WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Last year (2006), Stephen Downes went away for a while. Today Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, decided to blog less citing family reasons and the fact it’s taking him away from revenue-making activties. This post is to announce that I too will be taking a bit of a break.
The word that Downes used to describe his absence was ‘hiatus’, a remarkably apt word:
According to my Collins 21st Century Dictionary, ‘hiatus’ means:
an opening or gap; a break in something which should be continuous.
I’m not going to go into a great amount of detail as to why and when I’ll be back. Suffice to say that I’m not (long-term) ill, everything is fine with my family, and I’ll be a teacher for the foreseeable future. So keep me in your feed reader. Or not. I’ll still be blogging occasionally over at edte.ch.
I’ve just emptied my feed reader of the ‘edublogs’ and the ‘edublogs - must reads’ folders, with the idea being that I’ll rediscover the good blogs when I return in the new year.
Finally, I’m not going to be on Twitter. Well, at least not as mrbelshaw anyway… 
Popularity: 12% [?]
Have a good break and come back refreshed and ready for new challenges. We’ll look forward to your return.
I always did think you were a bit of a superman! Glad to hear that you are taking a break in the blogging world as it means you’ll be able to focus on other important stuff.
We’ll be here!
Hi Doug - enjoy the deserved break! Catch you on the return…
George
Priorities present themselves and make themselves known in ways that cannot and should not be ignored.
I hope you achieve what you need to; I’d like to thank you for what you’ve done so far. Your obvious talent, passion and dedication has inspired teachers and provided them with ideas, know how and resources in equal measure.
Good Hunting, and now (thanks to Doug Belshaw) I am fully conversant with my aggregator I’ll keep an eye out for the next stage.
These are not my sentiments but there may be some saying, “Don’t hurry back!”
Gee, hope that doesn’t get misinterpreted like some of your comments!! (And I’m hoping my punt at the English sense of humour is right. :-o
BTW, I still have to work out how to weave the word “mardy” into a post! And I can safely delete “mrbelshaw” from twitter but should I keep the other guy? The South Parky looking bloke?
I’ll miss reading you during my lunch breaks.
Hope all is well.
I am sorry to get off topic, but I really like the slider at the top of your page that allows readers to look at older posts. Where can I get that html code?
I found your blog after looking at a list of teacher bloggers from Birmingham. I too am from Birmingham, so it caught my eye. However, I am from Birmingham, Alabama.
I too am a educational technophile. Check out my site http://esoterium.us I often feature technology on my blog.
Ben
English Teacher
Birmingham, Alabama
Doug,
Enjoy the break, come back refreshed. See you around, virtually and otherwise.
Dave
All the best Doug. Enjoy your time away. Everyone deserves some downtime.
Let me add my own thanks for the value you added to my educational life, Doug, and my own well-wishes for what happens ’til next time.