New Year, New Blog?
As I write this blog, it is New Year's Day on the eve of returning back to school (and thus reality!) after being off for the past 12 days. Many people make New Year's resolutions in their personal life (myself included). I recall in previous year's writing my "New Year's Resolutions" for my work as a school-based SLP. This year I thought I'd write some resolutions for the blog I help write!
I sincerely love writing this blog (long before I dreamed of being an SLP I had dreamed of being a paid writer). I hope that some of you enjoy and/or get something out of my musings on life in the trenches as a school-based SLP every other week. We should always aim for improvement and enhancement of skills in all areas of life, so I think this year, I need to aim to improve some areas of my blog. This year I resolve to...
- Keep my blogs a bit shorter. I did some research. I've read that "good" blogs should be between 300-600 words. I know I tend to go over that (usually more in the 600-800 words range). What can I say? For those of you readers that know me personally, I like to talk. The problem is, I write just like I talk! I don't want to bore any readers or go off topic too much, so keeping within the optimal blog length might help with that.
- Get more "likes" and comments. I try to spread the word about the blogs on ADVANCE to SLPs I know. I'll keep trying to do that to increase the number of readers of the great speech blogs ADVANCE has to offer. I hope that those of you who read my blog via Facebook "like" what I write about sometimes (if you like it). I really enjoy reading and reflecting about all the comments that are posted (positive and negatives ones!). Please don't hesitate to comment if you want to add to what I've written or say something in disagreement to what I've written. Feedback is an essential component of blogs!
- Solicit input from readers. I don't know how many readers are actually out there. I know at some of my friends and co-workers read it regularly, but I'm sure there are at least a handful of others out there too! Every other week when I blog, I write about a topic of my choosing. I write about something going on at work, something on my mind, some gimmicky idea that I feel compelled to write about, or I continue writing on a series of blogs that I've previously created. I'm just one of thousands of school-based SLPs out there who writes about my little snippet of the vast world of school-based services. I'd love to get some reader feedback regarding topics you'd like to read in a blog. Feel free to post suggestions on Facebook or ADVANCE's blog page, as I check both of those regularly!
It's a new year! Will it be a new (and improved) blog? Before I typed this sentence, the current word count was 512. I'm on my way!