This whole holiday has been amazing. I’ve had time to read more new blogs and I’m having so much fun doing so. I’ve learned so much and just really begun making amazing connections.  Blogging is truly an adventure.

I used to teach with an inspirational teacher, Karen Stewart.  Karen taught all of the senior Humanities courses at the University Transition Program where I was the coordinator.  She not only had my upmost respect, but she single handedly was responsible for truly turning more than one of the amazing highly academically gifted students in this special (Canada’s only) radical acceleration program who came in set on a life time of Math and Science, into English, Literature or History majors at university. But what I loved was having the opportunity to be outside with Karen.  Now understand, I’m a hiker.  I cycle, I power-walk, I swim and I even go to the gym.  Karen doesn’t do these things in the same way. Being outside with Karen was always magical because I honestly believe that she sees the world through very different lenses than I do. On one trip to Bamfield there I was letting my more competitive staff take off on the West Coast Trail with the keeners, while Karen and I were left behind with the not-so-keeners, often the kids who hadn’t slept in tents before and so really didn’t want to hike at all, preferring hours and hours of being in their tents to being on any bit of the trail with us.  We walked with Karen, up the steep start to the trail, and with her we saw the vines with different eyes. We laid down on the path and discovered frog eggs. We learned stories about cedar trees. I memorized a Shakespeare sonnet that I still remember to this day. Well, almost.

So what do blogging and Karen have in common? Wandering and talking with Karen was always a new adventure for me. She made me think about things differently. She questioned, ever so gently, what I thought I knew? She listened to and watched for everything around her?  She encouraged me to open my eyes. I think she even helped me see the students in new ways.  Reading blogs is like that too. Every one that I read, well almost each of the blogs, brings up a new little twist on something. I get asked to think about new things or old things in different ways.

Most recently, I stumbled upon Paul Bogush’s New Year’s blog, Blogush.  He put out the following New Year’s challenge:

If you are an old time blogger please update your blogroll with all of those new blogs you found after your initial plunge into the 2.0 world.  Nothing against the big guys, I was just looking for something fresh and new, and wanted to find people who were more like…well, me.

And he’s right.  So, I’ve decided to take him up on it. I’m going to start mapping a little more of where I go and where I’ve been. I’m not an old time blogger, but I am going to regularly update my blogroll with what is new that I’ve come across. I’ll keep track of what I read that makes me want to remember that person and go back. Watch for updates. I’d encourage you to do the same.