My goal with this blog is to entertain, inform, and perhaps even engage you, the reader, as I embark on this new segment of my journey as a writer, a reader, a teacher, and an observer of life.
My life as a writer: I have always been a writer. I worked on my class newpaper in fourth grade, engaged in round robin writing with a group of friends during my middle school years (we were working on the next great Beatles movie!), worked on my highschool newspaper for three years, won a state level essay contest sponsored by the Pepsi Co. my senior year of high school, and enjoyed writing provocative essays for assignments in college.
As a freelancer, I have worked writing corporate and educational videos; I’ve written magazine and newspaper articles; I’ve contributed a vast amount of content to online enterprises such as Suite101.com and Examiner.com; I’ve co-written a dozen screenplays and a couple of plays; and most recently I co-wrote and published a mystery novel. I have also written a children’s novel that I hope to publish soon.
My life as a reader: I tend to enjoy non-fiction more than fiction lately, but I try to read widely, if not prolificly. I love discussions about books, and enjoy listening to authors talk about their books on NPR and other forums.
My life as a teacher: my experience for years and years and years was on the kindergarten/first grade level. I have been both a private/Catholic and public school teacher. I have a B.S. in education from Michigan State University (Go Sparty!) and a Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Bucky!) in curriculum & instruction. Most recently I moved out of the classroom and into a position where I provide professional development to teachers while still keeping my hand in testing and providing academic intervention to students one on one.
As a life observer, I probably have no more insight or an interesting life than anyone else. But including this gives me the flexibility to expand my “musings” on this blog. Hopefully you will find my musings worth the read and worth checking back in to see what else I may have to offer.
I’m also open to ideas, so feel free to leave comments, especially if there is something specific you would like me to muse upon; or if you would like to muse upon my musings, please do so.
Mark Twain said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” I guess I’m about to remove all doubt. Wish me luck!
Welcome to the blog world 🙂
Congrats on taking the first step! I just started blogging recently as well and I know exactly how you are feeling. Don't worry, it does get easier. Just remember write about what is interesting to you … you'll be surprised at how interesting it is to someone else as well.
You're off to a great start. If you look around at other blogs, you may see things you'll want to try – and maybe even things you won't. I've found that it may be a challenge to keep things fresh every week, but the practice you get out of it makes it worth the effort. Good luck.
Thank you so much for the encouragement! I'm excited about this new venture. We'll see where it takes us.
Loved seeing another new blogger (I just started mine a few months ago). It still feels a little strange to me. I'm never really sure there's someone out there to read it! Chgeck out mine at [email protected]
Thanks for the welcome, Eileen. I'll definitely check out your blog!