FluteAND UP (the blog)
UP is a blogging space to share thoughts, stories, and research that draw from my experience as a teacher, student, administrator, colleague, business owner, client and more.
If you’re already my friend on Facebook or Instagram, you know I primarily post about flute, travel, and cats, which may seem (and often is) superficial. Why do I hesitate to share more about myself on a public platform? That’s simple. Fear. The reactive nature of social media, or any online presence, gives me justified pause. I’ve seen careers and relationships destroyed by a simple Tweet. It’s much easier to post on Facebook and Instagram about upcoming events and cats than to actually risk someone tearing through a shared thought on pedagogy, policy, or performance or risk developing a stigma around mental or physical health challenges. And come on, looking at photos of cats has been correlated with reduced stress, so it’s good for me (and you), right? (Don’t worry - I have a whole page, the Phenomenal Cats Gallery, dedicated to our Bengals.)
I also welcome discussion and feedback. We need each other to more clearly understand ourselves and the world we live in. You are invited to respond or question in the comments - I’ve experienced that we learn better together. May we show respect toward each other and our feelings, wishes, and traditions. May our responses have the intention of helping, affirming, celebrating, and valuing one another.
One of my hopes in offering this space for myself and others is to connect in thoughtful, responsible, ways that can move us all UP (upward/uplift/update, etc.) in our thoughts, words, and actions. I would like to share the ways the different aspects of my identities intersect and how those intersections inform each other. I believe there is some richness there worth articulating, discussing, and questioning. Yes, I am a flutist - AND so much more. I hope to give others permission to expand their identities too.
Conick. (2018). 6 Moves That Can Make (or Break) Your Career on Twitter. Marketing News, 52(4), 50.
Elraz. (2018). Identity, mental health and work: How employees with mental health conditions recount stigma and the pejorative discourse of mental illness. Human Relations (New York), 71(5), 722–741. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726717716752
Fourie. (2018). The Communication Style of Social Media Communication. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies, 13(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.18848/2324-7576/CGP/v13i02/1-10
Myrick. (2015). Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect? Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 168–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.001