I just wanted to say a big thankyou to you the readers of this blog for helping me reach an important milestone. Over 10,000 unique visitors to this blog since I added my stat counter about a year ago. I know that may seem a pittance compared to stats for other spaces you have churning away in your RSS reader, but for me it is a real achievement.
This blog has been the single most important professional development choice I have taken. My appreciation for this space has changed since I began writing in the late summer of 2006 (wow that was only last year!) I now consider it to be an integral part of my career and a central point for who I am as a reflective teacher.
It is a personal resource, a classroom history, a technical and pedagogical guide, a sounding board, a conversation, a growing network, a billboard signpost for who I am as a teacher and it still remains a wonderful, reflective space for me to explore my ideas and experiences of ICT in my classroom.
I now begin to understand the power of the personal learning network that has emerged from fellow professionals I have encountered, as a result of this space. I am still keen for this network to grow and hope you can continue supporting my reflections, through your comments and conversations.
One thing that still amazes me is that out of those 10,000 different people I have not met a single one. Skype video does not count. If you can’t see their legs you have not met them! So my challenge in the next year is to meet more of you face to face.
Big thanks to Noel Jenkins and John Johnston for starting me out on this road, those were the first blogs I ever read.
Powerful post Tom and a good reminder of why we blog, not for the 10,000 hits but for our own learning. I can hardly believe we’ve never met. I do have legs, honest, flickr photo to prove it coming up !
Congratulations Tom. I’m looking forward to working with you on Edtechroundup, and you can now count me as a subscriber to your blog.
Next time we speak I will be wearing the headset, and as a (nearly) former PE teacher, I will speak to you standing on my head. Then, once you have seen my legs we can consider ourselves fully aquainted.
Congrats.
Well done Tom – your ideas and enthusiasm continue to be an inspiration to us all.