Pupils Plagiarizing Produces Preventive Plan

I am back after a year and a half's absence. 
I certainly had many dramas and dilemmas but just never bothered to write about them here. I am back thanks to a computer course I am participating in and also because of a major teaching drama.
I want my students to read - no nothing original or groundbreaking in that. The dilemma with asking students to read is how to check if they have read the books or not. I dislike book reports - they are boring for both pupil and teacher. Personal response logs are great and I have had success with them - but not every student's cup of tea. So after a major disappointed in some of my best pupils, for plagiarizing a book assignment, I have decided to open up an extensive reading blog and see how that works. 
I am fully aware that there are teachers who have already done this - again nothing original in my plan - just something that I have never tried before. 
The student's plagiarism has forced me into going out of my comfort zone - they weren't the only ones to learn a life lesson this week.

Tests, training and teachers.

I read the following article on the BBC yesterday 26.10.12  "Trainee teachers to face tougher entry tests"  and in the article "Education Secretary Michael Gove says the "rigorous selection" of trainees is key to raising standards."
These are my thoughts and reactions to the above.

• If only half the educational research carried out by teachers in the field was actually implemented - educational standards would rise.

• If "Education Secretaries' / Ministers let teachers and educational researchers implement their findings - educational standards would rise.

• If parents actually interacted and communicated with their children before starting school - educational standards would rise.

• If parents, politicians and the media stopped telling teachers what they should, should not do, be, have - educational standards would rise.

• If testing was not seen as the be all and end all of education - educational standards would rise.

Educational standards would rise if politicians, parents and teachers truly worked together in a spirit of mutual trust and respect showing children how when we work together "we educate ourselves together." (Janusz Korczak Loving Every Child  p.70) 
What  if  would you add?

Dilly-dallying to Decision

After months of deliberation and discussion about writing a blog here I am. I find it quite daunting to share thoughts and opinions about my teaching situation in public mostly because there seems to be an abundance of such blogs and really hasn't everything already been said and debated? Nonetheless, I am here and believe that reflecting on the various ups and downs of my teaching week in a public sphere may help clarify my thoughts, opinions and dilemmas. As I deliberate over what to write I find myself going backwards and forwards erasing, deleting and just simply staring at the words in front of me. Writing is complex! And there I have it - a reason for committing myself to a blog. If writing is hard for me - how hard must it be for my students? An end to dilly-dallying - a decision made. I blog to unravel my thoughts and wrestle with the many challenges raised by teaching English as a Foreign Language - one of which is teaching EFL students to write coherently. A blog seems just the place to examine the extent of my own lucidity.