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Reflections and articles around teaching and learning.
Teaching as a ‘Calling’: The Unseen Strain on Educators
I was thinking about the downside of referring to teaching as a ‘calling’ when I came across a fascinating blog post from 2015. Written and updated by John Merrow, as the title suggests, it discussed the correct naming of teaching, Is Teaching a Profession, an...
Staff Shortage? Online Coaching Empowers Out-of-Field Teachers
School leaders, we hear you. Staff shortages are no joke, and relying on out-of-field teachers can feel like a gamble. But what if you could transform them into confident, effective educators without spending a fortune on individual coaching? What do we mean by...
Teachers & AI in K-12 Schools – Call for action research participants.
Context We have all been benefiting from AI for quite some time, albeit most of us didn’t know. Think Siri and Alexa, Netflix and Spotify, search engines and analytics, natural language processing and fraud detection. However it became a really hot topic when...
Marvel, DC, Simon Sinek and Origin Stories
I don’t know if it is just me, as a mother of grown up twin boys, but I get the distinct impression that popular movies, of the last couple decades, have been largely connected to the Marvel and DC universes. I do enjoy the movies, though I have seen fewer now that...
Why aren’t we talking about out-of-field English teaching in Australia?
This article was first published in EducationHQ on July 12th 2021It is ironic that the fields of literacy and numeracy, which are debated endlessly and sit at the base of NAPLAN and PISA testing, are the subjects in schools most likely to be taught by out-of-field...
Primary vs Secondary Trained. What really makes a Great Teacher?
I have always been a little in awe of primary school teachers. To daily wrangle with a room full of small children takes a special skill set and level of patience. I much preferred classes of large noisy teenagers. There was less chance that I would break them. The...
Students learned a lot in 2 years. Pity our government didn’t.
It actually breaks my heart that for the 3rd year in a row our schools in Australia, and the gifted educators who run them, are faced with uncertainty. Our educators deserve better and the students and parents they serve definitely deserve better.In an article I wrote...
Who wants to silence universities, lawyers and journalists?
What kind of government wants to silence universities, lawyers and journalists? To understand how badly education sectors are hurt by the 2021/2022 federal budget it is necessary to be aware of one critical fact. That the government used a global pandemic to force...
Some Fun with Shakespeare
As we approach, once again, the day of Shakespeare’s birth and death, the faithful among us, (some would say nerds) start revisiting the Bard’s canon and the enormity of his influence. This is a serious, and at the same time not serious, undertaking. There is much...
I never quite got podcasts – until we started one
I never quite got podcasts It is probably partly because of my ADHD, but I couldn’t see the point. People listened while driving, running and shopping to name only a few activities. When I am driving I am listening to music. It is background noise and doesn’t require...
Post Covid: Teachers – 10 Pollies – Nil
There have been innumerable conversations about the effect of the covid pandemic on education. Many of these conversations have been valuable. However, the most valuable conversation, about what teachers can and will do, is not being had. In essence the...
Claims Students will fall behind are about ATAR not Learning.
We need to stop the noise about students falling behind during these lockdowns. It is a useful political tool as parents are easily triggered by threats to the children. But it is just noise and the question we need to ask is: Behind what? There seems to...
To All the School Leaders I have Bitched about, I’m Mostly Sorry.
A few days ago I came across a post in an education group which was poking some fun at school principals. There was definitely no malice intended, or any disrespect, but it made me think. An article from the Sydney Morning Herald in April 2019 has recently resurfaced....
What Do We Want to Take Forward?
Today, in most states of Australia, a number of our youngest students are heading back to school following a very long break. Many students, teachers and parents will be feeling a combination of excitement and anxiety. Most of us are dealing with the critical...
In Relation to Schools the PM offers Smoke and Mirrors.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about the federal government's unethical and egregious treatment of both our federation’s constitution and our students and teachers. I thought it couldn’t get much worse. But I was wrong. Not content with setting up...
Angry All Over Again
I am angry again and my heart is breaking. The response to the article I published on Friday was encouraging. I was pleased that I had been able to speak on behalf of teachers.This morning I sat to answer the emails we had received. Responses were overwhelmingly...
Morrison’s Gaslighting of the Teaching Profession.
As the federal government in Australia pushes for schools to reopen, evidence is starting to appear that children are not as immune as was first thought.
Quality PD for teachers: What It Looks Like And Why It’s So Necessary
Mentoring and Coaching for Teachers. There has been a lot of talk recently about the value of mentoring and coaching as professional development for teachers in K-12. That is, having experienced senior teachers assisting new or inexperienced teachers. The two latest...
EduTECH_AU 2019
We Teach Well was fortunate to receive a Global Victoria and EduGrowth sponsorship to the 2019 EduTECH conference in Sydney back in June. It was certainly an experience. I had been to other EdTech events but nothing came close to this. For Judy it was her first foray...
What is this ‘marking the roll’ problem?
Probably electronic roll marking will become de rigueur, but let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let us find other ways to ensure that every student hears their name spoken by an adult with respect, at least once in every lesson.
‘Soft Skills’ need a better PR Agent.
It is 3 years since I made my geriatric foray into the wonderful world of EdTech. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating the geriatric bit, but not much. As a woman in her 60s I often find myself as the oldest person in the room and often the room shows surprise at my...
Who will tackle the crisis in Education?
Teaching as a profession is facing a crisis. How are we going to fix it?
In Defence of Speaking
Just as literacy is fluency in reading and writing oracy is fluency in speaking and listening. The ability to convey thoughts and ideas orally in a way that others understand and to understand what others say.
Understanding Film Soundtracks
There are at least three standard tracks in any film soundtrack. Dialogue Music Effects Dialogue The dialogue is the backbone of the story. If the writing is not good or the dialogue is not delivered well it really doesn’t matter what else is good. There has...
The Value of Storyboards in the English classroom
It Began with Disney. In the early 1930s, when Disney was at the height of its creativity in cartoon animation, it was common practice for the artists working at the studio to pin their rough sketches onto bulletin boards. They would do this in order to visually...
Why are Archetypes Important in Film?
An archetype is an original model of something, what we may call a prototype. According to television producer Aaron Spelling there are only 5 stories and they have all been told. The job of the modern producer or filmmaker is to find new ways of telling them. These 5...
How Much of What We See Is Real?
This post is a little shorter than the last ones have been, but the subject matter is critical to teaching film in our classrooms. It is important to remember that our students have never lived in a world without television and film. For them the visual mediums are...
What Makes a Film a Classic
I don’t know about you but I get really peeved when people use the word ‘classic’ as a synonym for ‘old’ or ‘dull.’ People arguing against the inclusion of classic literature in English courses invariably infer that if a text is a classic then it is old and...
Reading Film in the English Classroom.
Just as literacy is the ability to read, understand and make meaning from written texts, visual literacy is the ability to do that with visual texts.
Proven ways to get students reading.
How do I get my students to read? That is one of the enduring issues that teachers of English and literature everywhere constantly struggle with. Decades of teaching have shown us that there are things we can do to help engage our students with the wonderful world of literature.
A Confession, an Apology and Bright Shiny Objects
Bright Shiny Objects (BSO): Any new, interesting, intriguing, colourful idea, strategy or possibility. Designed to excite, stimulate, side-track, deviate and beguile. Guaranteed to deflect focus. Confession Long before it was diagnosed many of my students labelled me...
6 Strategies for Building Rapport with Students.
Imagine you walked into a cafe and saw a friend. When they noticed you they frowned or looked gloomy. You would probably feel pretty dismal. You certainly wouldn’t feel confident that they were happy to see you. On the other hand if, on seeing you, they looked...
What my Naughty Dog taught me about Students.
I have a very naughty dog. He was adopted from the SPCA in Singapore when I was teaching there and was about 2 years old at the time. For the first few days he was quite tentative and unsure of me, but that did not last long. By the end of the first week he would race...
For Teachers -The Times They Are A Changin.
Why teachers didn’t get a mention in Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit song is a mystery to me. Writers, parents and politicians are mentioned and of course they are important, but surely great teachers are significant instruments of change. That teaching as a profession has...
Why Do Passionate People Teach?
Reasons People choose to Teach. There are a stack of different reasons why people go into teaching, especially teaching English. Between 1950 and 1978 in Australia, Secondary Teaching was one of the few things you could get government funding for to go to University....
Why Teach English?
Why I teach English The second greatest surprise of my life came when I realised that I loved teaching teenagers. Seriously, I was 35 years old and had spent the previous 20 years actively avoiding it. Where I grew up teaching and nursing were the only two options for...
