It’s 2020 and we are still keeping up this blog. Doing this is massive feat, I feel, considering that we also have to juggle the various responsibilities of parenthood, doctoral homework, and teaching duties. New years call for new resolutions, so I thought I would briefly outline some of my (Zach’s) intentions for this blog moving forward into the new decade.
- I’ve generally adhered to the rule of ≅1 blog post per month. I will continue that in 2020. Stephanie is loving motherhood and will contribute to the blog when she has time.
- I will continue to allow comments on this blog without requiring approval, even those that I disagree with, with the exception of those that are seriously vile and offensive, i.e. bigotry, and solicitations.
- A new resolution I have is to avoid getting caught up in reading comments on Facebook and Twitter. While some of it represents actual feedback, most is entirely unhelpful to my growth as a teacher. The more popular the blog has become, the more trolling has occurred, I’ve found. It makes me sad, though, to think that these platforms often do not live up to their potential as forums for meaningful dialogue about teaching and learning.
- In 2020 I will refrain from deleting old posts on this blog, even if I don’t agree with what I’ve previously written. This is hard for me because I cringe when I read some of the earlier stuff. We don’t know everything and we aren’t driven by ideology or to prove that some product we are selling works, so as new information and experiences come in it has necessarily led to changes in our beliefs. Readers may find inconsistencies between older and newer posts, but we’re not going to change what we write about now to fit some older narrative.
Yeah, that is about it. To wish you a new year I’ll pass the mic to Marshawn.
– Zach Groshell @mrzachg
Education Rickshaw 