I guess that’s the thought going through a lot of parents’ minds right now, whether they’re teachers or not. My parents were both teachers and I can tell you right now that it wasn’t always an easy combination. I always really wanted to be their child, rather than their student. Perhaps that’s the most important […]
The First Day Of School: Keyworker Edition
Yesterday, I posted on my Facebook wall, expressing my fears and uncertainties before the first day back at school after schools were closed to all but the children of essential key workers. I think that it’s important that we talk about our feelings and are part of a community, after all this is physical distancing […]
This Has Been The Strangest Week In My Career.
When I started teaching, there were so many things that I expected. I expected to find that behaviour management was a struggle at times. I expected to work hard, work late and work at home. I expected meetings, parents’ evenings, detentions, marking, marking, marking and more marking. I even expected that every time I moved […]
This Makes The Reader Read On: Every English Teachers’ Nightmare.
With assessments moderated and marked, one thing screamed out to the English department I’m a part of: the inference is missing. It wasn’t that student answers weren’t long enough, often they were. It wasn’t that quotes were missing, mostly they were well selected and supportive. It wasn’t that they’d missed the steer. It was […]
Teaching Context: A How To Guide (Plus, How NOT To…)
Teaching context can be a right regular pain in the arse. We, as English teachers, have to do it, but I’m sure it’s something we all do with caution, knowing that there’s every chance we’ll get back essays that (for some unknown reason) start with a biography of the writer and a summary of the […]
How Can My Displays Improve Behaviour? And, Yes, They Really Can.
With our open evening looming, strict instructions came our way to tidy up our rooms and make sure our displays are on point. Having just moved to a new school, lots of the displays weren’t mine and, as such, weren’t really me. Don’t get me wrong, I love an attractive, informative display as much as […]
Some Days In Teaching Are Sh*t, But Teaching Is Definitely NOT.
Some days in teaching are sh*t, aren’t they? They really are. There are times when you come home, barely able to drive safely or hold an entire sentence together. Days when your year nines have run rings around you, break duty caused endless admin after there was an ‘incident’, multiple meetings drag on and achieve […]
Why I’m Not Going To Lay Down The Law As The First Lesson Back.
It’s customary, I know, to get students back into the swing of things with a swift run through the rules and classroom expectations. We’ve all seen powerpoint after powerpoint with lists of rules or, for the more open-minded, questions allowing classes to come up with their classroom expectations. I won’t be starting term that way. […]
How To Cope With The New School Year: Remember Behaviour Management is an Iceberg
With the new year in mind, I’ve been thinking about behaviour management of my new classes… The vast majority of behaviour With the new year in mind, I’ve been thinking about behaviour management of my new classes…management lies beneath the social surface and a great deal of it goes on predominantly outside the […]
Back To School Already??
So, it’s the last week of the holidays. I always start getting jittery with so few days to go. I worry that I’ll have forgotten how to teach, I worry about whether this year will be too busy, I worry about whether I’ll be able to work with all of the classes I’ve got. I […]