In October 2014 I wrote a post about why I blog and tweet (I still don’t know what makes a good or a bad blog post by the way!) and then in Feb 2015 I wrote my “idiots guide to Twitter“.

I suppose the point of this post is to say that if you’ve ever thought about blogging or Twitter (believe it or not, there are loads of people out there that still aren’t sold on Twitter) and then had second thoughts … now is the time to start. Looking back it seems like yesterday since I started this blogging lark (also not convinced my writing has gotten any better!) and I can honestly say that I have got so much more out of both blogging and tweeting than I have given. I’m genuinely not saying that to get lovely comments from people disagreeing kindly with me because it is true and I still find it weird that people actually want to read this shiz – after all I am a normal “run of the mill” teacher – teaching full-time in the classroom and I hope I’m not portraying myself as anything other than that. OK, so I take an active interest in the wider picture of maths education – I don’t do it to find things to get antsy about, although I know I often do get a bit irate passionate – I am genuinely interested in doing the “right” thing by the students we teach.

Twitter is a great tool for raising & debating important issues which I love to do but as I’m sat here I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of it isn’t resources, ideas, points of view, support or shoulders to cry on (I do love my Twitter BFF’s though!!) but both forms of media have provided me with motivation. Teaching careers tend to be a bit of a roller coaster (you only need to look at the statistics about “leavers” from the profession) and it is easy to get dragged down into the mire, especially given the uncertainties ahead of us with the new GCSE. This came home to me this week when I was listening to Craig Bartons podcast (complete list of episodes found -> here ) with Beth Lilley who has just finished her NQT year. It’s a great listen, as all the podcasts have been – the enthusiasm that new teachers have is infectious and I suppose that is what I get from blogging/Twitter … constant enthusiasm for the subject. 

Let me define that further – I don’t mean being relentlessly positivity even when the odds are stacked against you and agreeing to any old bullsh1t that comes from on high – enthusiasm for teaching and maths can also mean people discussing and fighting for the right thing when it comes to maths education.

Anyway stop procrastinating and just do it.

PS – I’m not really here, by now I should be half way to Sunny Scotland having a life!