly 8 pm, and I still have an hour or so of work to do, so the likelihood of my churning out more than one posting today is, actually, preposterous.  Oh, and tomorrow night is the Second Semester Open House, so there's that lovely multi-media show that I need to construct as well.  But I digress.

Sure, Seth is off at a tech conference.  I'm thrilled that it motivated him to post about technology, and a bit excited that I may be able to play with his 3D printer sometime in the near future.  Seth's post also reminded me about the very nature of this whole blogging process.

Today is day 161, STRAIGHT, of blogging for me.  It started out as a dare from a friend based upon the Te@chthought 30 Day challenge back in September.  The weird thing is that this entire process and journey have increased my knowledge of self, of job, and of perspective in ways that I could have never imagined.  

Sure, it's interesting to get data that tells me that people in New Zealand, China, and Finland are reading my blog -- although, aside from Justine in New Zealand, I sort of wonder why.  The data also tells me about views, and I really wonder sometimes why some entries are so popular while others go essentially un-viewed.    It's fairly astounding to me when people write and say that they read to relate, and I've picked up quite a few regular reading opportunities for myself, as I've enlarged my Professional Learning Network (PLN) into geographically remote corners of my world.  In the last 160 days, this blog has been read more than 15,368 times.  And no, it's not me just constantly refreshing the page.

My blog has connected me globally, and locally.  It's opened conversations at the ever-famous A Lunch, and caused collaborations with people in departments that leave me in awe, wonder, and sometimes fear.  (AKA Science and Math).

Recently, a friend of mine who was identified as gifted in school in the 70's, commented on how much gifted seems to have changed since she was in school.  She asked if I'd ever considered a guest blogger to offer commentary here.  In truth, I hadn't.  But the idea of doing a comparative "Then and Now" with a friend I've known for 30 years sounds like something I shouldn't pass up.

If you're not blogging, quite frankly, you should be.  Even if it's a photo a day or 3 blessings or enlightenments you've discovered.  You'll find out a lot about yourself, and, if you're a teacher, a lot about your career, as you reflect in ways you've never imagined.

So consider blogging.  Seriously.  

Or offer to guest blog here -- just once -- and then start your own!