The Reluctant Teacher

I was a reluctant teacher. 

At first, like many children, I said I wanted to be a teacher, but had no clear idea what the job entailed.  It was just what I saw, day to day in school, from adults I (largely) respected.  Then I had an epiphany during my A-Level years.  I was working my socks off, nose to the grindstone, fingers to the bone, breaking my back, and all the other cliches.  I was going through this massive, transitional stage of my life, longing for the day when I could leave school behind me and find out who I could be somewhere else.  And then I realised that teachers lived through this every year - a constant cycle of teenage stresses, tantrums and hormonal breakdowns; same curriculum, same issues, same assignments, same same same same same.

Next, I counted the teachers in my family, past and present: 12 all told.  Wasn't there something different I could do instead?

So I ran a mile, and spent the next several years saying I would never teach.  (Repeat 'never' as many times as desired - I certainly did.)

But I couldn't deny that growing feeling that teaching had some unfinished business with me, or vice versa.  Not in a school, certainly, but what about language teaching?  I'd done some volunteer work, and found it... satisfying.  Fulfilling.  Intriguing. 

Damn.

So I gave it a try. 

Anyway, that's all history now.  I teach, therefore I am a teacher.  But please don't call me 'Teacher' - I'd far rather you used my name.

Another EFL Blog?

Is there anything left to say?  Is there really a need to add more content to the groaning blogosphere?  If so, does the good stuff get buried under an avalanche of the adequate, the outdated, the mediocre, and the best-forgotten?  And is there a limit to the number of consecutive rhetorical questions a reader will tolerate before theatrically throwing up their hands and moving on?

My answer to all of the above will have to be a resounding 'Possibly'.  For now let's just say that this blog malarkey seems appealing, that I'm an EFL teacher who loves the quirks of the English language, and that I'm immensely excited by the possibilities offered by new technology.  In this blog I hope to share, collect and discuss my thoughts about teaching, technology, language and anything else that crosses my mind.  (There may be cake.  Even knitted cake.)