Well. I had to decide whether or not to continue posting on the fycomp blog. It occurred to me that it could be difficult to keep a truthful blog that reflects on my teaching while working professionally as opposed to being a TA.
There is always the risk that l may make mistakes or do things that might incriminate me (not in a legal sense, but in a “getting rehired” sense) not because I am a poor teacher, but because I am still inexperienced and there is always the possibility that an employer will read the blog. In fact I put it in my resume, so it’s more than just a chance.
I thought about it. Then I decided that the value of keeping up a reflective blog about my teaching is higher than the risk of getting fired.
I feel that this first semester as a “pro” is going to be extremely formative, so having a method of self-reflection is going to maximize the degree to which I improve. Also, for reasons that I am not quite sure of yet, the blog just works extremely well for this purpose.
I think the reason is probably this: the audience for a blog is nameless and faceless enough for me to be fairly open with my thoughts. Yet, there is still the FACT of an audience (however theoretical it may be)
There is the potential that somebody will read what I am writing here. This forces me to organize my thoughts in a slightly different way than if I were writing in a journal, for my own eyes only. Also, the fact of an audience creates an impetus to write at times when I might become bored of writing in a journal.
So anyone who reads this thing, can look forward to more posts in the near future as the semester starts in about a week and a half.
MF
