<![CDATA[Am taking up  Adam Simpson’s challenge, well, not really a challenge, more like an invitation but such a nice way to look back at what I have blogged about this year.  Adam said, “Choose the best 11” but I must confess I don’t write as many posts as all that. Some people seem to be able to churn them out every day, some even twice or three times a day! Pas moi! 
During July and August when I was training on two different intensive courses
ended up with very little by way of blogging but made up for it later. Anyway, here go my top posts for 2011.

#ELTchat – 99,052 Tweets and counting!

January 29th, 2011

It was quite fitting that I should set off with a post on #ELTchat. I love this weekly chat with teachers from around the world and that is one of my real favourites this year, a celebration of sharing and PLN’s. 

Advance Organisers – How they Connect the Reading Experience

February 28th, 2011 

I wrote this post while I was teaching on the same SEETA course and I really think this is one of my best so far – well, with the exception of the section on mindmaps which needs a little tweak here and there. I also reminds me of what a great course to run that was; my first Moodle course as an instructor in which I learned as much about moodling as my ‘trainees’ learnt about challenging their learners in reading lessons. 

Are you ready to go beyond your comfort zone?

March 22nd, 2011 

I have been a DELTA trainer for longer than I can remember (no, this is not actually true) and I think this is a great course to follow for an experienced teacher who is ready to go beyond PPP. I really enjoyed writing this and had a request to post it on the Cambridge ESOL website as well! 

Reporting after IATEFL Brighton

April 26th, 2011

I had every good intention of writing these well informed reports about the sessions I went to at  IATEFL Brighton, but somehow the conference itself took over and living the experience became more important than reporting it! Experiencing a conference of this magnitude takes a lot of energy! Running from session to session, stopping for […] 

This post was another celebration of my great PLN and a precursor to my later post about TESOL France. 

Another Dogme Lesson

April 8th, 2011

This post is written in response and as part of a twitter conversation with Martin Sketchley – @ELTexperiences on Twitter. His blog post on his own Dogme observed lesson can be found at the end of this post. In the days before writing his experimental asignment for the DELTA course, Jonathan – my trainee of […] 

It was great to support Jonathan in this DELTA experimental assignment and so exciting to have Scott produce a video to help him. This would just not have been possible even two years ago!!! I love it! 

From Critical Pedagogy to Disabled Pedagogy

May 18th, 2011

Luke Prodromou was the first guest writer on my blog, ever! And what a post he
produced to launch the Disabled Access Blog Challenge to generate awareness in
ELT Teachers about this subject!

Survey on the use of Social Networks for Foreign Language Teachers

August 6th, 2011

Dear PLN, Many of you are aware that since earlier this year,  I have been involved in an EU funded project – aPLaNet – whose aim is to help Foreign Language Teachers develop and maintain their own PLN in an autonomous way. Creating one’s PLN takes time, effort and commitment,  and those of you reading
[…] 

This was not really a blog post but putting it up on my blog encouraged a lot of
teachers to respond and I was very happy about that. Plus, I worked very hard to
produce that survey! 

Happy 1st Birthday #ELTchat!

September 24th, 2011

Happy Birthday #ELTchat and all #ELTchat followers! It’s been an amazing year and I am very proud and grateful to have been a part of this! I look forward to many more birthdays and many more new directions that this great PLN will take me to! Thank to all who follow and make my Wednesdays […]

What a great week that was!! And the celebrations in Second Life were great!!!

Going to Conferences, Connecting with Fellow Teachers – #TESOL France

 November 14th, 2011

My online life has become a source of continuous Professional Development and constant contact with my Personal Learning Network (PLN), which includes inspired and inspiring educators from all over the world. I talk to them on Twitter and Facebook every day. We hold organised discussions on Twitter every Wednesday. But meeting with them in […]

I do go on a lot about PLN’s, don’t I? But I happen to have a great one and I can’t stop smiling whenever I meet them 🙂 

A Little & Often: Integrating Technology on Teacher Development Courses

November 21st, 2011

A few months ago (April-June 2011*)  I wrote a report on a survey on the use of technology amongst CELTA tutors. The results were rather disheartening and the
prevailing attitudes among many of my respondents ranged from the completely  negative (“It is not our job/place to introduce technology on CELTA courses; there are more important […]

Using educational technology is one of the topics I talk about with my colleagues every day of the week – mostly on twitter, but blogs, too. It’s inevitable that I would be reporting on my successes and failures using edtech on my teacher training courses.

Embedding Creating Thinking Skills Training into our EFL Practice

November 27th, 2011

Creative teaching and learning is a topic dear to my heart and one that I have embedded very deeply into the design of all my training courses. If you would like to read the post related to teacher development, please click here, though that is not a post I wrote in 2011!

I updated this post with videos from my talk at Harrogate and shared again so
that was my most recent fave post in November.

So what does this selection say about my blogging style? Any comments?
And just in case you have been wondering why blog at all, here is a post I put up on a new blog I was trying out while I was following the EVO  course ‘Becoming a Webhead”

Why do I blog?

Post Script 

Meet these bloggers and their picks – some will be familiar, some new – a worthy read.
 
Adam Simpson – 11 from ’11: The best of your posts from this year (blog challenge) Adam started this challenge and what a good idea that was!
Tara Benwell – 11 from ’11 published the best 11 from the challenges she has given her learners – truly worth looking at her work with learners within a social network.
Dave Dodgson – 11 from ’11 (Almost a year in the life of my blog)  an En English teacher in Turkey and his first year of blogging – you could be on my list next year if you start now!
Tyson Sebunt  –  11 from ’11 a collegue teacher and teacher educator fron Canada with great style
Sharon Turner – SHHH it’s a Secret!!! a blogger I am getting to know and you should, too
Tamas Lorincz –  11 from ’11 I haven’t written  where Tamas writes about the 11 posts he should have written but didn’t because…well, read his blog post to find out!
 

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