Bad SPAG!
This year, as a year 6 teacher, all of my class will have the pleasure of sitting the new spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) test. Now, this isn’t really a blog post about my feelings towards...
View ArticleThe Learning Journey
Along one of the walls in my classroom, is a long orange arrow; it’s my class’ learning journey. In The Perfect Ofsted Lesson, Jackie Beere talks about differentiated learning outcomes and using an...
View ArticleCollaborative planning with my class
Choice engages the emotional brain and enhances motivation for children. - Jackie Beere, The Perfect Ofsted Lesson Now I know my last blog was based on something I’d read in Jackie Beere’s The...
View ArticleDo teachers get in the way?
In reality, at times, we probably do. Two days ago I tweeted a link to an MIT Tech Review article: Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves. A truly inspiring story, which is...
View ArticleGraffiti maths
Earlier this week, I felt inspired by a tweet from Geoff Barton and by Wednesday, I had decided to act on it. Geoff had tweeted some pictures of an outstanding maths lesson he had observed, which...
View ArticleA new challenge.
Four years ago, I turned up at Kensington Avenue Primary School as a wide-eyed and nervous PGCE student, who was just about to embark on her first placement. From that moment on, the learning curve has...
View ArticleKS2 Assessment 2013: a rundown
Disclaimer: This post is based on a combination of my own knowledge and experience of KS2 assessment and moderation as well as local authority assessment briefings I’ve attended. However, for the final...
View ArticleReading activity quick fix
Any primary teacher knows the importance of choosing engaging and worthwhile reading activities in order to ensure you don’t get constantly interrupted with your guided group during guided reading....
View ArticleA reminder for teachers: inspire yourself first
Today, I visited The Vitality Show in London – a bit like The BETT Show for the world of health and wellbeing if you will. While there, I spent a bit of time listening to life coach, Louise...
View ArticleCreating and using ‘self-led’ ICT units
After a suggestion from my colleague, I’m working on a kind of ‘self-led’ ICT unit for next half term. I say ‘self-led’ because it includes some ‘how to’ videos I’ve made using Camtasia that show the...
View ArticleWhat really matters in 21st century education?
This week I stumbled across a New York Times article by Tom Friedman, that stopped me in my tracks. I shared it on Twitter, I retweeted it, I took the time to email the Harvard educationalist who...
View ArticleWhy teachers need to embrace marketing and advertising
Recently, I’ve started working on a new multiplication initiative with the aim to help and motivate children across the school to get learning those times tables (there’s just no getting away from some...
View ArticleTeaching calculation: goodbye to endless lists of sums
Recently, I’ve been putting together a new school calculation policy. This has involved mapping out how the teaching of calculation should progress throughout the school so new methods build on the...
View ArticleA is for Algorithm: the A-word in three steps
When I first took a look at the new computing programme of study I was a tad worried. Mainly because ‘algorithm’ was the first word I saw in the KS1 subject content and then I kept seeing it again. And...
View ArticleTeaching dialogue through text messages
Text messages often get a bad rap in the world of education: text speak is slipping into writing and negatively affects children’s spelling are some of the feelings I’ve certainly come across. Last...
View ArticleSubject coordinators series: getting started
At the beginning of the year, members of staff within my school’s cluster got together for an INSET day on highly effective subject leadership. As the coordinator of both Maths and ICT, I was very...
View ArticleAsk your students: how can I help you?
If a child is struggling with something, it can be easy to forget to just ask them how you can help them before setting off on a mission to find different tools or methods to solve what you think is...
View ArticleMy #nurture1314 post – with a bit of a twist
What’s #nurture1314? Well, teachers all over twitter are putting together #nurture1314 blog posts: 13 highlights of 2013 and 14 hopes for 2014. I’ve read a few – some are thought-provoking, some are...
View ArticleYear of Code gets a bashing – so now what?
Forget the year of the horse, the government have announced that 2014 is the Year of Code, but this latest initiative has come under much criticism. Unsurprisingly, this has been well-documented and...
View ArticleFirst steps in primary computing: my BETT 2014 session
BETT 2014 was quite a different experience for me: as the author of ‘Switched on Computing: take your first easy steps with Microsoft‘, I was there for all four days as part of the Microsoft team – red...
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