(Image credit: Jonathan Kim – https://www.flickr.com/photos/jkim1/452830868) If a student can’t write, all eyes turn to the English department. Whether it is a brief in an Art lesson or a write up of a science experiment, if the writing isn’t up to standard then those deemed responsible for creating perfect prose-producers feel the heat. There is major …
Teaching Writing Isn’t Just for English Teachers Read More »
School starts again on Monday for me and so it is an appropriate time to procrastinate…sorry, I mean plan for the year ahead. Now, I know that the best laid plans of mice and men are quickly waylaid when September gets into full swing, but I want to commit to making some changes to my …
(Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt) We so often get assessment wrong in schools. Under perennial accountability pressures, assessment often loses it chief purpose: aiding learning. Today, in Sheffield, hundreds of teachers are gathering to discuss assessment at the ‘Learning First’ conference, headed by Dame Alison Peacock and hosted by Sheffield Hallam University, and it is timely that …
“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify … into every corner of our minds.” John Maynard Keynes Knowledge is power, without doubt. What is an education if not the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. And yet, we should be mindful of the rather …
This blog series was inspired by the simple and complex truth, offered by Professor Rob Coe, that we need to get students thinking hard to learn best. The first post in my series, entitled ‘Thinking Hard…And Why We Avoid It‘, explores why our students’ lazy brains let them down and how their thinking is …
Thinking Hard… Practical Solutions for the Classroom Read More »
If you don’t know about Ron Berger’s ‘Austin’s Butterfly’ you really should. I am writing a series of short posts that quote directly from educators who have inspired my thinking about education and more. Here is the first edu-quote for your reading pleasure. Ron Berger, in his excellent book, ‘An Ethic of Excellence‘, …
Edu-Quote: Ron Berger on the ‘Crisis in Education’ #2 Read More »
“If a single flap of a butterfly’s wing can be instrumental in generating a tornado, so can all the previous and subsequent flaps of its wings, as can the flaps of the wings of millions of other butterflies, not to mention the activities of innumerable more powerful creatures, including our own species.” Edward Lorenz, …
