Saturday, January 7, 2012

A Celebration

It's like sitting on a bench with a friend, listening and responding.


   from Dr. Seuss

“We’ve GOT to make noises 

in greater amounts!

So, open your mouth, lad!

For every voice counts!”


It’s a time for celebration!  Yesterday was my 200th blog post at TeacherDance.  My first post was March 1st, 2011 when I wrote about starting a workshop on personal essays, an intensive with another teacher with whom I was teaching.  I was starting the March Slice of Life writing challenge with Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers, jumping into a pond I didn’t realize was big until I was with them for a while.  I talked two other colleagues into doing it with me, but only one stayed, and continues to write.  It’s always a pleasure to see her writing at Prose Cents, and we support each other in our writing at school as well. 

        On that first day I received five comments, and I was hooked.  What a special experience to start a new thing and then have strangers actually respond to my writing, my ideas!   Wow!  During that day (I’ve peeked back) I heard from Tam at Clay Fragments, Tara at A Teaching Life, someone whose blog is no longer among the slicers, Ruth at Two Writing Teachers welcoming me to the challenge, and Mary Helen at BookSavors. Imagine this: except for one, everyone is still here! 


     Since that first blog, one loyal blogger continued with me during poetry month when we wrote a poem every day, and that is Donna at Mainely Write. Through the months, both Donna and Deb at Coffee With Chloe have been loyal commenters/supporters.  I am thankful to them for keeping my motivation high. 

And then others began to show up and I learned more about them too, that they mostly were teachers, and like Donna and Deb were interested in good teaching; no matter what they had to question and try new ideas and discuss them.  They were ready to show up with their thinking on their blogs, take risks in writing styles, and welcome me into the great community that Ruth and Stacey had started by doing the Tuesday Slice of Life Challenge.  

I began very early to look forward to Tuesdays, to what others chose as a topic, to learn about work and home and families and trips and conferences and walks and musings.  The slicers I met have continued on Tuesdays and often enough other days, too.  I started a Google Reader account with a special file called Slicers so I could read and comment to them especially.  Those wonderful writers are: Two Writing Teachers of course, b at Live Write Teach, Diana at One Literacy Coach, Christy at Living, Juliann at Nurturing Curiosity, Fran at Otter Landing, Ruth (Storykeeper) at Windows To My Life, Elizabeth at Word by Word, Mardie at Mardie’s Notebook, Terje (Grade4Wizard) at JustforAMonth, Annie at Write Now In Room 204…, Jennifer at I Hablo Espangish, Katherine at Read, Write, Reflect, Michelle at Literacy Learning Zone, Carol at Carol’s Corner,  Elsie at Elsie Tries Writing, One Sunflower who also blogs at Wake Up And Write, Stacey at Reflections of A Mommy, Bonnie at BLKDrama, Mommy K at MooreFamilyFun,  Ruth at RuthAyresWrites-Discover, Play, Build,  Tammy at KlingerCafe, Reidun at Complacency Conundrum, Jee at Teach To Inspire, and  Mrs. V at In Search of Balance.    
Lately I have added others to my reader like Myra at Gathering Books because I love to read too, and I am so interested in new technology, and then there is Poetry Friday because poetry is dear to my heart, and I’m beginning to connect there too, like to Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading.  Finally there is twitter, something that I am just excited to explore so far.
So-what I have learned this year is even more to appreciate thoughtfulness and creativity.  And I have seen those with problems who have worked hard to solve them and those with problems who aren’t solved but not for lack of trying. 
And I have seen writing that is clever, writing that is beautiful, writing that is heartfelt, writing that is spare, writing that is clear, and writing that takes my breath away.  Never could I have better mentor texts!  I love to read, but I think I love to read because I love to write.  My blog has given me an outlet, an additional way to share my writing, and with the support those above and others have given me, I am looking forward to a terrific year.

Thank you everyone!

photo credit: VinothChandar via photopin cc

18 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your 200th blog post--you inspire me, as does that wonderful Dr. Suess quote!

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  2. Isn't this blogging adventure fabulous? I, for one, am so glad you joined the community - I love learning from and sharing with you, Linda. Here's to the next 200 posts!

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  3. I had so much fun reading this, I had to read it twice. What a journey we have had this last year. We read so many of the same slicers and teachers! Congratulations on number 200 and, as Tara said, here's to the next 200!

    By the way, I don't remember if I have told you before, but I love the new layout of your blog!

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  4. Thank you for writing! Thank you for reading! Thank you for commenting!
    Aitähh!
    Congratulations on your 200th post! Palju õnne!
    Terje

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  5. I recently reached a milestone on my blog as well. It is quite a reflective process to look back over the posts, to see the growth and all the relationships that have been built.

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  6. Congratulations! So glad you're enjoying blogging and being part of this wonderful community of readers and writers :).

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  7. Linda, this is truly something worth celebrating. I agree that the best part of blogging are the connections that sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, start to happen.

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  8. Congratulations on 200 blogposts, on the journey, the writing, the connecting, and the grace with which you honour the community of bloggers and tweeter and colleagues -both online and face-to-face with your own writing here on this blog and in your comments to others.

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  9. 200 blogposts is a great milestone - well done! What about a 'most popular' post where you list say, the 5 most popular blogposts. It's always good to get s retrospective, especially for those new to the blog.

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  10. New to this blog but thoroughly enjoying it although I don't promise to read all 200 posts today LOL Congrats on a prestigious milestone.

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  11. Congratulations! It's obvious that you have a real enthusiasm for writing and blogging. I love the quote, too. ;) Looking forward to another 200 posts!

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  12. Congrats on your 200th post! I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to have been part of your journey. This community of bloggers means so much to me. When I got to meet some of the bloggers in person and it was so comfortable, I truly understood how valuable our connections are! I am looking forward to looking back at some of your favorite posts (on your post today) and looking forward to a lifetime of shared posts!

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  13. What a great way to reflect on and celebrate your blog! 200 posts in less than a year is really something to be proud of! I always enjoy reading your posts; you are in my rss reader too! You are one of the people who has encourged me in my first months of blogging, and it's nice to hear how your own journey in getting started has been so similar to mine! Congratulations!

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  14. Congratulations on your 200th post. I've really appreciated all of your comments lately on my blog and wanted to stop over to yours. Thank you for reading and stopping by. It's nice to know someone is out there reading. I really like your background for your page.

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  15. Congrats! I'm so glad to be able to get to know you through blog posts and slices and Poetry Friday! Looking forward to writing a poem a day with you in April!!

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  16. wow 200 posts! Congratulations! So glad you're part of my blogging community. I look forward to reading about your teaching insight and family updates.

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  17. Aww, my heart is filled seeing my name up there. :) I would soon be doing a lecture on blogging in my institution and how teachers can make use of the kidlit community as a resource for their teaching - I have added your blog as one of the resources that they can likewise explore. My talk is scheduled sometime next month. :) You truly are an inspiration, and I have a feeling my colleagues and teacher-students would be inspired when they see your posts and your thoughts about teaching. :)

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  18. Congratulations Linda!!! I am so glad you decided to start blogging and got me into it too. I truly enjoy your blog every chance I get to read it. Your writing is by turns beautiful, thoughtful, provocative, encouraging and courageous and many times all these at once. You have inspired me personally to try my hand at the writing I've always thought about but never made the space for before. Thank you - and here's to the next 200!

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