Goal 25: Be a Guest Blogger, Moderator, or Expert of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators
“In vain have you acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others.” ~ Deuteronomy Rabbah
This year’s 30 Goals Challenge theme is, “This is MY Moment.” Each goal focuses on getting educators to believe their plans of action now will lead to positive changes and transformation in their teaching and learning environments. Join our our 30 Goals Facebook community to vote on goals and receive support.
My Reflection
This goal is a revisit and extension of Goal 9 in 2010, Be a Guest Blogger. One way to connect and learn with others is to share your passion, an idea, or lesson. Consider sharing your ideas by being a guest blogger, hosting a Twitter or Facebook chat, or being a guest on a podcast. Many of the 30 Goals Participants have websites, blogs, or projects that we gladly welcome guests. Often, you can repost a blog you wrote a long time ago that needs a few updates. When you are a guest on another site, it improves your writing in numerous ways, because naturally many of us hold ourselves to higher standards when we are guests. Also, doing this allows others to get to know about your websites and projects. You do not even have to be a blogger or have a podcast to be a guest expert. Some of the most prominent members of our Personal Learning Network (PLN) started as guest bloggers for Teacher Reboot Camp (@nmhs_principal and @tomwhitby). This goal will help you gain a positive web presence, help distinguish you as a subject matter expert (SME), help you gain exposure to a wider audience, and boost your portfolio.
Tips
Here are some useful tips, I learned from my experience:
- Have a short bio prepared- In your bio you may want to include your job position, related experience, a link to your portfolio or website, and a link to your Twitter or LinkedIn accounts.
- Have a nice profile picture prepared- Most people recommend having a picture of your likeness versus an avatar or logo.
- Grammar check your posts!
- Ask the guest blogger, podcaster, or Twitter moderator for specific guidelines and keep to these guidelines- format, length, and what types of topics are desired
- Engage your audience! Reply to those who comment or ask questions. If you guest blog, at the end of all the comments you should be able to see a button that gives you the option to subscribe to comments so you are notified each time a person comments. If you moderate a chat, respond to some of the audience questions. If you can’t respond to all of them, leave a message letting them know where to place their questions that you can answer at a later date. This will also get the audience to visit your blog or connect with you after the chat.
- Study the audience! Look at other posts, chats, or podcasts and see which have the most comments or audience participation. Study the way in which that guest expert engaged the audience or see how they presented themselves. You can get a lot of ideas and know what the audience expects from previous experts.
Where to be a Guest
Here are a few places that welcome posts from guest bloggers.
- A Lesson Plan a Day- Submit a lesson plan to this Tumblr site.
- Teacher Cast– Join one of the many podcasts or contribute a guest post. Contact Jeff Bradbury.
- Teaching Village– Barbara Sakamoto’s blog on teaching English as a Foreign Language.
- A compiled list of Twitter chats and times! Participate in one that peeks your interest, then ask the moderators of that Chat if they’d like a moderator or host.
- Often you can ask your favorite edubloggers and they will gladly let you post if they know you visit and share their blog.
- Each year, Richard Byrne of the Free Tech for Teacher Site, picks a few edtech posts from guest bloggers. This usually happens around February. His site has over 100,000 readers. Find information here, http://www.freetech4teachers.com/search/label/Guest%20Bloggers
- Visit my guest bloggers, https://hx7.c5f.myftpupload.com/tag/guest-post/
If you are a podcaster or blogger who welcomes guests, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll add you to this list.
Challenge:
Volunteer to be a subject matter expert or guest on a podcast, Twitter Chat, Facebook Chat, or blog.
Please leave a comment that you accomplished this goal by either posting your own video reflection on Youtube, using the hashtag #30GoalsEdu, posting on the 30 Goals Facebook group, or adding a comment below! All goals are organized in this 30 Goals Livebinder.
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*Image above adapted. CC, Flickr
