The Mark Ellis Blog

I'm now at pt4 of my musings on social media, now most people who know me know that I'm a big fan of social media.  It continues to evolve and is changing the way that people communicate and I can see that very clearly with the kids. We're now in an age where Snapchat & Instagram stories are the norm and now that there's both Instagram and Facebook live, we're in a new era of everyone being a vlogger.  It's also interesting that some kids who can be extremely quiet in normal life are proper keyboard trolls on social media and equally a worry that some are on their phones until all hours of the night. Whilst I'm not on Snapchat, we have a monitor of what the kids are up to on social media and I keep toot on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, just in case there's anything shady going on.  The kids are generally good at keeping us up to date on what's going on and they're quite open on sharing, which encourages me.  I'm also incredibly imp...

My blogging ability has been pretty rubbish throughout 2016 and I've not done one, generally cos I've been that busy doing lots of other things, mainly athletics related. So, this time last year, there was also a lot going on and 2016 was a bit more full on than I'd anticipated.  For me, I completed the Athletics Coach qualification in March and since then it's been a very busy year with coaching at Houghton Harriers with the U11's on Mondays and Wednesdays, with me also helping out at Gan Canny at Chester-le-Street on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I've also worked as a field official too and am now at Level 2 and still gaining experience and learning under the great mentorship of Mick Frazer.  I've also done my 10th Great North Run and also competed a few times for Houghton Harriers in relay competitions and also for the Senior Team. Then there's Dominic - he's had a great year and whilst he's probably not competed as much as he'd l...