2 years, 754 posts, positives, frustrations, tips, + why I do it

It all started when I shared with a colleague a video I created for teachers in our district to use (I think it was dealing with how to use Quizlet).

He asked me, "So... that's great but how will teachers find this?"I said that I sent out an email and he looked at me and said, "They may never see this because unless this is something earth shattering, it will go to the bottom of their email and may never be opened. How can you solve this problem?" So... 2 years later here we are!

What that colleague did for me, I can not thank him enough. He gave me the push I needed to get started; however, it was up to me to keep the train going. So that's what I did. I thought if I do 7 posts over the next week of sites and apps that I use currently it could help someone. Once I did that week, I thought that maybe I could do 1 every day for a month. That's when it really hit me.

If I do one of these posts a day, every day, I will have a bank of information to share with the teachers I work with in my district. This will in turn help students and that is why we are all here! Plus, if someone asks me a question about something I have already created a post about, I can just share that.

Now, don't get me wrong sometimes the posts come in spurts while other times it is the 11th hour and I am struggling to come up with one. But that's the thing - I have kept with it.

There are times I think I have found the coolest "techy" thing and everyone will think it is equally cool. So, the first person I share it with is my wife and she is always positive but I can read her when something strikes her and hen it doesn't. I will say, when she thinks it is cool - people in my district do as well. So, Leah is my "cool" meter.


I will say a few quick tips I have learned over the past 2 years.

1. Make your videos short. I try to shoot for under 1 minute. The stats show that the shorter it is the more people will actually even consider looking at your video.
2. Add tags to your YouTube videos this makes it easier to find.
3. Add closed captioning to your YouTube videos. This actually will get you many more views - as a matter of fact, over the last 1 1/2 months the number of views in my channel has increased by 25,000 views!
4. Share on Twitter. Even if you don't think it is that great - someone may!
5. Share what interests you!

I want to thank you for taking the time to read this post and I hope that over the past two years you have found something beneficial.