Posts tagged ‘efl geek’
Welcome to the shiny new Teach42
Welcome to the new theme for Teach42.com! This is something that’s been in the works for quite a while now (far too long), but I’m thrilled to finally switch over to it today. I’d been thinking about getting myself a new theme since I started seeing other blogs using the same one I’d be using. I’ve always wanted to have something completely original, but in the past must of the custom ones I’ve used have had issues on the backend. I finally decided to take the plunge when I saw the EFL Geek’s new theme which completely blew me away. So I emailed Sean and asked him if he’d be interested in creating a custom theme for me and he mentioned that he was creating his own design company and would love to work together.
Heh, I have to give him major credit. Between conferences and family and this that and the other thing, I haven’t been the easiest person to work with. But he’s always been a true professional and fit the development around my crazy schedule. From brainstorming ideas out, to graphic design to creating a complete custom wordpress theme with all the features I wanted, he did an absolutely phenomenal job.
I have to admit, at first I balked a little bit about paying someone to create a theme for me. After all, it’s just a blog… But then again, it’s also something I’ve invested five years of my life on. It’s gotten me my current job, and introduced me to thousands of educators world wide. It’s my identify online, my resume, my cv and my permanent record. And once I started thinking along these lines it seemed almost odd to me that I hadn’t invested more in it already. So I took some of the money this blog generates from Google Ads and I set it aside to have the new theme created. I wanted something somewhat whimsical, and yet geeky. I love the computer cables strewn about everywhere in the sidebar widgets and such. Usual web 2.0 tools are integrated in as well. Gravatar user images are thrown in for commentors and so on. I also have a few plans that we didn’t stick in yet but may be added in the future.
I hope you like it! It’s funny but this theme has been ready to switch over to for a few weeks now, but I kept putting off making hte change because I wanted to do a proper introduction for it. However, in the meantime, I kept putting off blog posts because I wanted to wait to post them until the new theme was ready! And while waiting for that to happen, I just didn’t post anything. I should have taken the advice I always give to other new bloggers. JUST DO IT. Don’t wait for bigger and better, don’t waste time with things to come. Do it now, as you can always add more and improve later.
So with that, I hope you like the new digs! Leave a comment and let me know what you think. And if you decide to do something along these lines yourself, I personally recommend you reach out to Sean. He was a true professional and great to work with.
Number 8 in the Top Language Blogs? Seriously?
When I was first notified that Teach42 was one of the Top 100 Education Blogs, I have to admit I got kind of excited. That was until I followed the link back and discovered that the site giving me the ‘award’ basically had no content at all. It seemed little more than a cheap ploy to get some press. If it was, it worked. Many people linked into it at the time and still proudly display the badge. More power to them. It isn’t necessarily a bad list, I just questioned it’s credibility at the time. Since then, the site has definitely filled out quite a bit more, but I’d still be curious to know what their standards were and how they came up with the list. It’s why being in Scott Mcleod’s top 50 list is more meaningful to me. He clearly states how he came up with the list and shares his data with the world.
So this morning, when I checked my email, I got a message that I assumed had to be spam. The subject was “You ranked #8 in out top 100 language blogs list!” Yes, I too found it ironic that the subject line announcing that I was a top language blog had a typo in it. But that’s besides the point. Or is it?
Like I said, I assumed that it had to be spam. It wasn’t. I followed the link over to Lexiophiles.com, and checked out their Top 100 Language blogs page. Lo and behold, there I was:
At first I assumed that this was just a publicity stunt per se, and that they must have just done some keywords searches and put them in some random order. However, they do have a page explaining how they picked the sites, what their criteria was and how they judged them. Not only that, but they claim that they sifted it down from a larger list, and even have a link containing all the blogs that didn’t quite make the list. And beyond even THAT, they’ve created a poll where you can vote for your own favorites, so if they got it wrong, the community can help correct the problem (of course I threw in a vote for Teach42 while I was there).
So what does all this mean? Well, it certainly wasn’t all automated. This took some serious time by at least a few people. Looking through the site does reflect that time and effort was spent creating it. It’s NOT spam. And while they are sponsored by Bab.La, there’s just one small add on the page. Pretty subtle if they’re really behind it. Although, their image WAS attached to the email I received. Despite all this, there’s still just one thing that doesn’t quite add up…
How the heck did somebody review Teach42 and decide that it was the 8th best LANGUAGE blog on the internet??? I don’t even talk about language much, besides mentioning a few tools that could be used by ESL teachers! I’m completely boggled by this one. There are some great sites on there that I recognize that actually focus on language, and ESL learning and so on. Mine doesn’t. So to put Teach42 ahead of blogs like EFL Geek is just crazy! They deserve to be on the list. I can’t for the life of me figure out why I’m there.
I guess the lesson in this is once again that we always need to be looking at our sources and questioning them. Who’s the expert? What are their credentials? What are the ulterior motives if any? And after evaluating it all, does it feel right to you? The internet is a slippery place to hang out.
The funny thing is that I’ll probably get taken off the list for spouting off like this. And that would make me feel sad, melancholy, sorrowful, doleful, woebegone, and desolate. Think that amazing use of language will keep me on there?
Oh, and if you’re from Lexophiles and reading this right now, welcome! Love your site! And I’d love to hear what the real story is.