What a great experience being a CEC blogger has been. I remember last year when I wandered on to the Council for Exceptional Children Web site to catch up on special education news, as I had just been hired as a job coach in the field. And I saw the call out for bloggers on Reality 101.
I had to fight back many excuses in my head about why I shouldn’t apply. Excuses like, “I love to write but my style is very conversational; maybe they want someone more academic sounding? I am just getting back into teaching and they are probably looking for someone young and fresh out of college. What if in my writing it is so obvious that I do not know what I am doing?”
I am happy to say I beat back those negative voices and applied to be a blogger. It was an honor to be selected. It was fun to see my writing for the first time on a national Web site! I enjoyed the many comments that would come in about a column I wrote. I felt connected to a much bigger community. I received good advice and encouragement from readers and was surprised when a reader would say they had received the same from my writing.
By far the best reward was being invited to be a guest of CEC at their annual convention in Nashville. I got to meet my fellow bloggers and many readers of our blog. I attended sectionals and met many other teachers. My special education world expanded, big time!
If I have one last message I would like to leave with you, it is this: Just go for it! I don’t know what your “it” is, but we all have one. Dare to put yourself out there; you never know where it might lead you.
I am so glad I applied to be a Reality 101 blogger. Many thanks to CEC for giving me this opportunity and many thanks to you who have read us! If you would like to continue to read my attempts at writing, I invite you to read my personal blog. Maybe I will see you there!