I have just finished reading a very moving post by a fellow teacher I have never met aside from online. She participated in the Edublogs Teacher Challenge at the same time as I did and has been great in leaving comments on my class blog to encourage my students.
The honesty of the post and the compassion expressed in the comments I read gave me an amazing feeling of connection and a sense of community that was not bounded by country lines or physical area. I loved the positive way that others were connecting and offering support in such a caring manner.
This led me to reflect upon why I think blogging matters in relation to children. Imagine giving them this great gift of supportive community – a way of connecting that helps if needed, gives encouragement to achieve and commiserates when things go wrong. To me that is a big WOW.
I am not suggesting we teach our children to pour out every woe and every heartache indiscriminately online but that we teach them to reach out to others with consideration and respect if such an event is shared. This to me is a big part of digital citizenship and blogging seems to provide a great vehicle for that learning to happen.
My next reflection is much more personal.
I have not felt the need to share personal experience before as my life was cruising along quite happily. There were the normal ups and downs a family has but nothing that I felt was out of the ordinary until late this year. After experiencing a very satisfying three month camping\travelling trip with my DH and coming home to a house well looked after by our children I found a lump in my left breast.
This was the beginning of the next three month journey – one of a very different kind. Tests, doctors visits, pathology results, surgery, more pathology results and then recuperation were, and are still, all part of this one. Fortunately for me the end result has been good with the complete removal of a large area of DCIS and a pathology report confirming the absence of any invasive cancer component. Life is getting back to normal. There are parts of the process still to come as I continue my recuperation journey and the yearly monitoring of my right breast.
I feel lucky in so many ways. I had a supportive group of friends and family to help but what if I had not? Hopefully I would have been able to connect online with some supportive friends. I know that I got lots of great information from the Breast Cancer Network Australia website as well as from their very well put together My Journey Kit.
My wish for our future adults, that we teach today, is that they will find a caring network to support them in their life journey. I hope that when we teach digital citizenship we pass on those values that allow this to happen online or off.
Tracey,
I am so glad you shared your journey and especially glad and hopeful for your continued healing. Your words are commendable for their courage in sharing in order to teach us and remind us “that when we teach digital citizenship we pass on those values that allow this to happen online or off.” Our teaching — your teaching– may help someone in ways we never will know. Thank you, and you and Denise will be in my thoughts. Sheri
Thanks for your caring comment, Sheri.
I am hoping that I will live up to my words as a travel through my teaching journey.
Tracey
I am very glad that Denise alerted me to this post through twitter. You certainly have been through a trying time. Thank you for sharing it. Good to know that all cancer is removed. May your recuperation be all it needs to be.
Most of us have ups and downs and as you say then out of the blue…. we never know what… or how we will cope. Your story inspires me, to keep on with the ordinary ups and downs in my life. To keep on blogging with my students and to encourage that caring community.
Blessings
Kathryn NZ
Thanks for leaving a comment, Kathryn.
It has been a pretty unusual year but through it all has been the support of family, friends and work colleagues. I am still learning about my online persona and writing this post was part of that learning.
Tracey
Tracey,
I used to write in a journal/diary. I’d only write in it when I was extremely mad, sad, or thrilled. Once I noticed this fact, I decided to out my mind to writing on a more regular basis. Did this happen? No. I write from my emotions – still. I’ve decided to make my blog posts more professional than personal, but my emotions and family do come through.
I hope that writing this post has been a bit healing for you, as I hope Denise’s has been (and will continue to be) for her. You said, “My wish for our future adults, that we teach today, is that they will find a caring network to support them in their life journey.” My wish for these young adults is that they see valuable posts, such as yours, and caring responses, and that they learn from them. May our students, and all the rest to come, be as caring as the network of friends we’ve developed. And yes, I, too, hope “we pass on those values that allow this to happen online or off.”
Thank you for your post – and for contributing – always – to such a caring community.
Sincerely,
Joy
Thanks for leaving a comment, Joy.
It was quite a big decision for me to share this part of my life and up until now I have been much more comfortable with posts about teaching and learning.
Digital citizenship and online ethics is something that I think teachers all need to spend time thinking about and acting upon.
Tracey
Tracey,
I am so touched and humbled that my post would encourage this beautiful post. I too was struck with the compassion that was shown in all the comments on my post when I woke up to this morning. Thank you for adding to those.
And thank you so much for sharing your personal journey in your battle with breast cancer. I was happy to see your prognosis is great and you are getting back to normal. I know when others have gone through the same thing, it makes it easier to go through the journey with them. I’m sure the Breast Cancer Network would serve as a place to find others on the journey, others who can help you and you can help too.
When I got the news at school on Wednesday about my brother’s death, I was able to come home and spend the day on the phone with family members and connect with friends and loved ones in person.
I also felt a need to share with my online friends about my loss. I consider my PLN friends too–yet, as you mentioned, most of them I have never met aside from online. Because I can’t connect with them in the same way I connect with face-to-face friends and family, I thought a blog post would be in order. However, not only was it a way to share with my online friends, I also found it was good for me. It was meaningful and fun to write and gather the gifts and card and take pictures for the post. Taking time to reflect is healing and helpful.
Thanks for a beautiful rich post, which I will have to read again to consider the idea of student reflection and networking.
Thanks,
Denise Krebs
Thanks, Denise, for reading and commenting on my post. I was very touched by the post you created and am glad that you did it. Blogging and sharing online is still a learning curve for me and it was a big step to consider sharing something so personal. I was definitely more happy to do after reading your post and the comments attached to it.
Tracey