15
2018
Summer term experiments: Year 10, ‘Invictus’ and ’12 Years a Slave.’
“Don’t address their brains, address their hearts.” Nelson Mandela. This mission to develop the reading confidence of my low set Year 10 group continued with earnest this week. Last weekend, I spent a delightful hour rummaging around my book shelf to find some suitable extracts (my long suffering wife seemed to have issues with my retort that I couldn’t possibly complete any housework,...
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08
2018
Summer term experiments: Year 10, extracts and creative writing.
“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” Oliver Sacks ‘Gratitude.’ The sun is shining, exams are (finally) coming to a close and there are now glimpses of time available to think and be creative in the classroom. My low set Year 10 now need some serious...
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23
2018
On unseen poetry and comparing texts: royal adventures.
“The preacher is doing 50 in a 30 zone and it’s brilliant.” Jeremy Vine. As a Manchester United fan (the less said the better) and with running the Edinburgh marathon looming terrifyingly on Sunday, I was on the hunt for some solace this weekend. It arrived in the most unexpected of places: the wonderfully passionate speech of the preacher Michael Curry that stole the show...
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04
2018
Last minute Year 11 lessons: a collection.
“I don’t want to know about evil Only want to know about love I don’t want to know about evil Only want to know about love” John Martyn ‘Don’t want to know’ Our lovely wee boy, Christopher, entered the world last Monday. While he has fully embraced his literary nickname of ‘Christopher Robin’, one thing he has well and truly refused to even recognise is...
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13
2018
Non-fiction Writing Revision
“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald Now I’m confident Mr Fitzgerald has some sage (perhaps even ‘Great’) guidance to pass on about the writing process. But just how often did he tackle the challenge of helping thirty adolescents find ‘something to say’, when faced with non-fiction writing tasks? I have...
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06
2018
Slow English Teaching: from superficial to skilled English Teaching
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Albert Einstein. With our first wee one on the way in the next two weeks, (my wife is not appreciating my attempts to cajole he/she to hold out and share a birthday with Shakespeare on the 23rd of April), it will be a very quiet couple of months on here. When...
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30
2018
Reflect and Refine: Growing Passionate Teachers
“If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because we can be even better, there is no limit to what we can achieve” Dylan William. What keeps us energised, motivated and enthusiastic in our classrooms? When faced with a new academic year, what inspires us to become better versions of ourselves for...
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02
2018
A Slow Teaching Collection
After reading ‘In Praise of Slow’ by Carl Honore in February of last year I set off on a mission: an examination of applying slowness to the world of education. Over a year later the book is published by John Catt Educational today and and available to buy from Amazon here. It certainly doesn’t advocate a “tortoise teaching” approach, rather it encourages teachers to take more control...
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22
2018
‘The Tortoise and The Hare’ in the Classroom.
In this age, which believes there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest. Henry Miller. Rather terrifyingly, after almost a year of writing, ‘Slow Teaching: on finding calm, clarity and impact in the classroom’ will be published next week by John Catt Educational (Friday 2nd March). The...
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26
2018
‘Teaching to the Top’: A challenge collection.
“The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.” Robert Tew. Outside of the every daily variety of life in the classroom, one of the things I have particularly enjoyed about this academic year is setting up a CPD group called ‘Teacher Advocates’ with Zoe Taylor (who runs this excellent blog for English teachers) in our school. The idea is that...
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