A rather popular figure in ELT kicked off a rather big discussion
two days ago - one which captivated my attention and distracted me from doing a thousand other, much more pressing and urgent, matters.
It was regarding the social niceties which should or shouldn't go along with life in web 2.0 and whether or not we understand the culture emerging there.
For the most part, Gavin's observations were spot on but still, I was annoyed about a couple of things. Regarding the narcissism of web2.0, he's right - it is something I
have observed and dislike also but the blogosphere is abuzz with it, it's not only happening in our field.
I remember my own nervous beginnings but as someone who's traveled quite a bit, I also remembered that because I wasn't sure of the map and cultural faux pàses so easily tripped on, I bought, watched, read and
bookmarked the
'guide-books.' I studied before I entered.
One particular point in the blog comments on That' SLife was whether or not thank you's for ReTweets are appropriate: if they're a form of spam and whether or not they should be made privately or publicly and discussions erupted on how they "clutter up" the
hmm... really rather busy twitter stream.
So here's the thing...
I say thank you to you because I am thankful.
Actually, I'm excessively, overwhelmingly, abundantly grateful.
Let's get something pretty straight, just in case it isn't clear:
I am no big deal.As much as I love my blog (
can you tell?) and it's nice (but mostly weird) that some of you are now referring to me as a VIP, it just ain't so.
I'm an English teacher. I pack up my backpack every weekday, just like you do, well mine usually has a netbook inside it, I go to my classes and teach there and sometimes my lessons work out well so I blog about these.... so you can go try these ideas out too and I can find them again... but sometimes, to be frank, they're not all that clever.
I train teachers in workshops however I'm not a
teacher-educator.
I haven't written a major textbook and no, I haven't created an earth-shaking pedagogy.
So, how did this
no-one arrive in the place of having a
"popular" blog?
When I started in September last year, I wasn't on Twitter. So in the beginning I got maybe 5 visitors a week..? And probably of those visits, 50% were made by my parents. But I came to the page and I wrote.
I put in the hours.
Some of my articles were just awful. Embarrasingly so.
Some of them were average.
Sometimes I thought, wow, is like no one
ever going to read my words? All those so-called supportive colleagues at the school I used to work at - too busy, they kept saying they'll look at the weekend but the weekends went by and they did not come.
That so-called best friend who told me she liked my blog and then when I asked her, did you like what I did with the pictures, she said huh, what picture... and I knew she too, had not come and visited.
And though I was hurt I came to the page and I wrote.
I went out and I learned from the better bloggers. I offered to do guest-pieces for those who knew what they were doing because I read that you should do this. Some of these were accepted, some were not.
I visited your blogs and I learned from you.
I wrote more articles.
I bought books on blogging.
I combed through slideshare and the 'net for tips on how to become a good blogger:
Darren Rowse and
Chris Brogan helped me enormously - their mantra became my mantra and if you really want to be a popular blogger too, make it yours:
Write.
Somewhere around the 4 months mark... I came up with something which was considered useful by you: some of you decided to share a lesson plan I'd spent 12 hours writing with your colleagues on Facebook, you sent it on by email and it got listed in various yahoo!groups.
Now all of a sudden I was getting 20 - 50 visitors a day... and some of you even began to subscribe to my posts.
Which meant, holy cow,
responsibility...
I had to write...
So I came to the page and I wrote.
You started talking back to me. At around six months, some of you started writing to thank me for what I was writing and it was this gratitude of
yours which pulled me to the page and made me write even more articles, now twice or three times a week instead of every now and then.
I joined Twitter in May and as we bloggers of the blogosphere connected daily in the Twitterverse, suddenly the number of visitors to my blog increased exponentially and with that, the deepening obligation to keep writing.
I enrolled on a course with Darren Rowse and did the tough but rewarding 30-day challenge to become a better blogger.
I wrote every day and did every exercise...
My writing improved and now you began to regularly share my posts with your friends, with your colleagues, -
you RT'd my work, ideas and tips and passed these on to your own professional and personal learning networks
.
Let me say that again.
You read my posts and you commented on them and then you decided what I wrote had enough value to be shared with your own colleagues. This may seem to a casual observer as no big deal... this may seem odd as
"in real life we don't thank people for repeating what we say" but this is what you did:
You rewarded me with the highest praise
any writer could ever wish to receive:
you told me my words were worthy.
So though I'm no VIP and though I don't write the best blog in the blogosphere you keep bringing the obligation and responsibility to do the thing I love doing most: writing.
Through your appreciation, you have transformed my quiet life - - you've gotten me two paid writing assignments, you've given me a thousand new ways to smile, confidence in my concepts and ideas about teaching - - you have challenged me to be consistent and true, you have helped me grow as a person and a character in the edu web 2.0 world and
you have given me the gift of the page.
Thnx
4
ur
RTs,
Best,
Karenne
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