Blame Roy Giroux for My Blog

Dr. Roy Giroux was a professor in my Master's program who has had quite an impact on many students and education professionals in Canada (including me). He served as a Vice-President at Humber College for many years and was instrument in bringing Central Michigan University's Master of Arts in Education program to Ontario. 

Roy taught two of the courses in my Master's program and as we were nearing the end of the program, he challenged my classmates and I to find a way to continue using our new knowledge and to share it with others. He suggested we could present, publish our research or continue with our studies. Blogging was not one of the choices he suggested, but it seemed to me to be a way of extending my learning beyond my masters program while still satisfying Roy's challenge.

It was about a 18 months ago that I started blogging and I recall searching for blogs to see if I could find some examples or models to follow. I did not have much luck. It was not difficult to find blogs about education, but they tended to be elementary or high school teachers or college faculty. It was difficult to find blogs about student affairs in Canada or the US.

I was not sure what to expect when I started sharing my blogs publicly. Part of me wondered if anyone would notice. Making a contribution by writing was not familiar territory for me. Fortunately, given some time, a few people did notice. I recall being surprised to find the first comment on one of my blog posts - it took me a few weeks before I even noticed. Other surprises followed, such as someone signing up to follow my blog, and Joey Coleman, a post-secondary education reporter, sharing a link to one of my posts in his blog. 

Blogging has become a new way for me to explore my thoughts about my work and education in general. It has also allowed me to engage with colleagues in a different way. It has been great to discover new blogs about student affairs, especially from Canada. If you have not read the blog Deanne Fisher started called CACUSS Reads or Ross McMillan's blog at studentaffairs.ca then I would encourage you to do so. Perhaps you will even be inspired to start your own blog. Just remember to blame Roy.