#littlefishteacherblogger

Hello!  My name is Christina and I am a little fish in the GIANT ocean of teacher bloggers out there! Thank you to Katie for the inspiration for this graphic.  You will find out exactly who she is if you read on.  Do you feel like a little fish?   Do you write a post knowing that only a few people are even reading it.  If you feel that way then you are not alone.  We all have to start somewhere, so read on.

Thanks to the wonderful new social media app Periscope you can now see and hear amazing messages from top teacher bloggers.  I have recently been very inspired by a number of scopes on Periscope.  If you have not yet heard about Periscope then you must head over to this {POST} to learn all about it the app and how to get started.

This past weekend I was watching a scope by Angie Olson of Lucky Little Learners and Katie Palmer of Pop Into Primary.  They were talking about blogging and offering encouragement to those in the room who were starting their blogging journey or were newer to blogging.  Angie has been blogging for quite some time and has an amazing blog {HERE}.  Katie is a newer blogger.  You can find her blog {HERE}.  After listening to them I realized that we little fish need to rally together and support each other in any way that we can.  This is how the hashtag #littlefishteacherblogger was born.

The idea of a Little Fish Teacher Blogger Network is still developing.  My plan, first and foremost, is to INCREASE OUR READERSHIP.  How will we do this?  Stay tuned for suggestions but for right now this is what I propose:

Here is your first challenge:

1.  Find 5 bloggers below that catch your eye - Why did you choose them?  Do they teach the same grade as you?  Do you like the looks of their button?  Do you "know" them from other social media? (These questions are just for the purpose of reflecting - we can share this info at a later date).

2. Go to each of their blogs and look for a post that sounds interesting.  Read it over and then leave a meaningful comment about the blog post in their comments section.  Sign it and make sure you hyperlink to your own blog.  Here is how:  <a href="YOUR BLOG URL HERE/">YOUR BLOG NAME HERE</a>. This way they can click on you signature and go to your blog too. Another tip, make sure you are not a NO REPLY blogger.  You can read a blog post {HERE} to see if you need to change your settings.  

3. Do this for each of the bloggers you have selected.

It is my hope that each and everyone of the teachers that have linked up will get some meaningful interaction with a reader by doing this.

FOLLOWING each others blogs.

I have struggled with this one.  It would be super easy to ask you all to follow all of the blogs that are listed below in the link up.  I considered suggesting that as the first challenge but then reconsidered. Here is why:  I have a criteria for following a blog.  I  love reading blogs that have content aimed at my grade level or division.  I teach grade 1 and read blogs by other grade 1 teachers but also blogs by other early primary teachers as well.  If a blog fits that criteria I will more than likely follow it.  So, even though you may have an awesome blog if you teach 6th grade I will probably not follow you as I won't find a lot of content that will be useful to me as a teacher.  It is totally your choice if you wish to go through and follow each and every person who linked up.

Here is what I AM suggesting.  Go through the blog links below and take the time to click through to the blogs that look like they might meet the criteria that you have for wanting to follow.  If you choose to follow someone then please leave a comment on their most recent blog post and let them know you like their blog and that you are now following.  Don't forget your signature and your link back to your blog (see above in #2)

My final challenge  is to share this far and wide.  The best way to get our names out there is to share on as many social networking platforms as possible.  Share this blog post on our FB/IG and twitter account so that other teachers can join and expand the network.  Share the #littlefishteacherblogger or #littlefishteachersbloggers as well and link back to the post so people can find us.

What do you think?  Are you up to the challenge?

An InLinkz Link-up