Whether you’re new to teaching or have years of experience, every teacher should be blogging. In all likelihood, if you’re looking at this blog, you’ve probably considered starting your own blog or you may have already set one up and just let it sit there, turning to digital dust.
If you’re on the the fence I’d like to encourage you to make a serious attempt at your blogging. There is no perfect time to start, so failing an attempt to find “the perfect opportunity,” may I suggest today?
Today we’re going to look at 10 reasons every teacher should blog.
If you don’t need convincing, you might want to look at this post: How to Make a Blog for Teachers
For everyone else, or if you’ve been trying to convince your fellow teachers, let’s get to it!
10) Reflect on Your Work
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9) A Library of Lesson Plans
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8) Giving Back to Teachers
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7) Do As I Do – Not As I Say
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6) Make New Friends
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5) Communicate with Parents
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4) Communicate with Students
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3) Learn
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2) Secure Your Position
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1) Have Fun!
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Sometimes as teachers we get too busy to consider the work we’ve done. We know it’s a best practice, but lesson plans, grading, counseling, and everything else is pulling for our attention. When you set up a blog it creates a more impetus to keep you writing. Use that writing to look back over your ups and downs and figure out ways to improve for the future.
All of us have made great lessons and stuck them in a folder never to be found again. With a blog, all of your posts are indexed and searchable. If you get clever with your tags, you can find all of your work on every subject. Add your worksheets or relevant links to the post and you’ve just saved yourself hours of repeated work.
Every teacher has scoured the internet for ideas, and no doubt you’ve gotten some great nuggets from completely random teachers around the web. Sharing out your ideas helps to pay it forward. You may never know it, but you might be saving another desperate teacher’s butt!
Students are being encouraged and pushed to create their own blogs for all sorts of classes and projects. Teachers can sit and assign these projects all day, but it speaks volumes when the teacher is out there putting their own work on the line for the world to see as well. Leading by example is so much more effective!
Teachers have a lot to say – there’s no shortage of education blogs to prove it! Start developing a network of other like-minded teacher bloggers and bask in the glowing light of those who get you! There are lots of ways to 
If you’re teaching in K-12, more and more parents are expecting you to communicate openly with them. Many teachers seem to bemoan the extra work they have to do to reach out to parents, but teacher bloggers don’t have to do any extra work – the information is already up there for parents to check any time!
Blogging doesn’t only have to be meant for other teachers. In fact, lots of teachers set up their blogs to communicate directly with their students. Use your blog to summarize your daily lessons, share relevant links, and of course to send out homework. If checking the blog is part of their assignment, you don’t have to worry about whether you forgot to mention something in class.
Most teachers have a burning passion for learning (and if you don’t, may I recommend moving along? There are plenty of teachers who want your job). Having a blog is like self-assigned homework – you’ll tell those around you that you have work to do, but really you get to spend time doing what you really love – learning.
Being active and public about your teaching has a lot of benefits. Not the least of which is that any administrator can look you up and see that you’re qualified, enthusiastic, and engaged with learning. As a former administrator myself, I can guarantee you that an active website is a FAR superior resume than any PDF you e-mail in an cross your fingers for.
Above all else, a blog is your opportunity to really enjoy yourself and do something for YOU. All the other benefits that come with it are just icing on the cake. Approach your blogging as an adventure and you’ll keep looking for new areas to explore. Just like your students who get hooked on reading, you’ll never want to stop, so make sure you have fun!Your Ideas?
Undoubtedly there are far more than 10 ideas for why teachers should blog. I’d love to create a bigger collection here to use in all of our attempts to get our colleagues blogging. Share your thoughts below to keep the ideas flowing for everybody!
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