Year in Review: Blogging on Squarespace 2020
Year in Review
This has been a big year for me with regards to writing/blogging. I thought it might be fun to hit the “Pause” button (sort of) and write a little bit about what it was like to write a blog post every week in 2020. I have decided to break this post into 5 sections; each an opportunity to think back on this very unique year.
Big Move to Squarespace
The year started with me deciding to move my blog writing from Word Press to Squarespace. I had heard a lot about Squarespace from podcasts that I listen to and thought…if I’m really going to be serious about “this blog writing thing” then I need to be on a site that is taken seriously by people who both produce and consume content within that, for lack of a better term; “space.” I exported all of my Word Press posts that I wanted to “take with me” to Squarespace and spent about a week tinkering around with the site, making it look just the way I wanted it. January 2nd was the first day my new blog “went live.” My goals were simple and at the same time potentially ambitious, write each day and create one blog post per week. My thinking was…if I write daily, I can take the daily writing and form it into a weekly post. Or…if I write daily, I can take something from that work and generate a weekly post.
Posting Every Week
Up until last year my blog posting was not very consistent. There were stretches of time where I was posting every week but then there were large gaps in my posting. Actually paying Squarespace for their services motivated me to want to post every week. I wanted to know that I was getting my money’s worth. I started a note in the Drafts app where I generated a list of ideas for blog posts. I still have that list and add to it regularly. Some items of the list are recurring so they stay on the list like my “Things I’m Enjoying” posts, which I have decided are seasonal. Another one that stays on the list is my 90 day review of what I’m doing in the Theme System Journal. I got into a really good “groove” early in the year with generating content. There have been times when I’ve worked on multiple posts that would “go live” over the course of several weeks. It’s been a lot of fun figuring out what to post, when to post, and how to go about working on the posts so I have something ready each Friday at 10 am, my arbitrary day and time to post to the blog. My interests have been varied throughout the year but…as I look back at what I’ve created, there seems to be 2 big subjects I’ve written the most about and that’s what I’d like to talk about next.
Posts related to Teaching during COVID-19
I generally like writing about my experiences being a school teacher. However, when we went home this past March due to COVID-19, I had a feeling that something very special was happening; a once in a lifetime moment. I wanted to use my blog as a way to narrativize what was happening, “on the ground” as teachers like me attempted to; March through June, for the 2019-2020 class I was working with and the 2020-2021 class I am working with now. I am very proud of the posts I’ve created during the pandemic. They are raw, honest, and meant to show people what it has been like having to teach remotely. Overall, I’ve had a very good experience teaching remotely. Yes…there have been challenges. Many of them and I document them in the posts I’m referring to. There will continue to be challenges…this isn’t easy stuff we’re doing here. However, the one thing I’ve been most impress with is the resilience of my students both last year’s group and the group I’ve been working with this year, since August. They have worked so very hard to do what has been asked of them and it has been my honor to guide them through this experience while documenting it here.
Posts related to Technology
One thing that I really enjoyed writing about this past year was all of the technology I tried out while getting my remote, teaching from home set up just the way I want it. It’s still a work in progress but being able to write about the things I was trying to use with my students, whether it was the 2 different pen tablets I experimented with or the headset I use when I Zoom with my students, really helped me wrap my head around the technology and what it was I “hired it” for. My technology posts seemed to be much more popular with my readers too. I hope my posts gave the readers a way of “seeing the technology being used in the wild.”
Another technology I used throughout the year, and wrote about is the Theme System Journal. I have several posts about it…just go back in my archives to see. This “thought technology” has really helped me think about the things that are the most important to me while at the same time, provided a space other than this blog, to write about these things. And, because I shared it with one of the creators; Mr. Myke Hurley, one of my posts about the TSJ got a massive amount of views because he re-tweeted a Tweet I’d sent him the day I that post went “live.” I intend to write more about the TSJ as it is one of the topics I have dubbed recurring.
Looking Ahead to 2021
I’m very optimistic about blogging in the coming year. I’ve already started thinking about things I want to write about to start the year. I want to thank each and every person who reads my blog! It humbles me that I even have an audience let alone a dedicated group of people that come back to “it” on a regular basis.
