Mind the Gap: Building Writers

DISCLAIMER: There are a number of elements which I know will make certain people cry (and that's ignoring the fact I'll have made a thousand grammatical errors) in this post so I'll give you some fairly heavy hints: 1) I refer to Hattie 2) I use the word progress. 3) We read Stone Cold by …

Pedagoo London Presentation

Me interrupting myself a lot trying to squeeze in to ten minutes something I can barely explain in an hour... Monster Masterchef explained. Ish!

Monster Masterchef

Excuse the anecdotal nature of this post but as yet I'm not sure how else to present it! For those of you who were at #PedagooLondon don't actually search for me via 'Jenny' on Google...God knows what you'll get! So... Monster Masterchef is a short term project which was undertaken by my year 8s last …

Significant and legitimate silence

I learnt early on last year to use the word silence, over the word quiet, when I wanted just that. No confusion there: “Silence please” (pleadingly).  Job done.  However, alongside my requirement for silence to give instruction, general knowledge, facts about me or more importantly before I let them leave my humble abode I have often …

Loving Literacy

I have decided I love literacy. Which, I suppose, is a useful trait as an English teacher. Yet I have recently realised this love comes from the fact that I'm not entirely (or even partially) at one with the rules of English grammar. I am not a brilliant speller, I have only a basic knowledge of English …

Christmas Creativity

Blackout Poetry Updated Nov 2014: link to the PPT I usually use and instructions here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6sfl9yt5shsfxjf/AAAMLcnG9A9xgXrMy1lEvD-fa?dl=0 What started off as a plea for ideas to shut up my year 10s who needed to be quiet for those completing their controlled assessments turned it many lessons of fun and surprisingly quiet chaos thanks to Michael Smith …

Meeting in the forest and FAQs

This week I had the opportunity to pop along to TeachMeet Brock. Another great event where people who quite like what they do rock up to try and do somethings better. In my minute experience TeachMeets are usually full of people who don't want to stop learning. It is the belief, which is so generously …

My Mini Adventure: I went to Clevedon and all I got was this laminated map and some rock…

This week has been a very long one. I was a little tired after my first real NQT observation on Wednesday. However, this lull couldn't last long as tradition states that after Wednesday is Thursday; and Thursday brought an inspirational evening at a wonderful Teach Meet hosted by Clevedon School. I still can't believe I …

“I remember about the rabbits George…”

Please ignore grammatical and spelling mistakes: I am ranting. Today I taught the same lesson twice. The first time it was observed. I don't know how well I did yet but I'm doing what I'm meant to do and OBSESSIVELY REFLECTING. That's what Wilshaw wants isn't it? So it was not horrific, nor awful, nor …

Deeper Thinking and Questioning Solutions

I am currently teaching my year 9s a very interesting yet (I find) confusing module. It is a scheme of work which I have been given the lovely job of rewriting over the next term. That is fine because I think it does need some reshaping in order to focus it further on the English …