1. Tomorrow, Thursday 18^th February, at 14:00 UK time: David Heathfield on Engaging, Personal and Creative Online Storytelling https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/online-storytelling-engaging-personal-creative “The webinar will focus on telling tales from the world’s oral cultures and refer to how these folk tales can inspire students to share personal stories.”

Here’s David’s own website: https://davidheathfieldblog.wordpress.com/

2. While I was checking out the details of David’s talk, I chanced upon this webinar by Ágnes (Ági) Enyedi on How to Avoid Teacher Burnout. She gave the talk long before we’d heard of Covid, but it’s aged very well and is even more relevant today: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/agnes-enyedi-how-avoid-teacher-burnout  (I don’t suppose you’ll get to see this message, Ági, but hi there if you do!)

Ági recommends TED talks by two Dans: Dan Pink’s on ‘The Puzzle of Motivation’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_the_puzzle_of_motivation?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare and Dan Ariely’s on ‘What Makes Us Feel Good about Our Work?’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

3. A friend of mine with a very large brain, Norman, recommended this article, Martin Luther Rewired Your Brain: https://thisviewoflife.com/martin-luther-rewired-your-brain/ See what you think of it – the central thesis is that the advent of mass literacy changed the way our brain works and is ‘wired’.

4. A short film from the British Museum about the painstaking creation of a mandala in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan – and its ritual destruction almost immediately after its completion, to emphasise one of the central concepts of Buddhism, that everything is impermanent: https://youtu.be/khs0f4zTPbg

Lots more material from the Museum’s recent online exhibition Tantra: enlightenment to revolution here: https://youtu.be/vj2mJGLst9I?list=PLHcErFdjbqlx83D7QRooF8Kls9rFtmD2_ including a spell-binding performance of Tantric mystic songs by Parvathy Baul, who is – a little confusingly – a virtuoso Baul musician. Bit like being named Bruce Guitar instead of Bruce Springsteen, I suppose!

5. The weekly phobia is one that’s shared by my stepson and Alfred Hitchcock – ovophobia!