Category: Advice
Give them Hope
My last assembly presentation featuring one of my heroes and an exhortation to my students to be their wonderful selves.
It’s not the mountain we conquer
This presentation was made to an assembly of 15-18 year olds on the day of their receiving their results from a series of practice examinations. The quote can be attributed to Sir Edmund Hilary. Thanks …
Four Successful Homework Strategies
Homework is one of the most fraught areas of secondary teaching. We know it’s important, its impact is visible and its routines don’t offend common sense. Yet in the daily reality of the classroom homework …
If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes
Albert Einstein defined insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet, inescapably, the English education system ignores this logic, and repeats the same tired strategies and the same …
Blogging Alchemy: Success in Secondary Student Blogging
I have set up a comprehensive student blogging platform for my classes. I have a blog for every class with a lesson stream that tracks and compiles the daily traffic of the classroom, I publish my …
“Except when they don’t, because sometimes they won’t”
Sometimes things just don’t go the way you’d hoped in a new school. Here is some advice for students and their parents about how to turn a bad situation around. It will not escape your …
First Impressions Count
Here I write some of my thoughts as I head into the new teaching year. I recently received a message from a newly qualified teacher who was filled with anxiety about her first week at …