Face-off with Self-doubt

If I weren't afraid...

I would put a Ping-Pong table in my room. 

If I weren't on a budget...

I'd hire an interior decorator to make my room look like Mrs. Hartwig's. (The decorator might tell me to nix the Ping-Pong table--)

If I weren't responding to this prompt...

I would write about what this month of blogging has taught me. Here goes...

Whew. I have blogged every evening for 30 days straight. The first day I was excited. The second day less so. By the end of week one I was sick of listening to myself. Week two? I knew Dread as my own little buddy. I then slogged through ennui, blither-blather and awe-shucks. One night I didn't post until 11:58 p.m. 

But I had made a public commitment on the ICTE Facebook group page and was inspired by my blogging partners: Melissa and Brittany. I wanted to be in their club--so I kept cranking out the blog posts.

I also wanted to prove to myself I could hush the mice in the jar.

So each evening I traded luscious reading time for a face-off with Self-Doubt, embracing vulnerability, exposing my imperfect thoughts in imperfect words. And I lived to tell about it. Seriously, I feel like I just completed a marathon: it mattered to me, even if no one else is that interested in hearing about it.

I also was reminded how important feedback is. Thanks to you who left a comment on the blog or Facebook. I felt less alone.

I'm still not sure who I am as a blogger. Frankly, the genre might not suit me well. But the @teachthought Reflection Challenge did invite (force?) me to think on the page about what I do in the classroom. And since it didn't kill me, it must have made me stronger.

Thanks for listening.

Journalism student adding grid guides to her phone's camera. The nasty sofa is just one of the furniture items my fantasy interior decorator would replace in my classroom.

Day 30: What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren’t afraid?

Reflection: I'm glad I did this challenge. And I'm also glad it's over.