A while back the Education Week blog put out a call for writers. I applied, and was given an assignment to write about student engagement. I was to explain what it meant to me and how to achieve it, all in 300 words or less. Yikes!
If’ you’ve read BulgingButtons for any length of time, or even just glanced through it, you know that most of the posts are quite a bit longer than that. Usually they run closer to 1,000 words, but for topics related to teaching they can be significantly longer than that. A 300 word limit was a challenge for me, but I did it!
I submitted my piece and that was that. I didn’t hear anything else about it. Not until today, anyway, when I received a tweet with the quote from the article and a link. Cool.
So if you’re here from Education Week, welcome. I hope you stick around and find something else on the blog that interests you. If you’re a regular BulgingButtons reader, I hope you click over to Education Week to see what student engagement is all about. I did notice that the other contributing educators didn’t seem to stick to the 300 word limit, but then again, maybe they had a slightly different assignment. Mine is the short piece at the bottom of the page. Either way, I’m glad you’re here sharing these fifteen minutes of almost fame with me.
I’ve been posting each day during the month of November. It’s not because I’m simply bursting with information and ideas which I absolutely must share with you all. I mean sure, there’s SOME of that, but that’s not the real reason. The real reason is NaBloPoMo.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve made a commitment to blog every day during the month of November. I did it last year, and really enjoyed the process, so I figured, why not do it again?
I love blogging. I tried it out just for the fun of it, and wasn’t really sure what to expect. BulgingButtons is actually my second attempt at blogging. I figured it would be a nice outlet for some of my thoughts, but honestly, I didn’t think I would stick with it for long. I figured I would write a couple of boring posts that nobody would read, then pack it in due to lack of interest. After all, that’s what happened with my first blog.
I was so wrong. I haven’t lost interest, and neither has my audience. It has steadily grown, which I love. I love that there are people on every continent who have stopped by BulgingButtons, and that there are loyal readers in so many different countries. I can count on people in France, India, Greece, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, The Bahamas, Vietnam, and several other countries to stop by regularly. Not only do they stop by, they leave wonderful messages.
Of course there are lots of readers here in the USA too. I feel like many of these readers have become friends in a way. I read their blogs, if they have them, and they read mine. We reveal bits of ourselves through our writing, and we recognize commonalities. We also appreciate and respect our differences. We cheer each other on in good times and offer support in bad times. We have formed a community. What an amazing outcome.
So what’s the issue? Well, I’m wondering if posting all this content is just too much? I know I don’t read nearly as many blogs as I would like to, there just isn’t enough time in the day. When I post brand new content each and every day, I feel like a lot of what I’m sharing is being passed by, even by loyal readers. Most people have limited time to poke around any one particular blog, so they’ll read the most recent post, then move on to the rest of their life. I get it. I do it myself. But what if yesterday’s post was the one that you really needed at this moment?
Posting everyday hasn’t been difficult for me. There’s usually SOMETHING on my mind that I can write about. But I wonder if I SHOULD post everyday. Am I leaving people in the dust and fumes of my high speed blogging? Come December I’ll slow it down somewhat, but how much remains to be seen. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Please drop me a line and let me know if you take the time to read old posts, or just read the newest unless something really grabs your attention. Thanks for the help, and as always, thanks for reading.
I’m in the process of trying to reclaim the things that I want for my life. I have managed, over the past several months, or maybe even more, to get comfortable. That comfort has led to laziness, both physical and mental. In a nutshell here’s what I think happened.
I was married for a long time. I had a normal little family (mom, dad, kid) until suddenly, one day, I didn’t. I got divorced and was forced to spend some time soul-searching and figuring out what I wanted from my life. I was still a mom, only my role had changed, since I didn’t have my son with me all the time anymore. That was brutal.
I had to decide how I wanted my life to turn out. I was required to make difficult decisions that I never thought I would be faced with, but I did it, and I’m proud to say I did it with grace. I pulled though stronger and better equipped to face the future than I would have thought possible.
I was beginning to understand what made me truly happy, perhaps for the first time ever. I did things I had put off doing, and went places I wanted to go. I began to develop new interests and I dusted off some old ones. Then I ventured out into the big wide world, and I miraculously managed to meet someone wonderful.
We’ve spent time getting to know one another, and we’ve committed ourselves to each other. We, along with my son, have become a family. We’ve purchased a home and we function as a unit. It’s a very happy, safe, and comfortable place to be. I like this feeling a lot.
We both work long hours, and we both are sort of home-bodies. We do enjoy the theater, and attend live performances regularly. We both enjoy food, so dining out is a fairly regular occurence for us too. Other than that, we tend to stay home. We like our home. We like each other’s company. But here’s the thing, I’ve noticed that I’ve pushed the other things I enjoy to the back burner so that I can just “hang out” with him. I need to quit doing that. Participating in NaNoWriMo and NoBloPoMo are great ways for me to make sure that the time I’m spending isn’t wasted time.
I’m not suggesting that spending time with loved ones is wasted time. It isn’t. Spending time watching sitcoms with loved ones can be, though. Instead of mindlessly watching tv, I would rather bring out my laptop and work on a chapter of my novel or begin a new blog post. Instead of watching the adult cartoons he so enjoys, I can keep him company while I stitch on a quilt binding (of course there would have to be a quilt ready to be bound for that, but you get the idea). Maybe I can even convince him to take a walk around the park with me. It would do us both a world of good. And I still have all this extra weight I need to lose. The couch isn’t any good for helping me make progress in that area. Neither is the half price Halloween candy, but I digress.
There are only 24 hours in each day, no matter how you look at it. I need to use mine to further my goals and to help me live my best life. Watching tv won’t help me do that. I know that, but I’m still keeping Monday nights open, after all, everyone needs some downtime, right?
A while back the Education Week blog put out a call for writers. I applied, and was given an assignment to write about student engagement. 
BulgingButtons 