I recommit to writing a post every week.

Hi,

As you can see I haven't written a blog post in a very long time. I am hereby re-committing to the idea or producing a blog post every week. I'm not entirely sure how I'll do, but instead of give it up and delete it, I'm just going to start again. I grew up in a religious family, and though I am not religious now, this one profound value has always stuck with me: redemption is a real thing. Just because a thing is currently broken, doesn't mean it should, or will, remain that way.

I guess, as an English teacher, perhaps a more appropriate analogy is the idea that screw ups or struggles always form the core part of a character arc, but whether you become an extra, a super villain, or a hero is up to you. Can I be a kind of heroic cameo in lots of other hero's stories? That's kind of the role I want. I don't want to be 'the guy'. I want to be the guy who helps the guy. 

At the moment, I'm still firmly in the training montage era. Teaching full time, preparing revision courses for year 11; working on ETCPD and English GCSE Boost with as much time as I can muster, with no sign either thing will work; I'm still terrible at video editing. But I just wrote the page for 'The Collective' and I'm feeling encouraged. I do have a fire that sometimes burns deeper than others I think. Where some people might make decisions out of fear, I make mine out of hope. Where I see huge systemic problems, I think 'If not me, who?' Not everyone thinks like that. And I guess that's comforting.

It isn't the best teacher in the country who will change people's careers or improve the quality of their lives, it's just the one who takes the most action towards that end. I don't have to be the best for this to work. I have to be fairly good, and incredibly action oriented, and that, I can do.