We all have some students whose behaviour or attitudes or despondency seems beyond our ability to impact. Those hard nuts to crack. Sometimes it’s that they continue to shout across the room and nothing we do seems to stop them. Sometimes it’s that they persistently do no work at all. Sometimes it’s that they just […]
Category: English Teaching
This, unsurprisingly, is a blog all about teaching. What is, perhaps, surprising is that this is a blog all about ENJOYING teaching for the long haul.
#keepenjoyingteaching
#keepbeingcreative
KS3 Teaching: How Is It Different?
The school I’m currently working in recently went through key stage change and it was a bigger culture change than I think anyone anticipated. It’s a bit like having been trained to handle twenty sloths and then being given thirty two puppies… Time and energy were ploughed into creating new buildings and safe spaces for […]
If You See Behaviour Management As a Battle Ground, You May Win The Battle But You’ve Already Lost The War
Behaviour Management: Is There A Way To Practically Apply The Principles of Respect and Relationship? In writing my last blog post, I realised that respect and relationship as foundations for behaviour management might sound like some sort of impractical pixie dust solution for helping lessons to fly. I really don’t think that they are. They’re […]
Stop Working, Get Out and Do Something! School Will Survive…
When was the last time that you: Went out and saw a movie during the week? Took an entire evening off without staying late for a meeting or working once you’d put the kids to bed? Binge read a book in an evening? Spontaneously just went out for a meal? Went to see a play […]
200 Word Challenges: Making The Most Of Every Opportunity
Perhaps 200 word challenges may seem like last week’s fad. Old news in a constantly changing environment. I can’t help but think, though, that good can come of them if they’re done well. During observations, these have been some of the best and worst lessons I’ve seen. At worst, it’s just an excuse for the […]
Idealistic, but not Ideal.
Idealistic, yes. That I definitely am. Ideal, I am not. One of the greatest drawbacks of teaching is that we are never done. Nothing is ever done perfectly. When my family are working their nine to fives or their shifts, I am either in school or working from home. When they can measure their performance […]
No More Marking: Fact or Fiction?
‘No More Marking’ has landed. With such an emotive declaration as their company name, I was somewhat dubious initially, ever cynical of a scam, but was swiftly brought round after a demonstration by the trust’s director of English. Genuinely, I was hoping this was the real deal. With an optimistic smile and ready access to […]
Round Seven: ‘Sweet Pea’ (Adult Crime Fiction)
With A Level dedicating an entire paper over to the crime genre, diving into the ocean that is psychopathy during the Christmas holidays seemed entirely academically laudable. During the season of goodwill a little dive into Skuse’s murky waters was just what I needed. It never ceases to surprise people that one of my […]
How Can We Stop Students Writing About Bob, Steve and Bill?
Narrative writing 101 today involved some teaching of planning (story mountains aplenty) and some modelling of how to turn said plan into an actual narrative worthy of an AQA GCSE examiner. Then I unleashed my class of budding writers on the world, or at least on the task. Or at least, I asked them politely if […]
How Can We Set Decent Purposeful Cover & Ensure It Gets Done?
Setting cover can be a real pain! Either you’re, in some sense, being expected to be in two places at once. Or you’re sick. Either way, it can feel somewhat futile if you doubt that the work will being done, perhaps more so if you’re home struggling through a migraine or the like and are […]