Despite – or maybe because? – this blog offering “articles and information by teachers for teachers” being the brainchild of a major UK Publisher it’s one that can probably be best described as an eclectic mix of the Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly.
The Bad involves the fact that although its earliest post dates from 10 years ago (a link to a Gender video whose sound has gone awol in the upload – which is a shame because I recognise it as one of our’s even though I didn’t work on it), it only contains 28 subsequent posts and has years when nothing at all has been posted.
I’m also at a loss as to why the blog’s called “Freedom To Teach“.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems rather, well, meaningless?
The Ugly is definitely the navigation system. Although the site looks fine – and someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to “mobilise” it – it’s difficult to find the stuff you really need to find. A technological triumph of style over substance.
The Good, however, makes it worth persevering with the intermittent updates and wobbly navigation. Not only has the blog seen a relative upsurge in the past couple of months (okay, it’s only 2 posts after a 2-year dry spell, but what the heck) but the posts themselves are useful and, by-and-large, interesting.
They’re also a bit of mixed bag – anything from masculinity through challenging student learning to Sociology Outside the Classroom (“school trips” to you and me, although San Francisco is probably well beyond the budget of most state schools…) – but they’re generally on the right side of good.
Which makes it a shame there aren’t more of them.