I have been a teacher of English for 24 years, a Headteacher for 9 years and a blogger since 16 June 2012 and, at the age of 48, this much I know about Edublogging!
Sophie Coulombeau said to me recently, If you’re not on twitter you’re dead. Whilst I know many non-tweeters who are still breathing, I know what she means.
The synergy between Twitter and blogging is crucial to the success of the latter. Bloggers are the source of the best CPD I know, but it’s Twitter which signposts me to their blogs.
Writing my blog clarifies my thinking. I have lots of material in my head like bits of space debris; blogging melds them into the satellite which directs my personal satnav.
There is something immensely gratifying in sharing materials. I find the IBD Theory of Knowledge tutors across the globe incredibly generous with their TOK resources.
The whole blogging thing has been inspiring. Due to the way blogging has developed at our school, we plan to develop our own CPD research centre through Twitter and blogging, something like a school-based online dynamic R&D hub, or something. Still mulling it over. Might write a blog to clarify my thinking…
I have been humbled by certain generous virtual colleagues who have nominated me for the Edublog Awards 2012. Here are my own nominations:

  • Best individual blog: Geoff Riley http://www.tutor2u.net  Geoff saves my skin every Sunday night…
  • Best new blog: Alex Quigley http://huntingenglish.wordpress.com English Subject Leader at our school and growing professionally by the day; a great thinker!
  • Best ed tech / resource sharing blog: Mrs B at Le Jardin Academy, Hawaii http://tokkailua2013.wordpress.com/ Mrs B saves my skin every Monday night (I teach TOK later in the week).
  • Best teacher blog: David Didau http://learningspy.co.uk Inspirational English & literacy teacher and source of pedagogic gold.
  • Best administrator blog: Tom Sherrington http://headguruteacher.com Tom is a magnificent thinker on leadership – met him recently and he’s as great in the flesh as he is in the virtual world!
  • Most influential blog post: Geoff Barton http://www.geoffbarton.co.uk/ Mentor, personification of integrity and general source of inspiration, his blogs on the English GCSE fiasco in the UK have been hugely influential in maintaining the issue in the news.
  • Lifetime achievement: Zoe Elder http://fullonlearning.com Possibly the most clear thinking pedagogic expert I’ve virtually met.

And here are some others I think are great too:
Tom Bennett http://behaviourguru.blogspot.com/ Love him or hate him you can’t ignore him (and I mostly love him)!
Helene O’Shea http://monkeylearns.blogspot.co.uk/ Helene’s blog is resourceful in every sense – I loved the recent Dweck poster BTW!
Pete Jones http://deeplearning.edublogs.org/ Famed for the Tweachers Tube Map, there’s so much more to him on his blog.
Kev Bartle http://dailygenius.wordpress.com/ Keeps publishing spiky blogs which keep me on my toes!
Nightjar http://themusingsofaheadteacher.wordpress.com/ Awesome.
Sophie Coulombeau http://sophiecoulombeau.wordpress.com/ Fiercely intelligent and inspirational collaborator.

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  1. “Due to the way blogging has developed at our school, we plan to develop our own CPD research centre through Twitter and blogging, something like a school-based online dynamic R&D hub…”
    We’re just getting into the whole blogging thing at my school and trying to get the kids involved too (see my biologypost.wordpress.com blog). We also want to develop it for sharing good practice, CPD etc…Have you made any progress with this yet? It would be good to see a model of how this works or swap some ideas with each other.

  2. Tommo – we had a couple of sunny days last week so I sat in the garden and read your book. I am normally a ‘skim reader’ but every word was consumed and enjoyed. Eastbourne Sixth Form College seems a long time ago and how you have developed. The book was inspiring – even to retired old people! It left me feeling slightly sad for two reasons. Firstly, our teaching time together was all too short and secondly, after 39 years in the job I never felt the passion that you clearly have for the job! The move to FE Management seemed right at the time, but took me away from the one thing that I enjoyed – the classroom. The personal recollections were beautiful and gave an insight to what really makes you tick – made all the more beautiful by knowing the area and your great family! You are a top bloke and one that is also on top of his game! As you said – ‘teaching, golf and even a bit of fishing’ – what more could we want. Thank you for sending me a copy. Love Tim.

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