Over the past year, I have found great solace in trying to improve my bass playing, mainly as a distraction from the stresses of education and as a way of stabilising my mental health. As the worst member of the greatest (cough) staff band around – The Lines – I have always tried to bring …
Tag Archives: teaching
BEWARE THE ZOMBIE TEACHER!
After the financial crisis of 2008, a phenomenon emerged in the business world that has continued to this day – the ‘zombie’ business. This is a business that staggers along, earning enough money to cover its debt but not enough to pay it off. It covers daily expenses but doesn’t make enough to invest in …
REBEL IDEAS IN EDUCATION
Recently I have been reading Matthew Syed’s ‘Rebel Ideas’ and his books are always rather thought provoking from an educational perspective. Previously he has written ‘Bounce’ that looked at Carol Dweck’s ‘growth mindset’ theory and ‘Black Box Thinking’ that leaned very hard on ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ by Atul Gawande, which inspired the book for schools …
Finding the Fun
Over the last year or so you may have watched a Katelyn Ohashi gymnastic floor display but if not, you should watch one. Do it now. Click the link. They are great! They are great for a number of reasons. Clearly when you watch one, you can see the incredible skills involved and the strength …
The GUILT of REMARKS and the QUESTION of INEQUALITY and SUBJECTIVITY
I have just had a student go up from a grade 6 to an 8 in Economics. I’m delighted for the student and would argue that the mark now reflects their skills as an economist. In fact, I have had 3 or 4 students go up grades across GCSE and A Level and expect more …
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PASS THE PARCEL
Sometimes my students will ask me why I became a teacher. I tell them that I wanted to be an Economics teacher from the age of 15 because I really liked my Economics teachers. Not many comprehensive schools offered Economics at GCSE (and still don’t) but I was lucky enough that mine did and I …
The Joy of Podcasts – using podcasts to enrich learning!
With the rise in the listening of podcasts, educators may wish to consider curating their own content to enrich their students and help fellow teachers. This is what we have been doing with regards the teaching of Economics and we would recommend it for others as well. Every teacher is faced with a specification for …
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Statement of Intent
Here is a link to Ofsted which discusses the busting of the ‘intent’ myth. https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/01/busting-the-intent-myth/
Introducing…
Hello everyone…I have entered the world of blogging in order to record my thoughts on the wonderful world of teaching, as well as education more widely. I’ve taught for 20 years now and thought it would be a good time to share my wisdom. Having said that though, I am with Socrates when he said …
On Teaching... 