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 ill-informed notions in and out of the...
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 year plans, samples of excellent student work, moderated exemplars,...
“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 notice that secondary schools run an elaborate scheme of rewards and sanctions that...
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 a new school. It got me thinking... We can go a long way towards alleviating the...