Bastow Middle Leaders in Schools Conference: My Reflections
I’ve written this post more as a reflection for myself rather than piece for anyone else, but if something resonates with you, I’d love to chat about it. I’ve got lots to untangle after this. I recently attended the inaugural Bastow Middle Leaders in Schools conference. The conference was, as always with Bastow, high quality … Continue reading Bastow Middle Leaders in Schools Conference: My Reflections
Emily and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Professional Development Session
Illustration by the very talented Ashlin Day The presenter started five minutes late and said “Can you see my screen?” and we all said “No”. I could tell this was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad professional development session. The presenter spent 10 minutes giving us an overview of what they … Continue reading Emily and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Professional Development Session
6+1 Traits of Writing Mentor Texts: Voice
This post is part of a series of posts on mentor texts I recommend for showing students how authors use the 6+1 Traits of Writing. What is the voice trait? The writing trait of voice is “the tone and tenor of the piece – the personal stamp of the writer, which is achieved through a … Continue reading 6+1 Traits of Writing Mentor Texts: Voice
6+1 Traits of Writing Mentor Texts: Organisation
This post is part of a series of posts on mentor texts I recommend for showing students how authors use the 6+1 Traits of Writing. What is the Organisation trait? The writing trait of organisation involves “the internal structure of the piece, the thread of meaning, the logical pattern of ideas“. Ruth Culham (6+1 Traits … Continue reading 6+1 Traits of Writing Mentor Texts: Organisation
A Spelling Investigation in Action
One of the ways I approach spelling with my students is to use spelling investigations. A spelling investigation requires a student or group of students to inquire into a spelling pattern, sound, or observation about how words are spelled, and then to find and sort examples of this and create generalisations about spelling based on … Continue reading A Spelling Investigation in Action
Getting Started with Writer’s Notebook
What is a Writer’s Notebook? Sometimes called the ‘messy attic of the mind’, the writer’s notebook is a magical place. It’s a place writers can collect, store, grow and nurture their ideas for writing. It is often filled with a collection of seeds (artefacts that provoke writing) like photos, sketches, holiday mementos, lists, news clippings, … Continue reading Getting Started with Writer’s Notebook
The New Normal: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
Written for the DLTV Journal in April 2020 as a follow up to my first blog post responding to teaching amidst Coronavirus. This reflection outlines my school’s approach to Remote Learning 1.0. It is a difficult time for teachers. There is so much scrutiny and attention on what schools are doing right now. It feels … Continue reading The New Normal: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
Relief Sets In: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
I entered the early school holidays in a state of paralysis. To be clear, I always enter the school holidays in some sort of zombie-fied state. It’s near impossible to make it to the end of term without clawing your way through your front door on the last day and collapsing on the couch from … Continue reading Relief Sets In: Teaching Amidst Coronavirus
How I’m Spending the Class Budget
In the last few days you have probably been given a few hundred dollars for your class budget and a catalogue for some ordering. Come the Back-To-School season, a Norah Ephron film would recommend a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils, but I personally am a paper-fiend. I am ashamed to admit how much I love … Continue reading How I’m Spending the Class Budget
Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
Do you need a great cooperative game? This one will sweep them away. I play Island Survival with year 4, 5, and 6s either at the beginning or end of the year and it is always a hit! They often ask for it again. It’s a great game that allows for problem solving, justification, reasoning, … Continue reading Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
9 Types of Reading Journal Entries
A typical independent reading task in my classroom consists of reading and a response to reading. A response to reading usually is done in the reading journal. It helps students to confidently and independently respond to texts if, over the year, you help them build up a bank of reading journal entry types that they … Continue reading 9 Types of Reading Journal Entries
Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
You know that time towards the end of the school year, where you start dreaming about your next class and all the things you will do better next year? The more I teach, the more I am concentrating not so much on what I do, but on the impact of my actions on students’ learning and … Continue reading Mrs Fintelman’s End of Year Report
Effort and Achievement Charts
Carol Dweck’s work around growth and fixed mindsets has been groundbreaking for education. It has reinforced for educators that is it essential to praise effort, not intelligence. This has led to change in the way educators speak and lots of us are doing great work in the way we provide feedback to students based on … Continue reading Effort and Achievement Charts
Mulling Time
The topic of what good professional learning looks like is always contentious. Some of us love to sit and listen and soak up some new knowledge from a great speaker. Others argue that the best professional learning happens in schools with colleagues through inquiry, observation and dialogue. I think that there is a place for … Continue reading Mulling Time
Show a Pro
Do you get annoyed when your students come to you for every little thing? Or conversely, maybe you sometimes feel yourself getting frustrated when one of your students speaks up about something they know lots about, rudely interrupting you when you are trying to teach that very same thing to the class. Schools and teachers … Continue reading Show a Pro
The One Best Pedagogy
Teaching is like walking through a maze… you are often sure that the turn you took was the right decision, but you’ll never be able to be absolutely sure that the turn you ignored wouldn’t also have been a good one. A thought that has been weighing on my brain is something I heard Mike Mattos say at a PD … Continue reading The One Best Pedagogy
How to Let Your Students Set Up Their Own Classroom
You know that feeling you get? That one where you finally have had enough of your summer break, take yourself into school, and look at the blank walls of your new year’s classroom, just itching to fill it with colour and decorations and a reading corner and intriguing objects and all sorts of learning? Isn’t there … Continue reading How to Let Your Students Set Up Their Own Classroom
The Things that Counted: Reflecting on 2016
When I moved up to grade 4/5 last year after teaching only the early years in my career so far, one of the things I both looked forward to and most feared was how to engage students in their learning by making it real. At the end of that year, I chatted with my kids about what … Continue reading The Things that Counted: Reflecting on 2016
Why I Hate Classroom Themes
At the beginning of each school year, my Pinterest feed fills up with tons of pictures that fall under the heading of “Classroom Inspiration”. Teacher friends will send pictures of their freshly decorated rooms to each other with questions about where to put the book corner. Ikea experiences a massive spike in sales of those giant canopy leaves … Continue reading Why I Hate Classroom Themes
Hexagonal Thinking
Hexagonal Thinking is a visual tool to help people make connections and organise ideas on a topic. I first learned about hexagonal thinking through the No Tosh Lab who encourage the use of it for going from the messy idea stage of the designing thinking process to the stage where ideas are organised and ordered to work … Continue reading Hexagonal Thinking
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