Group items tagged

"How many times do you hear a pupil fishing for the answer to the question you have just asked? How many hands go up to say, "Sir, I am Stuck!" and "Sir I can't do this!", or similar."

"When we set out to create and encourage critical thinkers and problem solvers. We need to look at various aspects. How people will respond and adapt to the change. We need to further establish what our students need, do they need constant attention or space? Decoding a teenage brain, is it really difficult to understand teenagers?  I took workshops this year to enhance my understanding and sharing my know how with others.  I have realised that I always look for what's going to push the student, egg them on to ask questions, to look at themselves as stakeholders in their learning process and something that adds value to their existing experience of learning. "

"With the EU Referendum creating a divide Britain, many of us have been left wondering how we as educators can help heal the wounds. I was pondering this exact dilemma and came to a conclusion - Through the classroom. This week, I have been on an English as an Additional Language placement as a student in a school with a high concentration of pupils that are Black minority ethnic and/or have English as an additional language. It was a school-rich in all languages, that celebrates six religious days as well as observing all nearly all social action justice days. The children were welcoming and accepting of everyone that didn't look or sound quite like them. "

"Any research based or inquiry-based project seems to work well for me. I enjoy leading the children through the process of developing a research question. It's always interesting to hear what goes on in the minds of these inquisitive learners. Last year my grade 8 (14-year-olds) were working on the impact of government systems on individual and Societies. Students took up the case studies of India and Pakistan, some of them worked on Arab-Israeli conflict, and yet another group picked the Berlin Wall and its impact on the population."

"When you have a specific interest, it can be difficult to learn more about it from people in your immediate circle of influence. Teaching is broad and we all have that one area we love just a little more than the others. This is why I sought out to understand more about Professional Learning Networks (PLN) and their value to teachers. I am often trying to persuade my peers to get online so they can reap the benefits that I am."

"In an ever demanding world the need to balance school and home life has never been greater. Recently I explored and shared with staff the 80/20 principle."

Technology is often lambasted for creating lazy, passive cyber couched-potatoes. While the hours we endure bathed in flickering pixel light, slumped in a variety of contorted lurching positions over the input device of our choice is hardly the recipe for a healthy body. Yet, technology is becoming ever more part of our active lives and it is also spilling out into the 'real' world. As teachers, we can insist technology, or we can make it part of our classroom repertoire for PE and beyond.

"Have you ever had a class who are ready to work, have fantastic ideas, know the basic structure of a paragraph or story, yet seem to falter when actually writing? How about those children that freeze at the sight of a blank page of lines to fill? You must have taught one or two children who start a story well, then drift off into a tangent even they can't pick themselves back from. Structure Strips can help to solve all of these regular challenges for teachers, at the crucial stage of children demonstrating what they know and demonstrating this on the page."

"Genius Hour: From discussions with Primary school teacher friends of mine it was pointed out that something happened in Year 7 that changed students from the risk taking and independent learners that they were in Year 6 into passive learners by the end of Year 7. I had noticed the same thing with my own niece as she transitioned from primary to secondary, so I started to think about what was causing it. The more I looked the more I noticed that in secondary there is very little opportunity for students to make choices or take ownership of their learning and I wanted to change this."

"A number of challenges stand between schools and effective, valuable engagement with parents Schools can improve parental engagement by revolutionising the way they communicate with families via a cost effective app."