I had just attended WGEDD, What Great Educators Do Differently, and EVERYONE was talking about blogging: Jimmy Casas, Mark McCord, Todd Nesloney, Sanee Bell, etc.  I mean these are some famous people in the world of education and PLN’s.  I had heard about blogging and how important it was to reflect and share about our practices, but I had always thought…….I reflect enough.  Why do I need to do this?  This is just one more thing!!  Then, I started reading my summer professional development books:  Kids Deserve It and Hacking Leadership AND they are talking about the importance of blogging.  So, I took that as MY SIGN to start blogging.  I actually took that as my sign to start a campus blog.  I wanted to start a campus blog because RAE has such a great depth of teacher excellence and I felt it would spur on great conversations.  I was hoping to inspire more teachers to grow professionally and reflect about the outstanding teaching and learning that is taking place at RAE.

After a few meetings with our CTD, Ellen, to help me design the blog and our campus administration team to discuss the reasoning for the blog, I finally feel like we are ready to launch our first blog at RAE.  So……….

Dear Teachers and Staff,

I don’t want this to be just one more thing to do.  I want this blog to genuinely reflect the outstanding teaching practices at RAE.  I want you to brag to the world about the awesomeness that is coming from RAE.  I want the community to hear about how we are changing the world one student at a time.  I want the community to know when the lightbulb went off for a student and now they understand a concept.  I want the community to know how we nurture relationships, how we challenge each other to become better for the sake of our students, and I want the community to know how we set goals in order to achieve great things here at RAE.  So, who is going to join me?  I know there are a few of you reading this wanting to step out on a limb and grow professionally.  If you are wondering what blogs look like check out these bloggers: Teachers College, Jimmy Casas (WGEDD), Mark McCord (KISD), Sanee Bell (KISD), Graham Fletcher (3 Act Math), Adam Welcome (Kids Deserve It), Brene Brown (Literacy Guru), Angela Maiers ( Spark/Genius Hour), Dr. Tony Sinanis (Hacking Leadership), Meeno Rami (Thrive), Coaches Corner (KISD) and NCTM just to name a few!  Let the BLOGGING begin!!

Tommy