Reflections on A to Z(ed) challenge

Time to reflect about the April Challenge.

I am so glad Wendy talked me into it and Edwina kept us company.

I had originally planned to use the theme of Depression - but them seemed too, well, depressing.

Then, one morning, I was looking at the quilt of my bed. The one my students had made for me and I noticed the oars looked like the letter X.

I started to go through the alphabet and saw that I had a square (or two, or three) for every letter.

Done.

It was the right time to blog about this quilt, even though it had been gifted to me almost three years ago. I had been thinking about totally retiring from teaching - no more subbing. I had recently experienced some disastrous subbing days. I needed to remember what I loved about teaching and the good lessons I had given and taken part in. This challenge helped heal the hurt of those teaching days in March.

As usual when I am taking part in a challenge I notice my readership goes up - averaging between 150-200 hits a day. I love reading comments from new readers and would go check out their blogs when they took the time to respond to mine.

I also love challenges because they help me find new blogs to read in the morning with my coffee.

I tried to read five new blogs a day and returned to the ones that spoke to me. Here are a few that I enjoyed very much:

Lynnelives - sketching genius

Good Woman - we have soooo much in common

Shells, Tales and Sails brilliant A-Z about inventions by women

Musings with Marianne - how could I not with that name?

Stories I Found in the Closet - great theme on Characters you have never heard of

Breathe Me - again - love the title!

I will definitely participate again next year, and I will use a theme because that made the daily posts easier - plus I could plan ahead which is always a good idea.

I never felt at a loss for words - and having a picture, or three, for each post was helpful.

I have learned that shorter posts are better, because when I go to visit another blog, long, long posts don't hold my interest - so I keep that in mind to take my own advice.

At the end of this challenge I reconnected with two students from my first class - they are travelling in Chile - he is a film-maker, and she is a wonderful writer. They are blogging their travels - please check out their blog. The pictures of the volcanic eruption in Chili that they witnessed close up is worth the trip!

Moments of Wander

I am one proud teacher.