Changing Directions a Little

Look at how lame I am, not posting anything for months, just letting my poor little blog wither in the dust.

I couldn't decide what to do about this blog because the point was to 'blog' about the books I read by authors coming to the 2011 Illinois Reading Council Conference last March, and now that it's long over ..... should I keep going?

My original goal was to read all of the books by all of the authors coming to the conference, and of course I didn't reach that goal, but I did pretty well!  I haven't counted up all that I read, but one of these days I'm going to.  Meanwhile, I also considered trying to read all of the books by all of the authors coming to the 2012 conference, but to be honest, I had to get some other reading done, more grown-up stuff like about changing my life, blah, blah, blah.  I just wanted to expand a little bit because I'm writing a book about books, and I needed to diversify for a while to get more material.

This is me, looking confused.  I think that's what that look is ....

So I can quit this blog completely and start a new one, or I can change the purpose of the blog and keep going.  I'm still not sure.  I HAVE read some other books in the last several months that are 'outside the box' in their own way, so I don't know whether to discuss them here or to start a new blog where I can discuss any kind of literature that I want.  Still pondering that one.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to do my research on successful teaching, so I'm going to use this blog post to shamelessly ask readers to take my five minute survey on teaching (for those of you who are elementary teachers) OR to share the link with your friends who are elementary teachers.  I'll be doing more of this later with middle and high school teachers, but for now I'm just looking at what elementary teachers think makes them feel successful about teaching.  Seriously, if it takes more than five minutes, you're thinking way too hard.  And I don't just want people in Illinois to answer this survey, either - I want to know what people from all over the United States think.  Why, you might ask?  Because I teach preservice teachers, and I want to help them feel genuinely successful.  Bill Gates can do all the surveys he wants; that's important data too, of course, but me and my piddly little survey are important, too, as far as I'm concerned.

So here's the link to the survey:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PP668V6.  And here's to figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my blogging life.  Any and all suggestions are welcome!