My first ever blog post… in history… ever… hmm… what to write?
Ermm… Hmmm… Lovely weather we’re having.
So after five years of making websites and five months of tweeting on Twitter, I have decided to enter the blogosphere. This first post is perhaps the most difficult.
Do I welcome everyone and outline grand plans, thoughts and ideas that will change the world of English language teaching?
The first part, yes (welcome everyone); the second part, not on your Nellie.
Do I tell the story of how I became an English teacher? It all started way back in 1989 when I was backpacking around South-East Asia and ran out of money. I met…
No, that won’t do. That’s all been done before.
OK… so do I write about my very first observed lesson on my CTEFLA (now CELTA) course in Izmir, Turkey. I could describe in great detail how I lost total control of my lips, voice, thoughts, lesson plan and heartbeat in the first second and wanted the floor to swallow me up so I could go home.
Nope. The shame of it all :-O.
How about a potted history of my teaching career? OK. OK. I know the feeling. We won’t go there.
Well… the story of how I used up my life savings to start an Internet site which I thought would make me millions but only made me 26 cents a day after six months?
Uh-Uh – Way too embarrassing.
Now. What I could do is talk about why I’m starting a blog. Logical enough.
Oh… OK then. I’ll do that. I never really read blogs until I joined Twitter and then came across some incredible, inspiring and thought-provoking sites written by extremely dedicated bloggers. To name but more than a few: Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Reboot Camp, Karenne Sylvester’s KalinagoEnglish, MarxistELF, Alex Case’s TEFLTastic, Burcu Akyol’s blog, Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day, TEFL Matters by Marisa Constantinides, Ozge Karaoglu’s blog, ESOL Courses from Sue Lyons-Jones, Jason Renshaw’s English Raven, Steven Anderson’s Web20Classroom… The list is long.
I now love reading the thoughts and ideas contained in these blogs. I have learnt so much from these superb professionals. They keep me on my toes and my fingertips busy.
Of course, they also make me think a lot more about teaching, what it means to be a teacher, technology and how political an issue making a lesson on red squirrels can be.
They all got me thinking about blogging and contributing. So here I am.
They do say the second blog post is the most difficult…
We’ll see.
I heard it’ll rain tomorrow.
Tags: fingertips, first blog post, red squirrels, weather
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by ShellTerrell: Gr8 post by a new blogger! http://bit.ly/8XHvrx...
Thanks Ken,
I appreciate your advice here. It was difficult to know what to write in a first blog and I’m really glad to hear you think the stories would be worthwhile. Not sure though if they can compete with your stunning stories of the Beatles and Stones in the 60s and Pink Floyd concerts.
I will go there in some future posts, when I’ve sorted out which way to go.
Great to see you in the blogosphere, Sean! I’m still figuring out the best use for my own blog.
I’m sure the “stuff from your head” will be as enjoyable as the multitude of websites you provide to the EFL community.
I have a theory about your ‘productivity’ by the way…
a. Behind every good man, is a good woman. Einstein’s wife reportedly did his maths, etc.
b. Sean lives in the middle east.
a. + b. = c. Sean actually has an army of wives, each responsible for one website!
Nice first post, Sean! I’m not surprised that you have an instant audience. It will be fun to get more than 140 characters from you.
Tara
PS-Congratulations on your Site of the Month award over at TEFL.net.
I am SO looking forward to hearing more of your stories. I don’t know how you keep up with all you do, but I’m sure glad you do!
Whichever way you go, I’m sure it’s going to be a fun trip
Thanks Tony.
Two-thirds of your equation is correct. If you read the About page on my Breaking News site, you will see that “a stupendously supportive and wonderful wife” keeps me going. And I live in the Middle East.
The incorrect part of the maths is the army of wives. Don’t think “stupendously supportive and wonderful wife” would be stupendously supportive and wonderful.
Productivity is all relative, but more on that later.
Thank you Tara. It will be fun to write more than 140 characters. I think.
Thanks Barbara. It will be fun. One path I go down will involve a coffee in a kissaten somewhere in Kyushu. If you’re free at coffee time on that particular trip.
Wow! Wow! I’m so very late for the partiiiiiieeee ;-( Huge, huge welcome to the blogosphere… everyone’s already said everything worth saying so I will just say I can’t wait to read the rest – loved your kick-off!
Karenne
You’re off to a good start! I’ve enjoyed using the materials from your websites in class, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading this blog.
Hello Karenne,
Thank you for your kind words:-)
Thank you Hall. I hope you enjoy my blog as much as my materials.
Yup, I hear it’s like the “difficult second album”. You certainly seem to have found an original blogging voice right from your first post though. Thanks for the mention
Cheers Alex. Oh dear – that conjures up images of one-hit wonders. Will have to take extra care producing it.
Dear Sean,
I was so excited to find Mr Breaking News English himself on Twitter, and now this. You’re already a very connected (micro-)blogger, so your readers are already here, looking forward to whatever stories you decide to share in full glorious length.
I’d very much like to know about how you started out online, what motivated you and what went into your agenda. I mean, back in 2004, hey, what were the rest of us doing?!
If you find the time… Hope HAL arrives in time for Christmas
Anne
Hi there,
Nice to see your blog out here. As Jason Renshaw pointed out to me, you don’t need a hook for the blog and it can still be great. A good start with a novel new post. See you around!
Thank you Lindsay,
I have a way to go if I’m to get anywhere near the originality (in simplicity, design and content) of your blog
Thank you Anne,
Coming soon… an account of the beginnings of my being online.
Have written to Santa for an open-source, build-your-own HAL – I’d like to tweak it here and there. Perhaps not in time for Xmas though.
Dear Sean
Congratulations on your new blog. It already looks as if it is going to be a sure-fire winner!
I really look forward to reading more about your thoughts and experiences in much more than 140 characters
Janet
Thank you Janet. I’m now looking forward to blogging – it has been fun so far.