How do you feel today?

Working at a school this Friday, I came across a resource that I really liked but I could see that, with a few tweaks, it could be even more useful. So, I’ve made my own version of it.

Each ‘emoticon’ has beneath it a strip of five boxes that could indicate intensity or that could be [...]

In praise of Portable Apps

For almost all of the time I have been teaching, I have been spoilt. Of course I didn’t realise this until things changed but having one’s own teaching room is an enormous advantage in a teacher’s pressurised working day. Working from one room means there are a vital few minutes between one lesson and the [...]

IWB choice

If, like me, you use an interactive whiteboard (or IWB for the acronym obsessed) for much of the active content of lessons, then you’ll often find yourself feeling frustrated by the software developers behind such devices.
In the UK there are two varieties of IWB that have found favour in our secondary schools, abbreviated by teachers [...]

Doing Lit. with reluctant learners

One of the joys of my teaching life is to find ways to bring the learner to the learning no matter where they start from. This skill has been tested recently as I have been working with a group of highly reluctant (some might say ‘resistant’ or even ‘out and out hostile’) learners.
In my school [...]

How to write a scheme of work

Whether its the renewed Secondary Framework or the revamped National Curriculum, I have found that much of my outreach time in recent weeks has centred on writing schemes of work. And yes, I do agree that they should properly be called Schemes of Learning or even Learning Schemes but we teachers are an odd lot [...]

Audacity

Ah, it must be Monday again and, ensconced in my comfy thinking chair, I thought it would be a good time to share a few practical tips on using audio in lessons.
Firstly, if you haven’t already done so, investigate the wonderful computer program, called Audacity. Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing [...]

Sometimes you find the perfect thing

Ever heard of SnagIt? Well, this post is one for those ICT-curious teachers who are looking for tools that can create (among others things) interactive resources for their students.
I must admit I am attracted by the possibility of using Flash animations in my lessons but simply do not deem such labour-intensive resources worthwhile for everyday [...]

Making up words

At the end of an intense period of learning there are often a few moments where students are at ease and free for a few seconds to resume playful behaviours that were postponed when they entered your classroom.
One such moment occurred recently in my Year 11 group. Jane, a very hard-working student, took up a [...]

Buoyant in a sea of ideas

On Friday it was my privilege to be challenged by the ideas of Dr. Barry Hymer. Our pyramid of schools had invited Dr Hymer to share ideas on creating an ethos of enquiry-led learning. To my shame, I had not encountered his ideas before nor those of his colleagues working in the field of philosophy [...]

Invisible differentiation

We’ve all heard that metaphor for swans – you know the one, bird serenely gliding on the surface hiding legs frantically paddling beneath. It’s an image that often comes to mind when I see the best teachers. Of course, make it look too easy and observers think it is; a trap that newly qualified teachers [...]