Can you make the walls work?
Here is a great post about ‘the working wall’ – a classroom display that focuses on tracking the development of students’ skills (e.g. writing). There are great illustrations and explanations, as well...
View ArticleGraphic organisers on steroids
Here’s an unusual take on students’ notebooks: why not have movable parts and little pockets there? Probably only applicable to Secondaries, but it all depends on how you sell the idea to the students....
View ArticleBixby, how do you spell ‘bee’?
Bixby is the name of my favourite virtual assistant, but you might prefer Siri or, like Josh Underwood, Alexa. Whatever their name, AI virtual assistants are a fact of life and they can help us out in...
View ArticleHow creative is your creative writing?
Here is a wonderful account of a series of lessons on creative writing and literacy: could be useful for those projects with lower secondaries 🙂 The author was inspired by a picture book called...
View ArticleNever too old for Play-Doh
After my epic journey into the land of online teaching, I really want to do something tangible 🙂 How about Play-Doh from Martha Ramirez? She has excellent advice about using it with teens and adults:...
View ArticleReading Stevick 5 of 10
From drills, Stevick moves to memorisation: love those traces of the audiolingual approach! To memorise dialogues, he suggests using an interesting technique called ‘Memorising in 3D”. It’s done with a...
View ArticleFrom meh to great with one sticky note
As the students go in, they are invited to stick a post-it to one of the sections of the whiteboard: I’m fine, I’m meh, I’m struggling and so on. My first thought would be that it’s a sense of progress...
View ArticleInto the teacher’s bag
If you haven’t seen this lovely post by Lisa Jayne Wood, do check it out: she has great ideas about what to put into the teacher’s bag (including a ball of wool I linked to before). There are things...
View ArticleFeedback through name plates
I don’t know about you, but for me name plates are a staple in every lesson with a new group. They are easier to see than a name tag, they help you avoid many awkward situations when you forget or...
View ArticleStory cubes, anyone?
I’ve finally got my own set! And of course I’ve started scouring the Internet for interesting uses. Martin Sketchley has a lot of ideas that can be used as a starting point (make a story from one cube...
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More objects for the teacher’s bag
My posts are becoming (perhaps alarmingly) very practical: at the moment, nothing is more exciting to me than my own bag with cool markers, counting sticks, gaming dice, story cubes… Someone needs to...
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A time to gather calendars
Here is a wonderfully useful post by Naomi Epstein about collecting old paper calendars and using them in the classroom. Calendars are typically quite nice-looking, and you can use their pages for...
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Gestures, props and other attention-grabbers
I’ve just read Lisa Nielsen’s post about engaging learners with gesticulation, and now I’m curious: how many of us use gestures, objects and other things often enough? How much is enough? And how much...
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How creative is your creative writing?
Here is a wonderful account of a series of lessons on creative writing and literacy: could be useful for those projects with lower secondaries The author was inspired by a picture book called...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Never too old for Play-Doh
After my epic journey into the land of online teaching, I really want to do something tangible How about Play-Doh from Martha Ramirez? She has excellent advice about using it with teens and adults:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reading Stevick 5 of 10
Celcom CC BY 3.0 Wikipedia Commons From drills, Stevick moves to memorisation: love those traces of the audiolingual approach! To memorise dialogues, he suggests using an interesting technique called...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From meh to great with one sticky note
As the students go in, they are invited to stick a post-it to one of the sections of the whiteboard: I’m fine, I’m meh, I’m struggling and so on. My first thought would be that it’s a sense of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Into the teacher’s bag
If you haven’t seen this lovely post by Lisa Jayne Wood, do check it out: she has great ideas about what to put into the teacher’s bag (including a ball of wool I linked to before). There are things...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Feedback through name plates
I don’t know about you, but for me name plates are a staple in every lesson with a new group. They are easier to see than a name tag, they help you avoid many awkward situations when you forget or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Story cubes, anyone?
I’ve finally got my own set! And of course I’ve started scouring the Internet for interesting uses. Martin Sketchley has a lot of ideas that can be used as a starting point (make a story from one cube...
View Article
