Would you change the way you use language to keep your friends?

Love this video from the National Union of Teachers (UK) – please tell me things have changed a bit since then! – and while it might seem archaic, it might be an interesting jumping off point for students to think about how they adapt what they say, and write, when online and off. Discussion points […]

Don’t push me

Our first round of Cluster meetings in the Wellington region have now finished. We have been party to wide-ranging discussions on issues concerning implementing the revised Curriculum, some of which I have raised in other posts (hollow laughter at the mention of one day release time, for example). A dominant topic – that of the […]

10 ideas changing the face of English teaching…?

Time magazine’s 10 ideas that are changing the world (last week’s edition) has seen me mulling over what an educationally themed list, with an English twist, might look like? Everyone loves a list. There’ll be something to condemn, something thing that strikes a chord and plenty of mulling about what has been omitted. Here’s my […]

Squid-tastic

Me: If the revised curriculum was an animal, what might it be? English teacher: A squid, obscured by its own ink. Nice response, I thought. It’s tricky to get all the parts moving together, its slippery, its inky-ness makes it hard to see what’s really going on…. The opening gambit was my ‘warm up’ attempt […]