When silent reading is practically a heinous crime

I still do silent reading but it is hard to keep finding the time

It’s ‘just the job’

So so so true and expressed so clearly

How do you solve a problem like 8X3?

Look around your English department. There are probably around ten people in it, right? Maybe slightly more or less, but let’s take that as an average. Day in, day out, they plan lessons and they input data and they prepare for exam classes, and you’d think that they’re basically okay.

Except for that one guy. He’s the one who looks visibly exhausted. Who talks about it in the staffroom, ashen-faced. Who gets to Friday and looks drained, and who always seems to be there until 7pm each night (and who you suspect probably works when he gets home too). He’s not going to last. He’s not got what it takes. He’ll be out in the next year, either by capability procedures or by his own means. That’s the reality of the job, isn’t it?

Only it’s not. Look again at that department – at your colleagues who express a frazzled…

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What if you never marked another book?

Source: What if you never marked another book?

After spending an hour and a half ‘marking’ 60 books with comments of the ‘you have done x’ variety and providing 40 of them with next steps purely for box-ticking purposes, I whole-heartedly agree with this post!

Being made to look incompetent.

Perfectly said!

The Musings Of A Teacher

I have always sworn that I will use my blog to promote positivity.  However, for one post only, I have to break that oath.  Michael Tidd’s post yesterday, among many others I have read, stirred up the anger and frustration that I have felt building for some weeks now.

So, we are still awaiting the long promised report from the DfE. The one that was promised last year and is going to answer all… most… some… well, maybe one or two of the questions that we have been battling over with our new and revolutionary assessment systems.

Last academic year, I trialled a new system in my year group. It worked well, but there were many questions that the parents asked which I couldn’t answer. Not because I don’t know my stuff, but because the answers hadn’t been given. So, I made assurances and promises. “It will all be ok,”…

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The Assessment Commission Report – my highlights

Source: The Assessment Commission Report – my highlights

Dear Ministers…

Source: Dear Ministers…    As always, Michael Tidd talking a lot of sense!

Students, Schools and Signature Pedagogies

ThinkSayWriteCheck

As well as a classroom teacher, I am an NQT and student mentor. Each term I attend meetings for these roles and, as requested, I note down the dates by which my student/NQTs observations need to take place, when their progress reports are due, how long our weekly meetings are supposed to be and whether or not I’m entitled to request non-contact time. These are necessary meetings, which explain the procedural requirements of the student teachers’ year. But I leave them dissatisfied, wondering when the second half is going to take place – the part where we discuss how we actually turn these baby-stepping students into the multi-tasking marathon runners they need to become.

For a profession necessarily obsessed by learning, we are strangely sloppy when it comes to our own. Where are the signature pedagogies which shape our on-the-ground, in-the-moment teaching of teachers? If we concur that good teachers…

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How to Have Difficult Conversations

Tabula Rasa

Like all professions, education is full of terrible leaders. There are lots of good ones out there, but a cursory glance at the odd teacher blog, or a tiptoe into the average staff room, would tell you that there are a lot of teachers who don’t really rate the people who lead them.

In the past, I have written about what I termed the ‘Bowling Ball’ approach to leadership. This particular leadership style is embodied by those leaders who take no responsibility for the failings of the school, but instead pass blame down the ranks towards the teachers, bashing them to smithereens on the way. This is not good for lots of reasons. Staff feel disempowered and less invested in the school; they lose confidence and are less likely to want to work hard; they sometimes become negative and complain. People need to feel like the people who lead them…

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Angry. So very angry.

Thank You To The Teachers!

I’m tempted to do one of these myself!

Kat Howard

I thought it would be nice to say a little thank you to the good ones. I’ve had some absolutely shocking teachers in my time (my secondary English teacher laughed in my face when I signed up for A level lit) but some absolute gems. I will share the good, the bad and the ridiculous. I think the collection sums up the quirks, spirals and highlights of education!

Mrs Muchall

From Guyana so an instant hit with my educationally suspicious West Indian father, this woman was amazing. I had a reading age of 10 at 5 and she would take me out of class reading to let me read the Hobbit out loud to her. She was the kindest lady on the planet and I don’t remember her with anything but a smile on her face.

Mr Baker

Now, if you want to be the most cool of all the…

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