Organizing my life. Or at least my blog!

This past week I was taking a look back at my blog and I realized how many different functions it has served for me. Originally, I wanted a space to reflect on my practice. My first post, in late December 2011, set out my goals for blogging:

• I will be a reflective practitioner of my craft.
• I will share what I have learned.
• I will learn from what I share
• I will bring balance to my chaos. (I've given up on this one!)

As I look at my early posts, the focus was definitely on being a reflective practitioner. I was trying to make sense of new information. I was sharing what I learned, and learning from that sharing by reflecting publicly on both the learning process and the outcomes. At times I've posted about projects I've worked on; at other times I've posted about articles I've read.

In the spring of 2012, I started using my blog to respond to assignments in various courses I was enrolled in. And then I made a blog post that was part of my doctoral application. There are now blog posts about online learning, about online leadership, about social media, and even about statistics. Some of those blog posts were spontaneous based on my learning, but some were mandated by courses I took. Even in required blog posts, I am trying to make sure that my voice stays consistent, and that I am continuing to learn not just from the assignment but from sharing the assignment.

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Now I'm thinking that I ought to start categorizing my posts, to make it easier to go back and revisit themes. I started adding some labels to more recent posts, but then I realized I need to really think about what those labels are. What are the themes I might want to look back through and reflect on my personal growth and changes? What are the themes I might want to capture as a record of my academic work? Is there value to adding labels for themes that are no longer relevant to me in my current position?

So, right now I'm considering the following labels:

• BSU (for all course required blog posts)
• Online learning
• Leadership
• Administration (for job-related things)
• K-6 (for school-related things)
• Learning (for general a-ha's and reflections related to my own professional and/or personal growth)

Maybe a year from now I'll have to revisit this again based on new needs and interests, but for now a little organization is better than nothing!