Best Posts of 2017

It's been a busy year.  A year that included a job change, a move, submitting significant pieces of my dissertation, taking 6 classes in a doctoral program, working full time, being a present partner, and just the usual challenges of life.  The dynamics of such a year I think resonate with what I see as some of the best posts of this past year in blogging. Now I qualify "best" here in two ways.  1.  The ways in which I felt engaged with the posts that I created.  2. The comments people shared with me about how the posts made them feel or think. 

I would say that like in years past, I took a few risks in some of what I wrote about this year.  Not so much that I put myself in jeopardy but that I made myself a bit more vulnerable.  I've certainly done that in the past but I feel like some of these posts helped me to push myself further in this regard.  Anyways, feel free to check out the highlights and let me know what you thought were among my better posts for the year. 

How I Got to My Dissertation Topic 

I really liked being able to share with readers the actual work that I've done in the program.  I've talked about my work in the doctoral program for years now since I'm blog-reflecting it (see the posts in the PhD Chronicles).  However, these two posts where I highlight and share the work that I did in Year 1 and 2 and further reflected on how the projects impacted my own work was rather useful as I enter into the dissertation phase. Coupled with that is the first substantial 

• Dissertation Journal: Year 1
• Dissertation Journal: Year 2
• Open Access; Not a Fallacy, But a Tenet of Academic Freedom

On Cutting the Cord

No, I'm not talking about cable (though I cut that cord back in 2009--who needs cable when you have internet, Netflix, and your local library!).  I did another 2-part serious about getting a vasectomy at 27 and some of the questions I get asked (which is largely part 1) and some of the deeper reasons why I chose not to have biological children by the time I was 27.  Apparently, these were timely for at least one person who reached out and thanked me as he was contemplating and slightly concerned about getting one so these shed some light on what to consider.

• Snipped: 10 Years Later Part 1
• Snipped: 10 Years Later Part 2

Going Deep

I had three posts that can best be described as looking inward and sharing some of those insights that I may not have formally or substantially discussed before.  In Perceived As, I believe I was able to help explain how the idea of bi-erasure impacts the ability for people to full see me, whereas How I Came to My Bisexuality is pretty clear from the title.  I received a decent amount of comments and feedback about both with a good number of people telling me they experienced the same issue (in the case of Perceived As) or that they too are bisexual and shared their own stories.  The final piece is not about bisexuality but just thinking about what it means to be a white middle class male in a country where such identities are privileged directly and indirectly and have been for centuries.  If one understands that and the history behind it (to which I have gone to lengths to educate myself on constantly), then how does one try to be a better person (assuming you believe in equality, equity, fairness, and justice).  

• Perceived As
• How I Came My Bisexuality
• Navigating Privilege As a White Middle-Class Male

Professional Highlights

I also had two posts related to some successes professionally this year.  The first was that I was invited to the South Carolina Technical Colleges 2-day technology conference to present on hybrid flexible courses.  This consisted of a 4-hour workshop on understanding and developing initial resources to start to think about hybrid-flexible courses and teaching.  The blog post I created from the presentation was probably my most popular blog post of the year.  The other really exciting post for me was that I published my first Short-Short Story at FunDead Publications.  This has spurred a bit of creativity and additional stories that I have written and developed over the last year.  

• Presenting on Hybrid Flexible Pedagogy
• My First Published Short Short Story

So those were my favorite posts of the past year.  What about you?  Were there any posts that you particularly enjoyed or found useful?  Any posts that you found interesting enough to post to or share elsewhere?  Let me know in the comments below!

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