Why I decided to blog.

"When you want something, the whole universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho

During the last week of school, I came across this blog post by author Kate Messner introducing a virtual teacher writing camp called "Teachers Write!"  When I was in middle school and high school, I enjoyed writing short stories and poetry.  Back then, my head was full of fantastic stories and imagery that I had to get down on paper.

As an adult, I find myself reflecting often on experiences I have at work & home.  I compose in my head what happened, why it happened and what I learned.  The problem is that I never take time to capture those thoughts on paper.  As started to follow the virtual writing camp posts, I decided it was time I commit to capturing those reflections.

Another reason for starting this blog is to share with others.  The other night I read this post on "Venspired" where the author succinctly explains why educators should blog.  I've learned about new technologies, books and projects from blogs written by fellow educators.  As I write this, I recall this post written by Daring Librarian Gwyneth Jones. It's time for me to give back.   (It's all coming together!! )

The last push came last week when during a session about the Common Core standards our facilitator said we must encourage our students to write reflectively.  I want to encourage my students to write.  I want to be able to tell them that I write, not because I have to, but because I want to.  I want to be able to tell them that writing helps us all become better learners.

In my school, whenever teachers and students are on the hunt for an odd item, piece of technology or book, they start their search in the library.  We are the "go to" spot in our school for books and everything else. (I love that!)  So, what follows is a short list of my "go to" blogs for when I need to get inspired, learn about a new tech tool or catch up on what is going on in the library world:

The Adventures of Library Girl
The Daring Librarian
Eliterate Librarian
Free Technology for Teachers
Informania

Please share your "go to" blogs!