Hi!
You are reading this because you and I have decided that you will write a guest post for Cult of Pedagogy.
I work very closely with my guest writers to ensure that every post is both informative and highly readable. I want every piece to read like it’s coming from a person, not a faceless institution. It should also offer a valuable take-away: Readers should finish the piece with either a new insight, an idea they’d like to try, a better understanding of something that was unclear in the past, or information about a resource that can help them learn more. Each post does not have to include all of these things—this is not a checklist!—but keep in mind that the post should have some value beyond being simply entertaining.
Here is the process we will follow:
(1) Send me a draft of your piece in a Microsoft Word file by our agreed-upon deadline.
(2) I will pour that into a Google Docs file. (Although I realize it would save us a step to have you just do this and share it with me, doing it this way allows me to set up all guests posts in one main folder on my own Drive and access them more easily). I will make comments and suggestions, if any, in the margins, and then I’ll send you a link to the file.
(3) From there, we will go back and forth within the Google Doc until the post is ready for publication.
(4) Before we publish, I will also need the following for your author box, which will appear at the bottom of your piece (see an example at the end of this piece by guest blogger Chase Mielke). You can just add this information to the end of your post in the Google Doc:
♦ A brief bio (2-3 sentences)
♦ A link to your Twitter and/or Facebook page, if you would like these featured in your author box. The Facebook link is only recommended if you have a Facebook page associated with your blog or website, not a personal page.
♦ If you have your own blog or website, provide a link to the site, plus your “job title” there, i.e., “Blogger at The Chalkboard Jungle” or “Instructional Coach at Coaches R Us.” If you do not have your own site but do regular work for another site, we can link to a specific page on that site where your content is featured. The idea is to let people know who you are and where they can find more of your stuff, so use this as an opportunity to send people wherever that is. If you do not have other online content, just skip this step–it’s not required, and we can always come back and add it later if you do start growing an online presence elsewhere.
♦ A headshot (photo of you from the shoulders up) — just send this to me in an email.
(5) If you are doing a “Day in the Life” piece, please provide 5-7 good-quality photos that will give the reader a clearer understanding of the topics you write about. Here are the kinds of photos I’m most interested in (each post does NOT need each of these types…it depends on what your topic is):
♦ Photos that help the reader understand something unusual or specific to the work you’re talking about (see the photos from What We Can All Learn from a Montessori Classroom for good examples of these. This is not a “Day in the Life” piece, but the photos are exactly the type of thing I’m looking for).
♦ Photos that give the reader a sense of the physical context, like the ones in the guest post Teaching Corporate English in Kazakhstan.
♦ Photos that show students working; ideally, try to get these from the back, the side, or just show arms or hands, rather than student faces. If faces are shown, we need to get written permission from their parents for the photo to appear on my site. That’s not a problem, it’s just an extra step. To get permission, have the parents send you an email stating that they give you permission to use a photo of their child on the Cult of Pedagogy website, then forward a copy of this email to me.
♦ Photos that provide “atmosphere.” I don’t yet have examples of these from my own site, but these are the kinds of photos I’m thinking of:
If you aren’t handy with a camera, consider recruiting a talented student to snap a few photos; I will be happy to add photographer credit to these!