So you’ve been thinking about starting a blog? Bravo! Now let’s do it! Blogging can help you reflect on your teaching practice, share your passions with others whether it’s crafting, cooking, quilting, or literature, provide an avenue for marketing a product line, help you to work out challenges you may be facing, and even provide you a way to celebrate and share life events with your extended family and friends. No matter your blogging purpose, I am dedicated to creating exactly what you have in mind and work with you until you say the design is complete.
My Blogging Journey
My blogging journey started in 2012. I was the only reading specialist in my building, and I was tasked with teaching six grade levels, managing Title 1 records for the school, supervising two teaching assistants and planning for them, providing professional development AND coaching the teachers in my building. The idea hit me that I could use my blog as a way to share ideas with the teachers in my building since it was tough to find times to meet with them. If I was sharing the same information with several teachers, I just as well write up a blog post modeling the idea or technique. So that’s how I got started. Little did I know that I’d be influencing teachers far beyond my little school and district which is very exciting.
Shortly after I started blogging, Facebook started offering groups. Since I was the lone reading specialist, I decided to reach out to other literacy bloggers primarily to exchange literacy ideas and to get support with specific reading cases, but little did I know, the literacy bloggers who joined me in The Reading Crew have become a wonderful group of friends virtually and in real life! LOL! (In fact, we even meet up to work on our blogs and teaching resources.) Through these friendships, my blogging skills improved along with my design and tech skills. As friends have needed help fixing this or that on their blogs, I’ve jumped in to help them and in the process, learned how to troubleshoot blog issues. Because of these experiences, I’ve decided to take a leap into the blog design world and help others either start their blogging journey OR freshen up existing blogs (because we all love an occasional “new look”)
Examples of My Work
Check out My Literacy Spot by Marie Lee. Marie needed a fresh look using her favorite team colors, lavendar and pale yellow. We used the Jemma Template for her blog and converted her site to her very own domain. She lucked out and found it had not be used on social media, so now she’s 100% branded. She received templates that she can use presized and branded for her blog and now has an email list set up to grow in Mailchimp. Take a look at the desktop and mobile views on the below.
For a look at the other sites I’ve designed, you can look at my portfolio tab. I’ve tried to include as much detail as possible so you can see the differences between templates. I know when I first started, I found the differences hard to notice. And with one template I used, I was quite frustrated with not being able to put something where I wanted it. Moral of the story-template choice matters! It’s probably the most important decision in the process.
In the coming months, I’ll add links and photos of the new blogs I put together. I’d love to feature yours! If you’re interested in getting a blog started, the next step is to pull together a collection of color schemes, fonts, clip art, layouts, and blogs you love. The best designs start with great planning, and your design is an investment you want to get right from the start.
Your next step is to click the Exploring Your Design Options tab.
