A Milestone

Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would be here writing my 100th blog post. I never considered myself much of a writer. To be quite honest, I actually hated it. As I began my journey into the world of web 2.0 two and a half years ago, I found myself reading blogs for the first time. In my mind, reading was as far as I ever wanted to go and I literally swore that I would never become a blogger.

So what changed? As I began to construct my Personal Learning Network (PLN), I was virtually approached by Ken Royal from The Educator's Royal Treatment. He convinced me that I had some great ideas to share and coerced, I mean encouraged, me to write a guest post for his blog. Little did I know that Ken's confidence in me, and this guest post, would be the catalyst propelling me into the world of edublogging. For the next few months I wrote a variety of quest posts for different blogs until I finally established A Principal's Reflections on March 6. 2010.

Since my blogs inception I have tried extremely hard to submit a new post at least once a week. This has proven to be an arduous task at times as I have continued to question my writing ability. I was fortunate that another mentor from my evolving PLN arose in the form of Bill Ferriter. Bill is an extremely talented and passionate writer who has firmly established himself in the blogosphere. He has had a profound impact on me as a writer by providing honest feedback and positive reinforcement. To me, Bill has served as both a mentor and teacher. Had it not been for Bill, I would not be a published author or possess the ability to craft my messages and reflections in a meaningful way.

I would be remiss at this point if I did not send out a special thank you to my mom, Jean Sheninger. My mom was a beloved first grade teacher and one of the brightest people I know. At times I lack patience after completing a post and rush to publish it. She made it very clear to me early on that I needed to fully proofread my posts (as has Tom Whitby) and volunteered to look each one over prior to going live. It is the best feeling in the world when your mom tells you how proud she is of your writing. If I want to gauge the effectiveness of a post I just ask my mom.

To everyone else that has had a positive impact on my journey as a blogger, I cannot thank you enough. Your comments and feedback on posts have further fueled my desire to consistently find the time to blog. If I can do this, anyone can. Hopefully more educators will develop confidence and take the time to share their ideas, successes, and failures in order to help all of us grow professionally. This, in my opinion, is the greatest and most powerful form of professional development.