Schools across the globe are going through a growth spurt of sorts, which is both painful and unavoidable. I’m talking, of course, about technology integration. Maybe your class is using a COW (Computer on Wheels) cart once a week or maybe every student in your school is suddenly holding an iPad and administrators are throwing around the dreaded phrase “going paperless.” Whatever the level of technology integration, we all seem to be in some state of transition toward new technology at any given time.https://bit.ly/35OmV7Q

The painful truth, though, is that no matter how many professional development sessions we receive or how many tools we are given, many adults struggle to adapt to new technology. We approach the new school year fully aware that our students will hack the media and turn it to their own deviant uses before we as teachers even learn to turn the device on. The solution to this problem is simple. It’s time to take a page from our students’ playbook. We need to jump quickly over the hurdles of trepidation, fear, and distrust, in order to come out ahead in the technology race.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.