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What’s STRESS got to do with it?

Stress is bad, right? Get me to my next holiday! Am I wishing my life away? When it comes to modern living, we lament our stress to anyone who will listen–social situations often involve discussions of stress or difficulties we are experiencing. I’m as guilty as the next person, and sometimes more, as I find my job pretty stressful. Is it worth it, we all wonder. What could we do that’s less…

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The student's 8-second attention span

According to Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari, our attention spans are getting shorter. We are losing out ability for Deep Focus, and in turn, we are losing our rights, our world and our futures. Sounds dramatic. But he makes a good argument, and we see this stolen focus everywhere. Teachers are desperate to get their students to focus; parents tell kids to “apply themselves” and we speak…

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5 Oracy Teaching Tips for the Classroom

The 15-year-old girl cowers in the back of the classroom. She’s been in tears for days and her mother has already phoned in to ensure her daughter doesn’t have to speak in front of the others. “She suffers from anxiety,” mother says. Sound familiar? The poor girl is representative of so many who feel the intense, paralysing, horrific fear of public speaking. Sadly, because public speaking isn’t…

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#@TES #education cpd #teaching

The Spark that Ignites Learning

On our walk this evening, my three-year-old daughter skipped down the path tonight, singing, picking daisies and exclaiming over everything she saw. her blonde curls bounced around and her eye shone. She kept asking questions about what she observed around her, and she loved our answers. Her simple pleasure at our simple experience was palpable, and it gave me joy to watch her explore. This is…

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Why Students Need to Speak More in Lessons

More than expecting students to answer a smattering of questions, more than “checking for understanding” from a select few (those who don’t mind answering questions in front of the class, for example), more than a random comment or an off-the-cuff discussion, students’ speaking in lessons–in EVERY lesson–needs to be prioritised. Number one priority, I’m now theorising. Here’s why: Humans are…

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Ofsted Comment on Reading in Secondary Schools: August Handbook Update.

Where does reading fit into the new Ofsted Handbook? Whilst Ofsted does not explicitly state HOW secondary schools should be promoting reading within their curriculum, the handbook does state that “the curriculum needs to be designed and taught so that pupils read at an age-appropriate level.” With this in mind, what should schools do to ensure that all students make sustained improvements in…

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What Does Deep Learning Look Like?

In Brene Brown’s most recent book Atlas of the Heart, she discusses her thoughts on my big question. She says: in order for deep learning to occur, we must search for the “Zone of Optimal Confusion”. Her argument is that for something to change, for learning to occur, it needs to be uncomfortable. It needs to be hard. But if it’s too hard, it drives disconnection and anger. We need to search for…

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Uniform Policy, School Ethos and Fear

Why do teachers tell kids to “tuck in your shirt” and “take your coat off in the building” and recently, “put your mask over your nose”? Sure, it’s part of our job and sure, we are hammered with the “consistency” mantra filtering through schools faster than omicron. But why has this aspect of our schools become such a priority? Some cite “Outstanding” institutions. Some cite “England’s…

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Why "The Evaluation Question" in the GCSE English Language Exam Illuminates a Problem--but What's the Problem?

Why “The Evaluation Question” in the GCSE English Language Exam Illuminates a Problem–but What’s the Problem?

Let’s start with the advice we are all meant to give our students regarding this 20 marker. “You always agree with the statement,” we tell students. Why, some of the more critically-inclined-engaged students ask. “Because if you don’t agree, it’s probably because you don’t understand the story well enough to agree.” Whilst this is often true, and whilst the majority of our students in fact…

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Empathy in Education?

I asked my year 11s today: what’s your goal in life? They all told me it was to be able to get a job and make enough money to live well. Nobody had another goal. Nobody had a bucket list even. Nobody would offer up any life goals beyond getting a job and making money. I was shocked. Then a student said to me: “Miss, isn’t that everyone’s goal?” My students consist mainly of white working…

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How Do You Make ‘Em Care?

Students are back in school on Tuesday, after months off. Some have engaged in remote education, many have partially engaged, and some have switched off completely, regardless of parental support (those silent students who stay online at the end of live lessons, for example. Sammy, are you there?!). We’ve done the best we can, but what should we do now? How can we best help our students get back…

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Are teachers killing creativity by trying to be perfect?

“Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path that leads to depression, anxiety, addiction and life-paralysis”. (76) “Perfectionism never happens in a vacuum. It touches everyone around us…we infect our workplace with impossible expectations, and it’s suffocating for our friends and families.” “Our imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that…

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All I Have is a Voice

The tattoo on my upper back reads: All I have is a voice. WH Auden wrote this poem in 1939, when it felt like the world was ending and we had made “a psychopath god.” He must have felt small and insignificant, irrelevant in a dying world. By reminding himself that he has a voice, and by writing it down, he created one. His purpose? “To undo the faded lie.” He ended that although the world “sits…

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Fixing Misunderstandings

Who is Slim’s Wife?

2013:

Students sat in another teacher’s lesson today reviewing Of Mice and Men. The teacher was trying to focus on the sole female character in the novel, the unnamed “Curley’s wife”. One student insisted that “No sir! I’m sure. Slim has a wife as well.”

“Ok son,” the teacher said, smiling knowingly. Slim did not have a wife, and any literature teacher worth his job…

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The quote explosion: an English teacher’s best friend.

Why? Because with guided practice, a teacher can model an exploration on synonyms and connotations of words, on effects created by literary devices and on sentence level analysis.

How? Start by modelling what you expect. Choose a quote that helps answer the question of the lesson. Then zoom and use a thesaurus (Word is helpful in Covid times). Keep going further to demonstrate everything they…

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Quizlet: a 21st century tool to retrieve information and test memory--KNOWLEDGE MATTERS!

Quizlet: a 21st century tool to retrieve information and test memory–KNOWLEDGE MATTERS!

Knowledge matters. It does. Whilst the “skills vs knowledge” debate still rages on in way too many schools, I’ve put my teaching firmly in the knowledge camp. Students with access to knowledge will do well in the world, and students with a limited understanding of their world–limited knowledge, limited vocabulary, limited experience–will forever struggle.

“Their names are Ignorance and Want.…

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Why Teach Vocabulary Explicitly?

I love Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is so naughty, but he’s loved because he’s so eloquent about it. He sums up the world in sharply focused and real ways, and he uses an extensive vocabulary with which to question our social systems.

But most kids can’t talk like this. Especially the “naughty” kids in our schools. Why is that?

So many of our students have been literally rendered incapable of…

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