The Stats on Readers
One of the most fun things about blogging are the statstics you get from the blogging program. I use WordPress, and get lots of data. Here are some interesting points from 2018.
This international reach is very cool and only something that has become possible recently.
Also, 29% of my readers read my posts on Sundays, and many of them read it at about 11 am–which is good because they’ve probably already had coffee.
Top Blog Posts
The most popular post I wrote last year was about a new rubric criterion I discovered to help improve my students’ writing and my reading experiences. That received 898 views and it got some buzz on Twitter.
Other popular posts included one on counting students’ effort in grades (206), maintaining humility as a grader of student work (147), my reflections on the 2018 NCTE Convention (145), “Teaching After Tragedy” (125), and managing the grading grind (110). Notably, only one of these posts was actually written in 2018. That’s probably a combination of my not having written many posts this year and having peaked early. That’s it. I’m done!! =:O
Thoughts for 2019
Now that 2019 has begun, I am hoping to write more posts. I’m off to a good start, having published a handful of posts in the last month. I also hope to make my posts shorter. They gone up by an average of 150 words. Better to keep the posts around 500-600, rather than 850 and up.
It seems the teaching profession has enjoyed a bit of a comeback this year, both in numbers of students entering the field and the general reputation of teachers among the public. Let’s hope those trends continue. Issues of social justice in education, particularly regarding students and teachers of color and their histories, cultures, and well-being, seem to have taken a very positive step in prominence. And, the need for students to effectively learn how to read, write, speak, and listen remains as important as ever–if not more so. More teachers seem to get that some of the old chestnuts (content and method) don’t really work anymore in our technology-rich, rapid-paced economy and diversifying culture. And, more topics of social importance (fiscal inequity, environmental responsibility, sexual consent, white privilege, sexual identity, activism, and more) seem to be receiving far more attention by the profession. Great!
Now a couple of years over 50, I am also sensing that while I remain somewhat of an educational leader and influencer, there are younger professionals whose innovative, new voices are making great strides for our field. I can help amplify those voices in my work, and I hope to increase my ability to do that as I continue to develop my own voice and ideas.
Finally, some advice for you: Twitter. Teacher twitter has become an amazing space for ideas, challenging questions, and fantastic advice. If you’re not there, get there. Follow me at @Klind2013, and then look at the educators I follow. They are terrific. Far too many to mention here. Once you’re on Twitter, check out #DisruptTexts; the four women who founded this conversation have really started something.
Happy New Year!
By most measures, 2019 is going to be a very, very interesting year–politically, financially, socially, judicially. Good luck and happy days to you all. If we keep our students’ learning at the center of our work, we’ll never step wrong!