One year of blogging…

I actually didn’t want anyone to find this blog when I first started writing it. To be honest, I just wanted a place to organise my thoughts about being a young teacher in England who was attempting to make sense of the complexity of the classroom.  It’s now humbling to see that my blog is…

The modelling toolkit: 4 essential pieces of kit every teacher should have.

Just like playing football isn’t possible without a decent pair of boots and shin pads…great modelling needs a great toolkit! Here’s four things I use all the time – is there any you would add?

Modelling: What it is and Why it matters

“Where was the modelling in that lesson?” asked a colleague who observed my teaching in my first few weeks. After she spoke, I searched my brain for an adequate answer to this question and found nothing…I didn’t really know what it meant, not in the classroom anyway.

Book Review: Making Every Primary Lesson Count by Jo Payne and Mel Scott

My next review as part of my Reading Challenge 2018, for more details on this see here; a must read for all primary/elementary teachers. “Success cannot be defined by the government or a test and it certainly isn’t about labeling children. It is unique and personal to each individual, and it is our job as…

6 Features of Excellent Explanations

My last post attempted to explain why excellent explanations are so important in teaching. In this post I will try to draw together the many brilliant things that have been said by others on the topic of explanations to try and see if there are features of this core teaching skill that cut across phases…

Excellent Explanations (Part 1)

Excellent Explanations Part In this first of a series of blog posts, I want to argue for the power of accurate, clear and efficient teacher explanations in the learning process and why they are so important. Teaching is Explaining: A lesson learnt Part way through my first year of teaching I delivered a maths lesson…