1. Several new posts since I last paid a visit to Alexandra Mihai’s blog, The Educationalist https://educationalist.substack.com/ – on student motivation, refreshing your teaching, exploring co-teaching and on teaching and learning support, all with Alexandra’s characteristically high-quality reading lists. Try the one on co-teaching? https://educationalist.substack.com/p/the-power-of-two-exploring-co-teaching

Also, if you work in a university, Alexandra invites you to contribute to her research by completing this survey on Media and Learning Online – structurally supporting teaching and learning https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PJNQM3B More info at the bottom of the blog post on student motivation https://educationalist.substack.com/p/10-ways-to-keep-your-students-motivated

2. The IATEFL YLT (Young Learners and Teenagers) SIG have pulled out all the stops for their thirty-fifth, emerald anniversary conference. Thirty-five sessions spread over the (long) weekend of 5^th to 7^th November, all free. More info and registration here https://yltsig.iatefl.org/emerald-anniversary-webcon-2021/

3. Some of you might find this analysis by David Kernohan on the Wonkhe blog of how exactly the UK government’s plans to outlaw ‘essay mills’ might work, How will new laws on essay mills work? a bit nerdy; I didn’t – but there might be a reason for that! https://wonkhe.com/blogs/how-will-new-laws-on-essay-mills-work/

4. There’s a bit of me that thinks we should all suffer from a mild dose of this week’s phobia, plutophobia ….

5. And, finally, here’s the winning story in the recent BBC National Short Story Competition, All the People Were Mean and Bad by Lucy Caldwell https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/19/lucy-caldwell-wins-bbc-national-short-story-award-for-masterful-tale Scroll down a bit for the story itself. I enjoyed it!