One of my main goals this year was to find better ways to establish and maintain close connections with whanau (families) in order to create a supportive environment for students. Home-school connections are strong in primary school, but significantly weaker in senior high school. As a parent myself, I know how important the home-school link
Assessment for learning strategies can sometimes be difficult to implement in the classroom, but Jennifer English’s blog post Trying to embed some simple formative assessment into my practice highlights how it can be done. Her comments about the use of the ‘no hands-up classroom’ and the importance of ‘thinking time’ encouraged me to post my
Are school working parties a waste of time? My old maths teacher once told me that there are three kinds of people in the world: those who get stuck in and make things happen, those who let things happen and those who wonder what the bloody hell has happened. She was standing over me at
Not a lot it would seem. I have just finished marking over 75 writing portfolios each with two pieces of writing over 500 words long and needing to be scrutinized multiple times. It took me 15 hours and involved reading over 100,000 words. Was it a complete waste of my time? Pretty much. What bothers
The FOCUS lesson is the second phase of the instructional model I am attempting to use in my classroom. It follows on from the first phase: Experiential Engagement and is explained in The Formative Assessment Action Plan. A vital aspect of the teaching and learning cycle is providing FEED UP in order to to establish
The goal of experiential engagement is to hook students at the beginning of a unit or lesson in order to motivate them to want to learn. The idea is to set up an activity that allows learners to personally connect to the topic and find some authentic context. The concept is explained in more detail
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde My rating: 5 of 5 stars Whilst it is true that the world needs another dystopian novel about as much as it needs a meteorite strike, this is an awesome book. It was a good companion through a long, troubled night. I tried to put it down, but sleep
My goal for 2016 is to effectively embed AFL (Assessment for learning) practices into my teaching. I’ve mentioned elsewhere the fact that AFL practices top the list of the most effective strategies to improve student learning and yet almost 20 years after the original research they are still not being implemented successfully in the majority
The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture by Jackie Gerstein My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was very excited when I read the blurb on this book as it offered to answer the pressing question about what to do with class time once you flip the classroom. The book explores how the flipped classroom can
The Formative Assessment Action Plan: Practical Steps to More Successful Teaching and Learning by Nancy Frey My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is one of the more useful books about how to embed formative assessment practices into classroom teaching. What makes this book a lot better than many others is the fact that it
