Update

Well, I seem to have little time for blogging these day, much to my chagrin. Actually, over Christmas, I plan to change up my blog quite a bit, so that it can serve more purposes. Rachel talked earlier this week about her voice as a blogger and how, at times, she's been dissatisfied with it, resisting some topics and glossing over others for fear of what readers might think. This is something that I deal with too, especially with this blog. I really don't want to chronicle my life. Rather, I enjoy reading blogposts that are topical and well written from bloggers that understand the value of brevity. So, I've been resistant to blogging about my day-to-day. The flip side of that is when I get busy, it's tends to be at the expense of this blog since creating a post take more time and thought than scratching down a few details of my day.

I've come to think this might be a problem--how I'm conceiving the proper blogpost. Although I do enjoy the witty, topical posts, those subject matters are not what I think about all the time. What do I think about? Well, for one, this semester I have about 70 students in three classes. I teach everyday, and when I'm not teaching, I think about what I'm going to teach the next day. Then, I have to worry about the classes I'm taking, which I just trying to get through. And finally, as I finish up my course work this year, I have to plan and prepare for my comprehensive exams, which is a long and thoughtful process.

What I'd like to do--what I think might make my blog more conducive to what I actually do every day--is have a template that allows me to have side blogs. Usually, I want to talk about my teaching, my students, my pedagogy--things that would normally be included in a teaching journal, but up until not, for some reason, I've not thought those topics appropriate for a general blog. For one, I'm not sure anyone would be remotely interested in reading about that. I'd also like to chronicle my preparation for my exams next year--have a space to write through my thoughts and ideas as I'm doing a lot of outside reading. That means talking about a lot of academic and scholarly material.

So, really, I think this blog has become somewhat of a facade. I feel guilty when I don't post, and I want to post, but I usually eschew what's really important to me because of self-imposed constraints. So, that's why there's been such a penury of posts lately. I've gotten a little bit of hell for it. But, I'm determined to find a comfortable niche because I enjoy blogging, and think it's worthwhile.