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In the summer of 2019, I submitted this manuscript for publication in a new journal set to focus on problem-based learning, STEM, technology integration, and other high educational aims. The new journal was intended for teachers and teacher leaders, and it was to be published digitally in the hopes that submissions would include videos, student work samples, and other features that couldn't be provided in a traditional journal format. I thought my idea hit the mark.
The editors rejected it outright, with no feedback and no invitation to resubmit with suggested revisions. So I decided to start a website to publish it myself.
In 2020, I began writing heavily about pandemic-related issues and online teaching and learning. There were so many more questions than answers during that uncertain time, and I wanted to contribute positively (and factually) to the discussion. I also added all of the math instructional videos I had developed for my flipped classroom to the site in the hopes that they could help those teaching or learning math online during the pandemic. Whereas prior to the pandemic I had been writing about practices I had already learned and refined, the Covid-19 years were my first attempt at "learning in public" - I was sharing my practices and beliefs regarding online learning and its implications as I was forming them. In October of 2020, I published my first piece that went big (big for me, at least) - I Hope School Never Gets Back to Normal. The Georgia Teacher of the Year at the time read it, liked it, and shared it with her substantial social media following. It got over 10,000 views. That was some pretty great motivation to keep going. I loosely decided that I'd keep writing for either five years or until I'd written 100 posts. I'd always heard that in any sort of content creation endeavor, you need some substantial time and quantity of content before you can tell if it has any audience traction. Writing was a great way for me to formalize and organize my thinking and learning, so I committed to doing it until I'd reached one of those benchmarks. In 2023, I began my second big "learning in public" endeavor as I tried to Build A Thinking Classroom in Mathematics and to share every little detail about how it was going and what I was learning along the way. As that framework for teaching mathematics sweeps the globe, I've hoped to provide some tangible advice and experiences to help bring it to life for others trying to Build Thinking Classrooms of their own. Last weekend, I published my 100th post, roughly six years after the first - a pretty big landmark, I think, especially considering that, as I'm sure you've noticed if you're a regular reader, my posts are pretty long.
Thank you - truly - for giving me some of your time and attention, anyways. I have started to modernize a little, at least! I spent the past two years working with the Teach Like A Champion organization as part of their fellowship program. They taught me how powerful video can be for learning the craft, and I've started to include videos to help bring life to some of the practices I explain. That has seemed to really go over well in the Building Thinking Classrooms community, as a lot of folks have voiced that seeing those practices in action would help them have a better understanding than they've been able to build by reading the book alone. I published pieces with videos on task-launching, consolidating, using Teach Like A Champion strategies in Thinking Classrooms, and a full-length, top-to-bottom recording of a typical class day. They aren't snarky, disillusioned reels, but hey, the kids think it's pretty cool that I have a YouTube channel.
Yet here I am, celebrating and reflecting on 100 posts. I don't even remember the name of the journal that spurned me, prompting me to post the first. I owe them some thanks for the format - long form writing with integrated media. It may not be as trendy as a TikTok channel (is it even called a "channel" on TikTok?) or a podcast, but it has been the right format for me for six years. 100 posts. A number that shows I genuinely committed to it Permission to hang it up when I'm ready having given it a real chance. 100 posts. We'll see how much more I have to say. Perhaps my third "learning in public" endeavor is just around the corner. Maybe I'll devise the next big idea that will spend a decade rising and falling - perchance one that I've already published will take off! Or possibly back to the mishmash of practices, stories, ideas, and opinions. That, I don't know. But this, I do - as I look back on the 100, I'm proud of what I've put into the world. No hit pieces. No complaining. 49 posts contributing to the Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics movement, 28 other classroom practices, 17 classroom stories, 24 ideas and opinions about the bigger picture, 15 posts devoted to pandemic-related issues, a series outlining my perspective on teaching science at the highest possible level, and math instructional videos originally offered to get teachers through the pandemic that still get about 1,000 views per month. Fred Rogers is famously quoted as encouraging us to "always look for the people who are trying to help." There is a lot of negativity and complaining competing for our attention these days. Instead, I've been trying to help for six years. I hope that at least once in 100 tries, I have. 
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in Atlanta with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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