I gave an online talk at Mortimer Community College this week. In it, I was exploring the steps teachers can take to both teach effectively and build the resilience needed to thrive in our wonderful but demanding profession. I have been fascinated by this question for a number of years now: what helps people to achieve their potential and sustain themselves in teaching? It has...
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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place” George Bernard Shaw Teaching is communication. How we speak, how we act, how we express ourselves in the classroom is absolutely vital. It can be the difference between building positive relationships and inspiring a deep love of learning, to a complete breakdown in how our classrooms and learning function. What we...
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‘Teacher Resilience: Managing stress and anxiety to thrive in the classroom’ came out a year ago today. This is a chapter for anyone who, like me, feels they have already made a hundred mistakes since this academic year started! Anxious anecdote As the class rampaged out of the door, a huge sigh of relief escaped from Darrol. To say the lesson had been a disaster...
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I am a strong believer in the benefits of writing in supporting mental health and wellbeing. I know how much it has helped me, particularly over the last five years. Oliver Sacks captures the immersive power of it poignantly in the final paragraph of his autobiography ‘On The Move’: “The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike...
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If you are anything like me, you have been asked to repeat yourself about a thousand times in this new online teaching world, and you are talking more than ever before. I am hoping sharing this chapter from my first book ‘Slow Teaching: Finding calm, clarity and impact in the classroom,’ (which somehow came out almost three years ago) might help make this exhausting process...
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I’m delighted that today is the publication of my third book ‘Teacher Resilience: Managing Stress and Anxiety to Thrive in the Classroom’. As much as a I love the process of writing, I didn’t expect to publish another book this year. To be fair: I didn’t expect much of how this year has turned out! In an attempt to maintain some sanity in between wrestling...
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LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCAST How can we keep teachers in the profession? It is a question that many are wrestling with and the retention rates suggest that in many ways, we are struggling to find the answers. Haili Hughes has invested a significant amount of time exploring this issue. She is the author of the excellent...
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LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCAST This episode of ‘The Well Teacher Podcast’ is pure escapism, a chance to take forty five minutes away from the walls that might be closing in on us, to step away from the endless news stories and to have a furtive espace from family members! Instead, I am really excited to take...
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LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCAST The country, as we all know far too well, is now in lockdown. We have, however, one glimmer of hope – once a day we can escape the confines of our homes and exercise. One of the most efficient and effective ways we can do that, is to go for...
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LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCAST Like everyone else, just over a week ago I was teaching like normal in school. There was some sense of unease, some growing concern – but everything was going along as usual. I had a sore throat and had been coughing for a couple of days, but hadn’t thought much about it....
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