1. I guess we’re all holding our breath and crossing our fingers on Gaza right now. The New Zealand poet, David Howard, whose sequence of poems about a Croatian-Māori family, Mate, I included last year (on 30th April, to be precise, if you’d like to re-visit it), wrote We Have No Place In This Time at the end of last year. It will eventually be set to music by Alissa Long; for the time being, here’s the words-only version. David’s had criticism from both sides for not being black and white enough, which suggests he’s got things about right. The poem is an exchange between Major Abba Alterman, a member of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Noor Mansour, widowed when the IDF shot her husband. PDF below.
2. Also on Gaza, here’s an open letter from a stellar line-up of big UK NGOs asking the UK government to ensure the ceasefire is followed by justice and accountability https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1690-18-ngos-demand-uk-government-ensure-gaza-cessation-of-hostilities-leads-to-justice-and-accountability
3. The first LanguageCert seminar of the new year, Engaging writing activities to inspire your classroom with Sylvia Karastathi, is at 14:00 London time this Thursday, 23rd January. More info and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2617371044650/WN_veOE-HJ1S7ayIID-qyMWkw#/registration
4. Courtesy of The ELT Buzz Digest, here’s some forthright views from Mike, a recently-retired veteran of state school classrooms in the USA, for the Teacher Therapy YouTube channel https://youtu.be/IqNRwri8jDs I agree with some of Mike’s views!
5. And, finally, I’m a sucker for a good – or even a reasonably good or moderate – thriller. Here’s a recent guide from The New York Times to thrillers new and old well worth reading https://tinyurl.com/37zv3p8b
Roy Cross's Blog 