On my 3rd Blogoversary

Exactly three years ago today I wrote my first blog post for The Learning Profession. Last year I wrote this post summarising my first two years being on Edu-Twitter/blogging and the transformative effect it has had on my thinking and practice.

The past year has been a busy one. I spoke at my first conference in June 2018, #rEDRugby, and then went on to present at #TLT17, #SRocks18, #rEDBrum and #rEDDurrington. I’ve loved sharing at these fab conferences, meeting so many wonderful practitioners and attending a range of inspirational and challenging presentations.

I’ve also written a few pieces for the Tes this year about written feedback being a fever, being a new HoD awaiting GCSE results, the jargon and acronyms NQTs need to know, open evenings, the five books I think all teachers should read, delegating, what I wish I’d known as a new middle leader and my experience of miscarriage last October.

I’ve had the pleasure of working more closely with Claire Hill after meeting her at the ResearchED National Conference in September. We presented together at ResearchED Durrington and will be teaming up again at this year’s ResearchED Rugby, The Education Festival and #JustGreatTeaching. We are also in the process of writing a book on Middle Leadership, Leading From The Middle, which will be published by John Catt and is available to pre-order here #LFTM.

I’ll be ending this academic year by hosting the Team English National Conference at my school in Salisbury. I’m thrilled to be organising such a fantastic event with the wonderful Caroline Spalding and I’m ridiculously excited to have such a killer line up of English professionals coming to my school.

It’s a mark of the power of Edu-Twitter that I’m working so closely with inspirational women from across the country: Caroline is based in Derby and Claire in Dover. These things would not be happening if I hadn’t chosen to start blogging and join Twitter three years ago. I’d also like to thank my #TeamEnglish buddies for being such a fantastic support this past year and a special mention to Grainne Hallahan, Sarah Barker, Amy Forrester and Sana Master for always being there and making me laugh.

Here’s the top 10 posts from the past 3 years:

1. On our Weekly Reading Challenge
2. On Paper 1 Section A
3. 5-a-Day Starter
4. On Paper 2 Section A
5. On our Weekly Writing Challenges
6. On valuable feedback that supports teacher wellbeing
7. On my #rEDBrum presentation: Redesigning the KS3 English Curriculum
8. On homework that requires NO marking
9. On Self-Quzzing Homework
10. On how we’re marking PPEs

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and has made me feel like I have something worth sharing. I’d also like to thank everyone who has heard me speak this year – I’ve been so grateful not to be stood in front of an empty room!*

* If a speaker delivers a talk at a conference and nobody hears it, does she even exist?