In a Little Different Direction.

On different days over the last week or so, I was blessed by one of the most valued experiences a teacher has. Well,  one that is incredibly rewarding for me anyway. That experience is simple and "everyday", and yet, so cool. It is when a former student sticks his or her head in the door and smiles or strides across the gym toward you just to say, "Hello!" With college spring break last week and BHS still in session, I was blessed to experience just that.

That is not really what this post is about, however. Instead, it is about blogging, and to a lesser degree, Twitter. Last Friday, Lacy Pitts, yes, the one and only Lacy Pitts, stuck her head into my room and smiled, then laughed, because that is what Lacy Pitts does. I was talking about The Great Gatsby with another student at the time, and Lacy snagged a seat and jumped right in. Lacy could always talk about literature and writing. The fact that she is now at KSU and beginning her journey toward becoming a mover and shaker in Ag policy has not changed that. Over the next hour or so, we just talked. I gave her a hard time for being a sorority girl. She criticized me and the rest of the ELA department for not implementing flexible seating and our new ELA Jr/Sr curriculum while she was at BHS. She recommended Lincoln and the Bardo and Quiet: The Power of Being an Introvert and she talked about what makes each one worth reading. Lacy raved about specific singer-songwriters that I need to add to my ITunes playlist and include in our literary discussions in class. We talked about other BHS students who have made the trek to Manhattan and the frustration of GTAs instructing classes, as well as her job and studies, which take her to Topeka once a week. It was a great time, for me anyway.

Then Lacy called me out.

When Lacy was in high school, she had started blogging, and that was the trigger I needed to get myself into the practice. I had thought about it for some time at that point, but I had not actually jumped in. With this HS junior turning out thoughtful posts on a regular basis, I had no excuse not to start writing. If Lacy blogged and I had not done so for a period of time, I felt obligated to focus and put digital pen to electronic paper. I returned the favor and called her out from time to time. And maybe that is why Lacy felt she could confidently call me out last Friday.

It started with Lacy admitting that she need to blog. I told her I aimed for once a month, sometimes more. Then she hit with this:

"Coach Kohls, you need to blog more for your kids. Remember why you started blogging and who was your audience. They need to see you as that creative person, who does the things you are asking them to do."

Lacy went on to remind me that she had called me out for the same thing on Twitter a while back. "It's a way for kids to see you on a different level. It's important."

Over the last three years or so, I have shifted what I write on my blog and what I post on Twitter. Previously my blogging was pretty much all over the place, and it included creative writing, personal posts, musings about my son and daughter, and ramblings about what was happening in my classroom. I have since moved into writing nearly exclusively about education, fellow teachers, my classroom, and my students. I follow a lot more educators and learn from them through Twitter on a daily basis. I still Tweet primarily about my school kids and celebrate their awesomeness. My feed is also loaded with responses to Twitterchat questions that focus on education and conversations with fellow teachers about classroom ideas.

Both platforms have become incredibly important for me as a teacher and allow me to grow each and every day. Sometimes I blog to share what we are doing in our classroom, and sometimes I write to think through thoughts that I am struggling to wrap my head around. My Twitter life has connected me with teachers not just from #313teach and across Kansas, but also from Philadelphia, Boston, Little Rock, and Minneapolis. We have been able to connect with poets and writers from across the country and around the world. Twitter has changed how I learn and how I share the stories from within our halls and classrooms.

However, Lacy made me think. Was I missing an opportunity to connect with my kids at that level that Lacy was talking about, a connection I was making in the past and now need to establish again? I still connect with kid sn Twitter and "Are you going to Tweet that?" and "Hey, Mr. Kohls, you better like my Tweet" are common refrains in Room 202. However,  I haven't written posted anything creative on my blog in a while. How can I push my kids to post on Crusader Chronicles, the BHS creative blog, if I am not putting creative work out there?  I told Lacy that maybe I needed to start another blog that was focused just on my creative writing and less "teachery" ideas. That way I would not lose what I have with my more professional blog while putting out there what I once put into Ramblings.

So, I am going to do just that. Leave it to Lacy Pitts to make me add one more thing to my plate. Lacy reminded me that when she was at BHS, I had been working on a serial novel that I used to post on my blog, but I had not put out anything new on that in a long time. She was right. So, I am kicking off Rambling in a Little Different Direction. with an unfinished piece of goofy little fiction that is just meant to be fun. I doubt very many people will read it, which is fine, but I better get at least one hit on that page.

I'm calling you out Lacy.