Winter Garden teacher's blog garners international attention

The trip home was still hard, 23 years later.

Cathy Tobin, a teacher at Montessori of Winter Garden Charter School, rode on the bus from her hometown of Cork to Dublin, on her way home to Orlando. It was the first time she returned home because of the death of loved one.

“The pull of home has not gotten any less,” she said.

Feeling emotional, she pulled out her laptop and started to write. By the end of the bus ride, she had completed a piece she called “Leaving Cork.”

She decided to pitch the piece to an Irish newspaper, the Irish Examiner. Her brother suggested she send it to The Irish Times. To her surprise, both papers were interested in the piece.

She gave the piece to the Examiner and set off to write another for the Times. That’s when she decided: She would write a blog. In early 2015, corkwoman.wordpress.com was born.

Tobin began to experience some more challenging times. Her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A tree fell on her house. Her family experienced more health problems.

“That was good fuel for writing,” she said.

Her blog posts began to be shared across social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Through the WordPress statistics, Tobin began tracking the people reading her blog in countries all over the world. Currently, people from about 100 different countries have read her blog. 

How did these varied stories get so many shares?

“I think I’ve just been lucky,” she said.

Her success goes a little beyond luck, however. She quietly markets her blog to other blogs and Facebook pages she thinks are related to her posts. She typically sends a Facebook message to the organization she wants to reach, gives a link and tells moderators they are welcome to share the post if they like. 

She said her comfort with sharing personal stories comes from life experience.

“You finally get to the point where you realize who you are,” she said. 

Regarding her family, she tries to be cautious about sharing things that might be personal to them.

When her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she wrote an emotional piece about her finding out while she was at work. He wasn’t comfortable with her sharing it right away, so she saved it for a later date. He gave her his blessing later, and she posted the blog while he was in surgery. 

Her daughter, Ciara, thinks it’s exciting to see her mom’s blog flourish, because the family has always known that their mother loves to write. 

She doesn’t feel uncomfortable about her mother writing about the difficulties in their lives. In fact, Ciara thinks it has helped them.

“We can address feelings that we’ve been repressing,” she said. “It’s kind of comforting.”

UNFOLDING EDUCATION

Last summer, the challenges in Cathy Tobin’s life quieted. Tobin thought she would write more with the extra time, but her blog went quiet. 

She met another teacher friend, who teaches in a traditional public school. Her friend was frustrated from the changes in the education system during the previous semester, so the two ran around the lake and talked about their careers.

The reflection led to another blog post called “Why I Teach.” 

The blog was shared widely across Tumblr, even though Tobin is unfamiliar with the site. 

It’s no secret Tobin’s blog covers a broad scope of topics. Recently, Tobin’s brother advised her to narrow the focus of the blog to attract more loyal readers. She decided to go with an education theme, because she knows she can write many posts about education. 

She recently started this blog, called unfoldingeducation.com.

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Contact Jennifer Nesslar at [email protected].