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A 1st blogaversary celebration!

Happy 1st Birthday, Blog!

May 24, Victoria Day, is fitting for a celebration in Canada.  It’s not only Queen Vickie’s birthday though, this blog turns 1 today!  Sure, it’s hardly a fair comparison between the longest reigning monarch and TESLtree/eltrie, but one that is memorable just the same – a time when spring is sprouting leaves on trees and tulips (my favourite) are everywhere.  Green grass is appearing; lawns are being mowed; gardens are being weeded.  Awakened life is returning to the air, so what better time to celebrate the online venue where I can share and collaborate on ideas, resources and ELT thoughts with my supportive, nurturing and growing PLN!

To celebrate a year’s blogging, I want to share a few insights into some key items over the past year.  Enjoy a front seat look and please join me in continuing our passion for our online journeys together!

It all started with this blog being an extension of the Coursetree website with this post: 
You have to start somewhere!

At that time, I wanted to have a place where I could explain more about the workshops I have available under the Coursetree name.  I wanted to talk more about who I was and what I envisioned Coursetree to be about.  I wanted to share resources I’d made.  For this extension, I named the blog TESLtree.  I quickly realised that this business-y approach (accompanied by the company “we” and “our” pronouns) was not for me.

The readership has steadily increased and it motivates me to keep trying!
This is thanks in no small part to the retweets (RT on Twitter) of great colleagues and the important interaction with some amazing educators over Twitter and Facebook.  I appreciate each and every RT. There’s no shame in admitting that watching a post gain views is fun!  Plus, you start to realise what type of content everyone enjoys the most and what months I slacked off too much.  And don’t we all love comments?

When a tool itself retweets and blogs about your post, those posts become popular.  Proof: Soundcloud.
Here’s a look at my top-five most viewed posts over the last year:
1. My Soundcloud redux at VRT11 (312 views)
2. Soundcloud for listening practice (306 views)
3. 10 tweeters I follow (234 views)
4. The lesson plan transformation (200 views)
5. Learning vocabulary: receptive or productive goal? (163 views)

Some posts just don’t get the attention they deserve. 😉  /shameless plug/
Tweet this! and Tweet that! – simple ways I’ve used Twitter in class
Summarising, paraphrasing and quotes – using Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum as a graphical representation of each
Milking Material, Pt 1, 2, 3 & 4 – 4 posts on maximising a 2min Simspons clip in class
A record of classroom events – a transparent look at what transpires in one of my classes
#tesl365 – a year-long celebration of inspiration

One post (thanks to a blog challenge) I hope to do more of.
Bookstores, taxes & Swiss PD – my interview with Vicky Loras

1st Birthday Celebration Challenge!
With this in mind, there’s one thing I’ve never done (or had the privilege of doing) and that is handing over my blog to a guest poster.  I really love the idea of building and supporting PLN through guest posts, not only to introduce one audience to the ideas of a great educator, but also to bring a new voices to my blog.  So, in celebration of my blog’s 1st birthday, I have a small challenge for you readers:  Guess how many posts I’ve made during the 1st year of TESLtree/eltrie!  To whomever comes closest, I’d like to offer you the honour of being my first guest poster! The only rule is that you can’t guess the same as someone before you.

On a final note, I’d like to sincerely thank every teacher, administrator and tweeter out there who’s read my posts, RTed them or linked them to their blogs.  I know exactly how powerful the support of on online network is and I promise to aim to post meaningful, useful and sometimes emotional content for you!  Cheers. xo

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Cecilia Lemos

Hi Ty,

Happy Anniversary!!!!!! Being a regular reader I am super happy to read this celebratory post. May you continue to blog for many more years 😉 I especially liked the list of posts you think didn’t get enough attention, and will go back to read (or maybe re-read) them.

I’m going to take a wild guess here… 75?

XX
Ceci

Mom

I’m going to guess 104 even tho I do not want to be a guest poster. If I win the contest, invite anyone you like to take my place – lol

Henrick Oprea

Hey Tyson,

Congratulations on the first year of blogging. I can relate a bit with everything you’ve said, and even the reasons that motivate us to keep trying. 🙂

I’m sure I can speak for many people when I thank you for the work you’ve done here and on twitter – you’re definitely an addition to anyone’s PLN.

Number of posts… hmmm… let me see, perhaps about 58? 🙂

Looking forward to the second year of blogging!

Hugs from Brasília!

Henrick

Vicky Sahlin

You reflection from your first year of blogging is inspirational. I am just starting my blog and look forward to one year from now being as proud of my accomplishments as you! Congrats and happy blogging!

@sahlinvic

Vicky Loras

Happy birthday to blog, happy birthday to blog, happy birthday dear blooooooooggggg and Tysoooooon, happy birthday to blog!

Yay! Whoop! Happy birthday to one of my favourite people on Twitter and the blogging world – for his blog!

Your blog is one of my favourites for many reasons : the content – there is always something original and I feel I always learn from it. The layout – you have the most beautiful layouts and fonts on your blog, love it! Your enthusiasm for your teaching – it shows so much, both here and on Twitter.

Sending you my best wishes for your blog and all the work you are doing – thank you so much!

Best wishes,
Vicky

Vicky Loras

And I just realised that I forgot to guess the number of posts….48?

Naomi Epstein

Happy Blogaversary!!
I really enjoy your blog and am proud to see that I DID pay attention to the “Simpsons” posts!
However, I have a complaint!
I may be a complete BOZO but I can’t figure out how to subscribe to your blog (I ended up registering for Coursetree but that didn’t help). With other members of my PLN I can rest assured that I won’t miss a post as I receive a notification for each one, but not with yours! After discovering I had almost missed your last post I’ve begun worrying about what I’m missing and decided to investigate – almost missed the celebration!
So what’s a girl to do?
Anyway,
Keep writing and sharing – your posts are awesome!
Oh – my guess is 58 posts.

Naomi Epstein

A BIG THANK YOU!
Your blog now appears in my google-reader!
Appreciated!
O.k – I guess 62.

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