“I feel like I cannot open my brain big enough to absorb all the information. I’m overwhelmed and excited,” I texted my wife about the TELL Collab. “:)” she replied.
On June 26th and 27th, I had the great professional privilege of participating in the very first TELL Collab at the COERLL at University of Texas at Austin. It was a fulfilling and rewarding experience to not only participate with like-minded teachers, but to also hug in real life two of my Twitter besties–Amy and John. I’ve been moved by how they moderate #langchat and how they provide feedback to others. Also, they both are reflective of their own practice, so I was glad to have time to “just be” with them!
On Saturday morning, Amy was in the hot seat, and I totally stoked that fire! She talked about her blogging process and said something I hadn’t considered before: I have to make time and a concerted effort to reflect–truly reflect–on my practice. She said that in order to grow, we must b be reflective of ourselves, but also to search out feedback–true and honest and sometimes heartbreaking. But, it’s through that pain that we can grow. She remarked how she’s grown over the course of her career and how she’s been given opportunities to provide that true and honest feedback to others, but it’s been so worthwhile. I admire her for putting herself out there for that, and I set myself a recurring reminder to blog. Thanks, Amy!
This is the first step to processing my experience at the TELL Collab–blogging. Regularly. About a variety of topics. And not always polished because life is not always polished. But the biggest thing that I learned from the Collab this past weekend is that I have something to say, and people are listening. I’ll be sharing more of my learning and more of how I intend to apply it–as well as how it plays out starting in August–but I wanted to get things kicked off with this post.
Thank you, TELL Project, for an amazing step in my career! – See more at: http://profepj3.weebly.com/#sthash.sBLdJqzR.dpuf