Blog anniversary

The TEFL in Colombia blog was launched exactly a year ago when I published the post Everybody wants to live in Medellín and shared the link on my social media profiles. Let’s take a look at what has happened since then.

Well, the most important thing I have learned is that I love blogging. You are reading the 49^th article on this website, which is considerably more than I expected to write. I guess my background in journalism comes in handy, but it remains to be seen whether I can keep publishing new posts almost every week. In addition to writing articles, I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of blogging is interacting with other ELT professionals on social media because there is an amazing online community of people with plenty of inspirational ideas. I also follow a lot of blogs, which motivates me to write my own posts.

I originally planned to write mainly about Colombia and my experiences here, but most of my posts have been about my professional development. I finally became a Delta-qualified teacher last month, and I also took the Train the Trainer course. It was all quite demanding, so I think it’s time to take a break from studying, which means that my posts are going to deal with slightly different topics in the near future.

How many views does the blog receive? Some days are more successful than others. While the highest number of views has been 195, on other occasions the blog is lucky to get viewed 20 times a day. I occasionally share a link to one of my posts in some Facebook groups for teachers, which leads to a significant increase in views, but I still don’t feel fully comfortable with this form of self-promotion. I prefer seeing my posts shared by other people because it means I have written a text someone else considers useful. Thank you to everybody who has done that!

Five most viewed posts:
• The importance of going beyond CELTA
• Tips for passing Delta Module Two
• Six ELT blogs worth following
• ELT Concourse is a priceless resource
• No Spanish in the classroom?

If you are a new reader, I invite you to go through the blog’s archives and see if you find something interesting there. You can access all articles from the main menu, which comprises the following post categories: Colombia, Teaching, Professional development, Interviews, Visa.

An interesting effect of having a blog is getting opportunities to express your opinions on other platforms. I delivered a webinar about blogging and social media at an online conference, and that’s something I probably need to start doing more frequently. I was also approached by Silvina Mascitti to talk about my TEFL experience for her magazine article featuring several teachers living abroad. Sandy Millin asked me to join in with the Delta conversations series on her blog, which made me very happy because I count her website as one of the original inspirations for starting my own blog.

What plans do I have for my second year of blogging? I actually have a few concrete ideas about what I would like to achieve in ELT. It will probably take a couple of years for me to reach the goals, but I’m now pretty sure that I can have a long-term career in this industry. I will continue documenting my journey here, and I hope that some teachers find the content helpful. In addition, I plan to publish more interviews with professionals working in a variety of teaching contexts so that this blog offers more than just my perspective.

At the end of this post I’d like to say that I really appreciate your interest in reading my thoughts. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to get in touch.