You can also read my "It Takes a Village" Post
Presentation to Pedagoo London
This is the information that accompanied my two presentations to Pedagoo London on 2 March 2013. The event was a grass-roots un-conference run by teachers for our own professional development. It brought together a group of about 200 practitioners from all over the...
Grant More Freedom
This journal entry was written as part of the first #blogsync, an initiative in the synchronisation of online journals by UK Educational professionals. The first shared topic was "The Universal Panacea? The number one shift in UK education I wish to see in my...
Why should my students blog?
Two days ago the long-awaited installation of internet-connected devices landed in my underground classroom. The buzz was palpable. My students, unable to contain their enthusiasm, started to burble inchoate (and largely unwarranted) references to my being "Their...
The Real World – A Meta-Letter to My Pupils
Picture this: a classroom inhabited by a class preparing for a "functional skills" English assessment. The students are clear about what was expected of them. They are working with focus and the atmosphere in the room is calm. What these boys are earnestly doing, in...
“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...