Inspiring creativity, positivity and an adventurous spirit. Teacher, writer and blogger.
A great lesson for the first week back in the new year. It's a reminder of common spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. DOWNLOAD THE POWERPOINT HERE: New Year's Resolutions for SPAG Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
Teaching students to follow a structure when being creative is something I try to avoid - the last thing I want to do is put a limit on their creativity. However, there is a trend when students are marked on descriptive writing (like in section B of paper 1 of the AQA Language exam) for …
Continue reading "Use this descriptive structure to focus your students’ creative writing"
Students not using paragraphs can be one of the most frustrating things. There's nothing worse than opening an exam paper to see the student has written five pages without a single break. I've been using this worksheet to get students to paragraph for years.
The third post in a series about how to improve the inference skills of your students, and why that's so important.
Inference is a difficult skill to learn, but it is an essential one for all students sitting written exams. With that in mind, I'm going to post for the next couple of weeks with some ideas you can use to develop students' inference skills, not just in English, but across the curriculum.
As a teacher who loves to travel, I try to bring the world into the classroom at every opportunity. I’m not just talking about discussing where I've been on holiday - I’m talking about using what’s around me to hook a student’s interest outside of the subject, then develop their understanding within it. Why? Young …
Creativity underpins imagination, resilience, versatility and empathy – so why do we spend so little time thinking about it? Most jobs of the future don’t currently exist – so young people will need to be creative. Of course, content is important – but increasingly people sink or swim on their skills and how creatively or …
Continue reading "Boost creativity in your life, classroom or home"
I think every teacher I've ever spoken to loves reading. I think it's part of the job. The fact you are reading this now is a symptom of it. But what you’re doing is the result of years of practice, dedication, mistakes and successes to make you “read fit” – you are an athlete and reading …
