Spelling in the Stone Age December 3, 2009

Aye, it takes me back.
Enjoy.

My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. A. A. Milne September 14, 2009

 
 

 What does this spell? Answers on a (virtual) postcard please.

Spelling causes all sorts of problems, not least for teachers. In an increasingly complex world and with the advent of a new curriculum, we need to re-evaluate our methods of teaching literacy. We all know that language learning is holistic and develops in relation to the [...]

Visual Literacy, Learning and the Graphic Novel and Manga August 20, 2009

I’ve just been to an interesting talk at the Book Festival with Dr Mel Gibson (no, not that one) talking about using Graphic Novels and Manga when teaching children and young people literacy skills.
She gave us a whirlwind tour of such books, few of which I had heard of.
I am aware of Colin McNaughton and [...]

Using web2tools for research, administration and teaching July 27, 2009

 
Here are some video guides from ESCalate on the use of web2 tools that I’ll be checking out as soon as I get away from holiday mode:

These web2practice guides explain how emergent web technologies like RSS, microbloging, pod-casting and social media can enhance your working practice. Each available guide currently consists of a short animated video [...]

Assessment Paradigms June 23, 2009

Which one do you subscribe to?:
All students are basically the same and learn in the same way. Therefore instruction and testing can be standardised.
There are no standard students. Each is unique. Therefore teaching and testing must be individualised and varied.
Norm- or criterion-referenced standardised test scores are the main and most accurate indicators of students’ [...]

Dyslexia Friendly Schools Pledge June 18, 2009

Dyslexia Friendly Schools
Here is a video clip from teachers tv. I can’t seem to embed it. Sorry. It’s worth looking at if you have 15 minutes. It looks at ‘increasing the understanding of what it is to be a learner with dyslexia at school and offers innovative classroom strategies to help dyslexic pupils to [...]

“We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides” (Saint Ignatius of Loyola) June 15, 2009

John Connell’s superb dissection of The Delusion of Status-Conferred Authority has prompted me to write this piece:
Imagine this.
A teacher who, like many others, spends much of her non-working life reading, thinking, breathing education, is denied permission to attend an event not unlike the one described here. Denied, because she does not have a strategic role [...]

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. May 28, 2009

Come to the edge, he said
They said, We are afraid
Come to the edge, he said
They came.
He pushed them
and they flew.
(Appollinaire)
 

Down behind the dustbins May 21, 2009

Ascension Day was traditionally used by many landowners to impress boundaries on children before maps were common. They used such memory aids as dunkings in cold ponds and streams, tree climbing and hazardous rooftop scrambles. Another method of making the children remember the delimitations was to beat them with thin rods: [...]

Industrial vs Information Age? May 20, 2009

My, was I grumpy when I wrote my last post.
I realise that my tirade about digital technologies was sparked by insecurity after reading lots of stuff for the Education2020 unconference.  (I was definitely in the Anger mode of the Grief/Change cycle and am now moving on to Bargaining!).
I fully embrace the notion of [...]