January 10 kicked off the 2016 MTBoS Blogging Initiative, an event which encourages new and veteran bloggers alike to write once a week - just for 4 weeks - on a specific topic.  This year, Initiative Masters Sam Shah, Tina Cardone and Julie Reulbach have not only set up the four challenges, but they have paired mentor bloggers with mentees in an effort spread the joy of the MTBoS.  The first week's challenge was to blog about One Good Thing that happened in school during the week OR to fully chronicle an entire day in a teacher's life.  

I loved hearing about details of the days of people who I've been conversing with on line for several years - you know, walking a mile in someone else's shoes?  Maybe reading a blog is not the same as living someone else's life, but it is a glimpse into the reality of someone who may be only (at this point) a virtual presence in your world.  And you may meet someone completely new.  For example, in scrolling through the comments for Week 1's assignment (everyone who participates shares a link to their blog post for the week), I discovered the blog of Joanne L. Robert, a middle school teacher in North Carolina, whose blog is a treasure trove of math, science and inspirational links, including this very cool video. 

What struck me most about the Day in the Life posts I looked at (including my own at a whopping 1700 words) was HOW MUCH WE ALL DO every day.  Some posts just gave me good ideas from old and new acquaintances.  Amy Zimmer, over at Mrs. Z Teaches in Mathland, talked about a trig sum and difference formula activity which I must definitely borrow, especially because it involves neon paper!    This week'sassignment is to write about a favorite activity, lesson, or tool that we use, so the posts are bound to be filled to with great ideas, like Julie's glowing post on deltamath.  Check out the comments to the assignment post as the week goes on for links.