Blogging is valuable as a form of mentoring, an instructional strategy or collaborative tool.
My discovery of how blogging can be a way to establish mentorships came accidentally last week. I had set up my personal Instructional Leadership blog and had posted some information for new principals from a blog by a principal named Dr. Jan (principal of the"hippest school" in America). A comment showed up under that post, inviting me to look at Mr. Steve Poling's blog. Mr. Poling is a principal in Arizona. I visited his blog, commented back and a blogship was created!

Mr. Poling comments to my blog regularly and has added my blog and our UNBC Instructional Leadership blog to his links. In his blog he tells of how Dr. Jan became a mentor to him. This type of mentorship can occur between anyone. Each of us may not be privy to a mentor in our school or district. Through the internet and blogging, we can find a mentor with similar interests and goals. We can share leadership practises, strategies, collaborate and offer direction. As a result of their mentorship that started on the blog, Dr. Jan and Mr. Poling have collaborated to create a proposal to do a presentation for the NAESP (National Association for Elementary School Principals) conference in Seattle.

Mr Poling states in his blog:
"Today, I submitted a proposal online that Dr. Jan and I have been working on this summer for the NAESP National Convention committee. We are pitching our idea for a concurrent session presentation. Of course, we think that our presentation would be perfect for the NAESP; a must-see for convention goers. Our topic is at the intersection of using technology in leadership, leadership best practices, and building collaborative relationships. Can’t miss, right? We’ll see. We should hear something by November. Hopefully, Dr. Jan and I will be Seattle bound. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Dr. Jan is confident in our proposal’s acceptance. Even if we don’t present, the learning that I got out of the process is priceless."

Blogging can also be a tool to collaborate and share. This is especially effective in a large school district. We can use blogging to facilitate collaboration and sharing among colleagues. This can include: sharing of resources, either web based or traditional; sharing of news, events, stories of interest to other teachers; sharing items for sale, trade, to give away; sharing effective instructional strategies; sharing requests for intervisitations or support from colleagues.