Lots of bloggers write about education and schools but it’s hard for them to find an audience. I share some new bloggers that I have recently come across.

Needing some fresh voices

Earlier this year I had a deadline for my monthly Schools Week blog review column. I’d found some really interesting blogs but then I realised that the majority of the authors were already pretty well known in the educational blogging world and I wanted to highlight some newer or lesser known bloggers that readers weren’t already familiar with. So I put out a request via my Twitter account

 

https://twitter.com/ieshasmall/status/1002529556673200128

I needed it to be in the preceding week because I shared a rota with 3 other reviewers and it was to ensure that we didn’t overlap.

I wanted under 1000 followers because I wanted to amplify some new, less well known voices. This is something that teacher Jane Manzone has recently tried to do when she set up the New Voices conference.

Initially I just got loads of retweets and I thought “meh, Twitter the echo chamber- all retweet no action.” Then suddenly replies started trickling in from the UK and beyond. Blogs come and go. There used to be a site called the echo chamber and the echo chamber uncut  which collected and disseminated all the education blogs in the UK. It was a handy resource but I’m not sure if it has bloggers and blogs that are new to the UK (and wider) Edu blogging scene.

A squillion to twenty

This blog post was originally titled “A squillion education bloggers you may not be aware of” but once I started looking I realised that the numbers of bloggers who had written in the last month and wrote fairly regularly (for me that was at roughly monthly, excluding the summer holidays) was much smaller than the overall number who contacted me.

I realised that the numbers of bloggers who had written in the last month and wrote fairly regularly was small Click To Tweet 

This was a replication of the problem that I sometimes found when writing my Schools Week column. I’d be excited about having found a new blogger who wrote from an interesting perspective or was from an underrepresented group only to find out that they blogged really sporadically and maybe no more than three of four times a year.

I’ve added a short list of some the blogs that people sent me here and what they blog about. Do take a look. This is just a list not an endorsement but I have found interesting information in each. The order is the order in which people tweeted me, it’s not a ranking.  I have only added ones that had been updated within the past month at the time of writing. I’ve recently stopped writing the Schools Week column but I still think these are worth sharing.

20 interesting education bloggers you aren’t of

1. High five literacy. US based. Most recent post explores what educators can learn about raising awareness for dyslexia from the #metoo movement. @FaithBorkowsky
2. Teen Librarian. UK based. A blog where Matt Imrie writes about school and public libraries and working with teenagers. Most recent post explores comedy and writing funny books for children. @mattlibrarian
3. Sarah Bonnell Student Learning Ambassadors. UK based. A collaborative blog about teaching and learning from the staff and students of Sarah Bonnell school. Most recent post tells us 5 reasons why we should all start using Google Classroom right now. I have a soft spot for blogs like this because I first started blogging in a professional capacity via a shared blog at Canons High School. @sbonnellschool
4. Emily Seeber blogs about chemistry, education and philosophy. UK based. Most recent post aims to guide teachers who want to be more research informed but are “confuddled by the landscape of educational research” @emily_seeber
5. Mr Corley mathematics. US based. Middle school teacher. Latest post explores how a scheme called Desmos has changed Nick Corely’s maths teaching life. @mrcorleymath
6. Exploring education. UK based. Laura Hilltout writes about art and art teaching. Latest blog outlines alternative approaches to art using current technology including some digital drawing. @mrshilltoutart
7. Richard Hopkin’s Blog. UK based. Covers the adventures of Richard Hopkin, a music teacher and technology enthusiast in Wales. Latest post outlines how Richard has encouraged students to reflect on their learning by creating a short daily vlogging habit at the end of each lesson using ipads.
8. The learning expedition of Mrs P. UK based. An Early Years teacher. The most recent blog reflects on how the new school year has been so far and reminds us to enjoy teaching the children in front of us as well as dealing with our admin and to-do lists. @tleomrsp
9. Science Teacher.ie Ireland Based. A science teacher exploring a range of educational issues.  Latest blog explores how pupil voice presents an opportunity for culture change within schools. @scienceteacherire
10. Glenthorne High School Library. UK based. Lucas Maxwell blogs about school libraries and education for an audience of teachers and school librarians. Mist recent post reveals that he is now part of a podcast Glenthorne Library: Booklings Chat. @lucasjmaxwell
11. Adventures in Education. UK based. A teacher with 14 years’ experience based in Wales blogs about education and life. Most recent blog post explores teacher recruitment and retention from a personal angle. @beckib77
12. Can I go and Play now. A UK based blog exploring the magic of children in the early years phase. Latest blog explores raising the profile of play and playfulness.
13. Jed talks. US based. An American teacher blogging about technology. Latest post explores how teachers should consider the right tool for each job when teaching in their classrooms and sometimes bells and whistles isn’t always the way to sell technology to colleagues. @stefanowicz135
14. Changing states of mind. UK based. A blog considering the impact that schools can have on children in their care. Most recent blog explores how important listening is if you are an adult that a child has chosen to confide in. @LucindaP0well
15. Little miss DHT. UK based. A deputy headteacher ponders anything related to teaching and learning. Most recent post asks “How can performance management support teacher development effectively?” @littlemissDHT
16. Workings of an SBM. Uk based. A school business manager blogs about her professional life. Latest post, It’s all about the journey, explores why being a School Business Manager is a bit like going on a walk with dogs. @workingsbm2017
17. Interaction Imagination. Sweden based. Suzanne Axelsson writes in English and Swedish about early years education, play and various other topics. Most recent blog really made me think because Suzanne explains why she uses West Asia to refer to the region that I generally call the Middle East. @suzanneaxelsson.
18. Reflections in Science Education. UK based. A teacher blogging about doing their best to apply educational research to “students of all abilities and backgrounds.” Latest post explores how story telling can be used to increase motivation when delivering instruction in school lessons. @MrARobbins
19. Bald Headteacher. UK based. A headteacher writes about putting the humanity into education. Most recent blog post explores what he feels are the root causes of increased incidences of poor child mental health in schools. @baldheadteacher
20. Adventures in applied linguistics. International. I have not read a blog like Lingua Bishes before. It’s a space for anybody interested in linguistics and language. I trained as a maths teacher but in recent years, since working for a think tank and writing more, I’ve come to understand the power of words and language. Latest post analyses Spanish- English bilingualism in US online job adverts. On their home page there are posts covering The public representation of homosexual men in 17th century England and the linguistic landscape of two regional capitals in Ethiopia. It’s petty varied and I’m not entirely sure how to categorise a blog that has a blog post called Dismantle the Native-speakerarchy but it definitely made me think @linguabishes

 

What next?

Take a look at one of the blogs here or start your own especially if you have a different perspective or something interesting to say. If you do decide to write your own blog even writing just once a month will mean that you can be considered a regular and consistent blogger.

 

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