Bright Shiny Objects (BSO): Any new, interesting, intriguing, colourful idea, strategy or possibility. Designed to excite, stimulate, side-track, deviate and beguile. Guaranteed to deflect focus.
Confession
Long before it was diagnosed many of my students labelled me ADHD. I would argue that I was just passionate. As it turns out I am both and I have fallen into the trap of BSOs with this blog.
Time to get back on track.
Our mission is to help passionate, overworked English teachers to be the best they can be. To provide you with materials, support and encouragement to reduce your stress.
Turns out that the best way to do that is to focus on what we are best at which is Literature, reading, writing and speaking. These are the areas that are most specific to English teachers.
Apology
A teacher’s life is a complex one made up of many different layers. My error was in thinking that we needed to cover all of them. Sorry about that. This is a mistake we all make from time to time, thinking we need to be all things to all people. Forgetting that our greatest contribution is what makes us different. The knowledge, skills and experience that are particular to us and teachers like us.
There are lots of really good internet sites dealing with the multitude of issues teachers face and we don’t need to replicate them. They do it better anyway. We will continue to gather them together and share them with you on Facebook and Twitter but we won’t be writing about them as such.
What’s Next.
I have taken a bit of time off since the last post to get back on track and realise that we can best serve you by focussing on issues that will directly assist you in your English classroom.
To this end I have been working on the ebook I told you about, So You Want Them to Read. We are thinking that we will get a simple version out as an email course in the next week. That will give you something you can use immediately and we will publish the more in-depth book in the New Year.
We have also started work on a massive unit of work on Shakespeare. I won’t go into details now but it will include all the background information you could possibly need to teach Shakespeare, even if you are not yet familiar with him. There will be powerpoints, videos, worksheets, a range of activities, copiable PDFs and a myriad of hints and tips.
Of course we are always interested in what assistance you most need. Any suggestions for specific topics or products will be received enthusiastically. Just put them in the comments section below, we do read all the comments. I promise.
If you haven’t yet signed up for our newsletter you can put your email into the pop-up thingy that floats around the page. We haven’t quite got a handle on this tech side of the website but we are working on it.
Till next time,
Teach Well