Mrs. Ruiz’s Blog

I can never seem to stay on top of blogging.  Often times I feel I have nothing meaningful or new to say so why blog at all?  I really do think as a educator and life long learner I should write something to keep my creative academic juices flowing.  So I will try this again, blogging what I am encountering or thinking regarding education and keeping students engaged, whether it has been said or not.

I am currently in the process of finding cool ways to use my family’s iPad2 in my classroom and out of it with my 6 year old son who is about to enter the 1st grade.  I hope to write more on my adventures in iPad2 land as I learn more about the various things I can do with an iPad when I am the only one in the classroom with one.

Well, here I am again trying to blog.  This time my approach to this blog is to process my ideas as they come to me from a variety of resources…books, meetings, colleagues, conferences, etc.  I am finding that ideas are all around me, but very few get implemented.  I am also at a point in my career where I need to do something more…plan differently or think differently or just plain approach my teaching differently.  The end of this school year marks 10 full years of teaching for me and I am feeling an itch.  I have thought maybe it was time for a classroom break, or at least begin preparing myself for that.  There is a change on the horizon for me, and I hope maybe writing out my thoughts on various teaching experiences might help me figure that out.  One thing I do know is that whatever the change may be, it will not involve me leaving teaching.

Ok my initial frustration/irritation has subsided and I’ve decided to rewrite some of what was lost in my 1st post of the day. (Lucky you!)

What I had said before that got eaten by the blog monster was that part of my renewed passion for blogging is to get in the habit of regular writing.  I have always had this deep seeded urge to write, but never sure about what and doubtful that anyone else would care to read it.  So I thought, why blog?  It would be like talking to myself, but I guess I do that already, so what’s the harm?

One of the huge motivators for this is that I am pursing my National Board Certification.  If you have been through this process you are well aware of the amount of writing involved.  Now I realize National Board writing and blogging are really not in the same leauge of writing with the previous being way more academic than my blogging style, but my hope was that through regular blogging I would be less reticent about writing for my portfolio.  As of this point I have yet to write anything significant for my portfolio, but I am in super planning and executing mode, so I know I will have something on paper for my portfolio very soon.  I had hoped to post it here, so I guess it is a good thing that Steve’s 4th assignment was about protecting your content.  I may have something worth stealing one day. haha

Ok I hope the blog monster doesn’t eat this one! (Mrs. Ruiz crosses her fingers…)