EDUblogging...Why It Can Be Difficult4/18/2016 In 2016, the sharing of information and resources is vital to the growth of education as a whole. Whether it is through Twitter, Voxer, podcasts, or any number of online resources, the internet provides educators the resources to help educate and guide students to be productive citizens in the 21st century. I also thoroughly enjoy reading other educators reflections of their experiences in their classrooms and schools. However, I find EDUblogging extremely difficult.
If you check out my blog you will notice that it has dried up like the Platte River during a hot summer in Nebraska. This isn’t because there is a lack of amazing things happening at MHS to share with the world. Those posts are shared regularly on the MPS Facebook and Twitter accounts. The lack of posts is more a personal matter that every educator deals with on a daily basis. From the outside, education is about testing, and curriculum, and board meetings, and sports teams, and evaluations, and the list goes on and on. I don’t disagree with any of this but when it comes down to it, education is about one thing, relationships. Relationships are the key to any well run organization but are especially important when you are dealing with 12 to 18 year old kids. And for that reason, relationships are what make EDUblogging so difficult. Everyday, educators have hundreds of interactions with students, staff, parents, and community patrons. Each of these interactions could lead to a great blog post that would interesting for the average reader. However, one mistimed, misconstrued, or misinformed blog post could ruin a relationship that took years to build. Schools need to be a safe place for all students but especially those who are struggling with life. Every student deserves to have a trusted adult they can confide in when needed. Every educator who truly cares about kids and building those positive and safe relationships has had a difficult conversation with a student who needed someone to talk to. Students today deal with home issues, academic struggles, drug abuse, dating violence, self harm, or an entire list of social factors which impact their daily lives. The fact that they can confide in a school employee means they trust this conversation will remain confidential, unless other agencies need to (or are required to) get involved. While many of these conversations would make for an intriguing blog post, it would also violate a trust that took years to build. While I love blogging and the power sharing our personal stories has, I love kids and helping them more. In no way do I want to violate this trust that I have built with them. Some of our most frustrating students or circumstances end up becoming our greatest victories because a relationship was developed in which the student decided to trust in what we were doing. I want to continue to see students leave MHS with not only a high school diploma but knowing a building full of dedicated adults were willing to help them write a better story for themselves. As we say everyday at MPS, “Everyone has a story...make yours worth telling.”
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Brandon MowinkelMilford Jr/Sr High Principal Archives
May 2023
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