If you’ve read many of my posts you will see that there are a couple core threadlines that travel through a lot of what I tend to write/talk/think about. A couple that have 
been particularly popular of late are: that Effective teaching is REflective teaching; and that we can move from a school with pockets of innovation, to one that has a culture of innovation by sharing what we are doing. Personally, I believe that blogging – with students, for your class, or in your “outside of school life” – can do both of these things. Last week I received the email below and I was so excited by it, I immediately had to get permission to repost it here. I feel incredibly blessed to work with so many dynamic educators, like Jill:
Dear Hamlin colleagues,As many of you know, I run a few dance blogs outside of Hamlin. I enjoy writing, and it is something I can do on my own timeline. I call it my “10 pm project.” 🙂(It costs me only $16 a month, and I write about one evening a week. I do a lot of front loading of work in the summers and during our breaks.)Three years ago, I started the Life as a Modern Dancer Blog to become a living textbook in college courses about career paths. Three years later, here I am sharing the 100th artist profile. I am so excited to reach this milestone. During May, I had 2,400 reads of the blog! This little project has indeed taken off. I know that several dance departments use the blog, and it has morphed into something being enjoyed by dancers of all ages.The blog has shared honest, heartfelt stories and opened up conversations about dancing, art making, and career paths.There is a strong undercurrent about being a teaching artist – which still remains a largely underdiscussed topic in college departments, and this is one of my life passions.To me, this blog serves as a way of giving back to the dance community and as my own professional development. I continue to learn and get inspired with each post.I just wanted to share this – as I know that we all are frequently looking at the intersection of education and technology as well as arts and technology. Blogging is user friendly and shares information quickly and easily. Also, one thing links to another – so I maximize Facebook and Twitter to share these posts as well…..Thanks for reading this and for your support of my various dance projects!Sincerely,Jill