teaching should be
a communal effort

This maxim drives my work and helps focus my attention away from business-driven to community-driven and ultimately student-driven. Building a Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an invaluable tool for teachers and students, one which I highly encourage you to try. Imagine your ideal staffroom. Mine’s full of colleagues who are supportive, offer stimulating conversation, challenge me to reflect on my teaching and collaborate on ideas for the classroom. I’ve been building it both offline and online; both are essential. You can too and you’ll be so thankful. There’s a wealth of teaching styles, resources for professional development, resources for classroom use and discussion to be had. If you’re not yet ready to blog yourself, start off by reading some of these and get involved in the conversation through commenting. Join Twitter and follow these teachers. I’m sure you’ll be inspired. And these are only the beginning.

Box of Chocolates (Cecilia Lemos – @CeciELT)
Vicky Loras’s Blog (Vicky Loras – @vickyloras)
Teacher Reboot Camp (Shelly Terrell – @shellterrell)
Reflections of a Teacher and Learner (Dave Dodgson – @DaveDodgson)
A journée in language (Brad Patterson – @brad5patterson)
Doing Some Thinking (Henrick Oprea – @hoprea)
Close up (Ceri Jones – @cerirhiannon)
One year in the life of an English Teacher (Adam Simpson – @yearinthelifeof)
MikeJHarrison.com (Mike Harrison – @harrisonmike)
EFL thoughts and reflections (Phil Wade – @phil3wade)
Sharonzspace (Sharon Turner - @sharonzspace)

and growing with regular interaction…