Would you like to have your own blog on TeachingEnglish?
If you are a registered user on TeachingEnglish, you can write to us and ask to become a blogger. You must have at least a CEFR C1 level of English, be a teacher of English, or a teacher educator (teacher trainer, manager, materials writer, researcher) and have something to say about teaching English that is relevant to your context. Ideally, you will also have your own blog.
How does it work?
- Every three months, the website editor will upload four different topics for you to choose from. These topics will be posted in our Top stories section each year at the beginning of January, April, July and October.
- Three of the topics will be for teachers and one of the topics will be for teacher educators. Each of the topics will be related to one or more of the 'professional practices' in the British Council's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) frameworks for teachers and teacher educators. See below for a list of the professional practices and visit our professional development pages for more detailed information.
- Choose one topic only.
- When writing your post, you must write about one of the topics given. All posts are moderated and any that do not deal with one of the topics will not be published.
- Do not add any images - we will do that for you.
- You are limited to writing one post every three months. Each post should have a minimum word limit of 250 words and a maximum limit of 1,000 words.
- Do not include links to paid-for products or services.
- Your writing should be your own. Do not copy anything from third-party sources that you do not own the copyright for.
- All posts go through a moderation process. Please allow up to five days for this process.
- If your post is not approved, you will be notified. Unapproved posts are usually rejected for one of the following reasons:
- It does not deal sufficiently with the topic
- It is too long or too short
- There are a number of language errors which affect understanding
- You have used copyright-protected material which you do not own
- Your post is promoting a paid-for product or service
Where can I see my blog post after it has been published?
For teacher blogs, all approved posts are published in the 'Magazine' section of the relevant professional practice. See an example here.
For teacher educator blogs, all approved posts are published in the 'Articles' section of the relevant professional practice.
Professional practices in the Continuing Professional Development Framework for Teachers
- Planning lessons and courses
- Understanding learners
- Managing the lesson
- Knowing the subject
- Managing resources
- Assessing learning
- Integrating ICT
- Taking responsibility for professional development
- Using inclusive practices
- Using multilingual approaches
- Promoting 21st century skills
- Understanding educational policies and practices
Professional practices in the Continuing Professional Development Framework for Teacher Educators
- Knowing the subject
- Understanding the teaching context
- Understanding how teachers learn
- Supporting and mentoring teachers
- Research and contributing to the profession
- Taking responsibility for own professional development
- Monitoring teacher potential and performance
- Managing and developing learning resources for teachers
- Demonstrating effective teaching behaviour
- Planning and managing teacher learning
- Enabling skills and self-awareness features
How do I get started?
Send an email to teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org asking to become a registered blogger.
We ask all registered bloggers on TeachingEnglish to provide a short bio (50 words max, written in third person) for our dedicated profiles page, which is an opportunity for you to provide a link to other work you are doing as well as letting users know a little bit more about you. Please email us with your bio when you ask about becoming a blogger. We prefer all our bloggers to have their own personal blog so we can look at your work before making our decision, although this is not essential. If you have one, please include the link in your email. If not, you will need to provide a short sample blog post, which is your own work, on any topic that is relevant and useful to teachers in their classroom practice or professional development. Once we have made a decision on your blogging request, we will write to you informing you what to do next.
Throughout the month, we will promote your TeachingEnglish blog on our Facebook and Twitter feeds.