In the education world, progress is measured at the end of the year. The reflective question is what data indicates progress toward meeting a big goal?
One year ago, today, TeachFor.Us publicly launched. It is only fitting to apply this educational principle to the site.
- This blog was, at one point, the only blog on the site. Now there are more than 170 blogs on the site and more than 50 active* bloggers.
- The bulk of the traffic was at one point from the webmaster and developer. Now hundreds of different people visit the site daily. Just last month, in fact, TeachFor.Us set a new traffic record of 10,000 visits in one month.
TeachFor.Us was launched to provide a community for Teach For America teachers to blog together about their experience. This site was meant to serve the corps members, and it was also meant to serve the interests of a wider public. The data supports thinking that progress has been made toward both of these goals. It is progress because there is still room for growth.
Many thanks are due to John Joseph Bachir, the site’s dedicated developer who gives so much of his time to make any/all the changes you see on the site actually happen. Additionally, ibiblio needs a nod for hosting us and allowing us to be a free and open community to all without the need for advertising or other commercialization.
For the year ahead, our big goal is focused on growth all-the-while developing more tools to help strengthen the community nature of the project. This growth-development relationship is seen in the early-June redesign of the homepage to include more than just a list of 10 blogs.
Here’s to hoping that in one-year we’ll have an equally positive report.
*Active is a tricky term to try and define. Here, active is meant loosely as blogs that are updated at least every two weeks. There are many blogs that are updated only monthly or only during the school year. Basically, 50 is a very conservative number.
