It’s a dreary day, the rain’s pouring outside, the students are damp and mud-stained from playing football on the cesspool of a field, the classroom is a murky shade of what used to be white with displays half peeled from the walls by year seven fiddlers. Never an ideal location for fun. Or a lesson […]
Month: June 2018
What’s The Point Of Assessment?
At times is can feel like our piles of marking grow and grow like weeds in the Summer. It’s easy to feel powerless against the tide or to even fall into the trap of thinking that it’s pointless. The truth is that assessment is essential. But it’s only effective if it’s done well. What’s the […]
Why Do We Even Do This Job?
It’s nearing the end of the school year and, exhausted as we are, I bet that most of us are actually feeling pretty nostalgic about it already. Why? Because this is the point in the year where some of our students say, “Thank you!” It might be that they randomly drop by our classroom or […]
Our Attitude Is Everything.
We’ve all faced difficult students. It was only last Friday that I dealt with one of the most difficult behaviour challenges of my career, facing a non-compliant, defiant, aggressive student. And yet, I still think that it is fair to say that it is our attitude which determines how effective our teaching is. We could […]
Teacher Mental Health Is At An All Time Low: The Current Management Focus On It Is, At Best, Patronising And, At Worst, Actively Damaging. Discuss.
At lunch today, with a group of colleagues, we were discussing the impact of teaching on our mental health. Unanimously the verdict came in: devastating. Yet, I think that, without exception, we all love teaching. With so much pressure, regular observations, extreme workloads, is it possible for us to protect ourselves and our mental health […]
Being The Teachers We Were Made To Be…
For the first few years of my teaching career I kept a keen eye on all the teachers around me and tried to be like them. I saw what they taught, I saw how they behaviour managed, I followed the way they marked. In sum, I copied them. In everything. And that’s not a bad […]
Smashing Teaching Shakespeare!
For some of us this is the bread and butter of English teaching, for others it’s the albatross around our necks. Either way, it’s one of the most challenging tasks we, as English teachers, undertake. Ensuring that our students understand the characters, plot and themes can be tricky enough without having to teach them another […]
First Day Backitis…
It doesn’t matter how much one enjoys teaching, the first day back is a real grind. Many of us find that we’re there, wide awake, at 3am thinking about all of the jobs waiting for us at our desks or in our classrooms. Even once we’re at school, it isn’t always plain sailing. Take today, […]