Stretching and commenting

Stretching.

As a teacher, a trainer and a trainer of trainer I like to use the metaphor of stretching to illustrate part of the learning process. The concept of stretching relates well to learning. The first part of stretching is the act of just doing it. I know very few people who stretch enough or even at all. So just start, the same with learning something new or learning how to do something differently, put yourself out there and give it a go. Start from where you are and work gradually but diligently --- more often you stretch the more you improve your flexibility over time.

It's really Vygotsky's constructivist theory of zone of proximal development, but if you approach people with that language they just tune you out, so I use stretching.

So, why am I writing about this? What does this have to do with anything? You might be wondering. I touched on this topic in Why Blog? Part Deux. and part of my journey and healing process in writing this blog is to continue learning. I see learning in everything, it's just a part of who I am. I must have gotten MA in Education for some reason. For me this an opportunity to practice technology integration, creative writing, blogging, and reflection while focusing on bereveament and searching for "zen" for lack of a better word.

So, I've decided to stretch and engage in a even more experiential learning by joining a 31 day comment challenge. It's the brain child an edublogger, Sue Waters and I found out about it through Michele Martin at The Bamboo Project a blog I read everyday and one that played a heavy role in the research phase of getting this blog off the ground.

My personal goal is to comment on at least three blog every day. Hopefully this will get me past the "what would my comments add to the dialogue" insecurity that's plagued me both in face to face and virtual interactions. I mean, you have to at least try, right?!