Renewed blogging!

Inspired to come back to my blog after reading about the numbers of teens who have book blogs, but feel they need to keep them secret from friends & even family.  The fear of being seen as a nerd in school is huge - I see it every day in the secondary school I work in as the librarian.  I can't tell you how sad I'm feeling about this.
I run reading groups in years 7, 8 & 9 ( sometimes we have yr10 students joining the yr9 group, although this varies from year to year) as well as an annual Carnegie shadowing group.  I'm very aware that the students who are part of these wonderful groups are making a very particular statement about themselves.  I've long suspected that the fear of being labelled a nerd probably stops quite a few students from joining who might really like to.
But this can work the other way around as well.
I have a group of 3 yr8 lads who come in every day during breaks, usually to play chess.  These are lads to regularly get themselves into trouble in other areas of the school.  There's no denying that they can be a pain from time to time - but they are never usually worried to let anyone know that this is where they spend their free time.  Yesterday, however, another student took a photo of them in the library on his phone.  The 3 were mortified & I wasn't happy either.  I pulled the student (not literally!) out of PM registration & after a stern talking-to, made him delete the photo in from of 3 witnesses.  Quite whether he would ever have done anything with it we'll never know - but it was sad to see the 3 lads so annoyed.

Thing 3 - personal branding

I've always avoided putting my own name into Google, so my heart sank when I saw the task!  I gritted my teeth & gave it a go, and as I have a fairly common name did come up with quite a few other namesake librarians!  I did have a couple of results on the first page that are me however, but nothing I'd particularly be concerned about from a professional point of view, as I think I have a pretty low online profile.

This has, however, prompted me to think about personal branding, and I recall a conversation I once had about it being just about impossible now to avoid having some kind of online profile - whether we like it or not!  Given this, I suppose the next step could be to decide to take an active role in what your profile looks like, rather than leaving it to chance. 

I am always very careful about posting anywhere - I use Facebook sparingly & only if I'm certain my kids won't be embarrassed/object to anything I put on there - which I find quite a useful way to think about personal posts!  Professionally I use Twitter, but again I'm really conscious of what I put, as I am likely to be seen as representing a particular organisation.  Working in a school, we see weekly the damage that spontaneous/thoughtless/malicious posting on social network sites can do, so perhaps this makes me ultra-aware of what I'm doing!  I also have a feeling that others, however well they know me, really aren't that interested in the minutiae of my day to day life.

I've asked a colleage to have a look at my blog & give me some keywords as to what it says about my personal branding - will post his suggestions later!

Thing2 - still feel a bit out of my depth!

I've just managed to work my way around lots of other sites, although did base my initial searches on the school librarian's list on Delicious.  Mine definitely needs jazzing up - looks very boring by comparison!  It does take guts to post comments on other's blogs, although I have a couple on mine which I was really chuffed to see!  I did find one blog that could have been written by me!  Still feel a bit out of my depth, but hoping that things will become clearer the further I get.  I've noted quite a few who comment that they had started the process some time ago & have dcided to pick it up again, so finding the time to keep going does concern me.

CPD23 - the beginning!

I'm currently working as a school librarian in a secondary school in N Somerset - and I love it!  I've decided to have a go at CPD23 as, with budgets getting ever tighter, opportunities for CPD are getting harder to come by.  I've long been wanting to find time to get into creating a blog, so as this was the first topic to tackle I was immediately tempted.  The other aspect that appeals is being able to do this at times that are convenient to me, either in the working day during quiet times (!) or at home.  I know I'm a little late starting, so will try to catch up.
I can see so many ways I could use a blog - but our current Head is pretty resistant to tech like this.  I've seen other local colleague's create fantastic blogs for their LRC - and I want one!  I also think this will be a really useful skill for me to learn.
Hard to believe that I have anything to say that anyone else will be in the least bit interested in, but I'll happily give it a go!