Teachers are hypocrites

I know that I am, certainly. At the beginning of my Level 2 (Advanced) course this year I told my students they would have to be prepared to create and maintain a blog as part of the course. I wasn't quite sure what form this would take or what we would use it for specifically but I knew that I wanted the students to start to write in a more natural, more motivated way. I wanted them to write about what they cared about or in a format that suited them rather than trying to shoehorn their writing skills into specified formats that would probably have no further use in the world beyond English classes.

The problem is, with all this insistence on their regular updating of their blogs I have left mine rather unwritten. I give occasional reminders in class or gentle prodding to those who don't make updates, I remind them why it's worthwhile, I tell them how great a reflective tool it is. But I haven't done anything of the sort myself. I have my excuses - this term has included a move to a new building and the various settling-in issues that inevitably arise; I'm having to plan and teach an entirely new course from scratch with no co-teacher; my role has grown substantially within the department and I'm responsible for a lot more than last year. Nevertheless, if I'm expecting my students, with their own busy lives, to update their blog regularly, is it not an expectation I should have of myself too?

It's easy for us to tell students to do their homework, to prepare for their exams, to read books more regularly, to be on time, to be there every day; they're the same things I tell myself I ought to do - and I do try. But life does, quite often, get in the way of being a perfect teacher!

And so, I am updating my blog. Finally. With the news that half of my students have taken to blogging very well. Half only - there is some reluctance from a few students to write online, understandably. Some students made a go at it and then let it become dormant, but then isn't that the case with most blogs: lost in the ether! But a few have made it their own - they are fulfilling the briefs that I occasionally give them as homework but are also adding posts that are of their own devising. I have had thoughts on the unknowability of the future, musings on famous quotations, book and film reviews and, most recently (and impressively), poetry. I love to read the posts and see the huge progress that my students are making. Post by post there is clear evidence of progression. And they are writing. Something that usually provokes groans and resistance when given in class is now proving to be its own motivation in a personal capacity.

So, I was inspired and humbled. And I'm going to try to be better, and a little less of a hypocrite.