On a year of growth
How writing has developed my practice in 2022
I started blogging extremely quietly in 2020 over on WordPress. I was very hesitant to show anyone what I was writing. When I spoke on a researchED curriculum panel that year, I even denied having a blog at all. I had been taught implicitly that a publicly curious mindset was a sign of weakness, and I had a huge fear of being wrong and feeling exposed.
Six months later, without the pressure of daily school life, I decided to make a New Year’s resolution that I would blog every day. I felt safe in the knowledge that probably no one would read it. I wouldn’t say that I was wildly wrong, but I was wrong enough. The readership has grown, but more importantly, my writing has had real-life impacts, outside the void of the internet. Today’s post is about sharing what writing regularly has done for my teaching practice, but also sharing the opportunities it has given me.
I have had to develop a point of view. I can more clearly articulate my pedagogical choices and I’ve had to decide what issues to let go. My mission is to reach as many non-committal readers as I can and turn them onto evidence-based practice; to encourage a sceptical or scientific mindset in education; and to celebrate and affirm what works. If it falls outside this mission, I won’t publish it.
I have had to engage with research, media and policy. Whenever I have been unsure of whether my position had legs, I have tried to show some journalistic integrity by supporting what I am saying. I’ve syndicated and written commissioned pieces where this integrity has been even more important. The multilayered research has also given me a birds-eye view of my profession that I would possibly not have otherwise developed.
I have met some amazing practitioners, researchers, journalists and philanthropists in person, who have given me such incredible insights into their experiences of teaching, schooling and education. I get to meet readers far more often than I ever expected. Several have reached out for advice or reading suggestions. Knowing there’s an audience of warm-blooded readers out there keeps me going during those weeks when I feel like more of an administrator than a teacher.
Some of these individuals have opened doors for me to present at events, alongside experts that I have admired for a long time. I’ve worked hard over the last two years and it’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day. Presenting forces me to slow down, consolidate and acknowledge the progress I have made in my department and school, and share that with others.
I have been spurred on to upskill. Writing about what’s available to teachers means I feel the imperative to engage in that professional development myself. It’s about being credible, even if only in my own eyes.
All that said, here are the top three posts that punched above their weight this year. Relative to my email readership at each point in time, these are the pieces that were most shared and read.
3. On the teaching of writing
This piece was written in the early days of the newsletter. It’s on a literature review by Emina McLean that I have come back to and shared again and again. Got a question about the research on writing? The answer is almost certainly here.
2. On responsibility for teaching writing
Who knew? Another writing post was popular. I co-wrote this with Jeanette Breen, documenting her success with Comparative Judgement. On that topic, Daisy Christodoulou is speaking at researchED Ballarat next year. It should be brilliant!
1. On luxury beliefs in education
I call this the ‘zeitgeist post’ of 2023. Rob Henderson coined this term about the way the cultural elite want one thing for the disadvantaged (Marriage is so traditional! Single parenting never hurt anyone!) but do something else for themselves. It transposed so perfectly to education and I think a few people agreed.
I have written 95 posts this year. If you’re curious about what kind of commitment is needed to publish, it takes about an hour to write a post but several weeks to passively accumulate enough information for dots to be connected and a point of view to emerge. I have a Boyfriend of Substack1 who subedits and sometimes censors. I collect links and thoughts via Notes on my iPhone and when they magically coalesce in my head, I write. I’m not sure if I will reach 95 posts in 2023, but it is such a great way to document my own learning and connect with my professional community.
If you’ve been thinking about publishing, perhaps 2023 is the year for you. Go on. Click the link below.
A bit like a Boyfriend of Instagram but for commas and jargon.
I am new to Substack - both as a reader and, soon, as a writer, launching my Learning by Nature Substack next week (did I just say that out loud?!). It’s about nature-based learning - it’s practice, research-backed benefits, and why everyone should be committed to tackling “nature deficit disorder” in public schools (focused on the US at the moment. I have set a modest goal to publish one time per month. We’ll see where it goes. Congratulations on your journey - very inspiring and I look forward to following.
Love the Bower bird metaphor. Thanks! Also- brisk walks outdoors are a scientifically backed reset strategy. Way to go! Do you do those with your current students?