The teaching is the point

When you’re in the throes of the school term it’s easy to think about the next holiday. To look forward with excitement to that dreamlike last ringing of the bell signalling the time to pack up and go home. Of course, that’s normal. Teaching is a hard job. It’s relentless and frustrating. It’s easy to …

Inspire your students with a creative writing workshop

My favourite part of teaching English has always been creative writing. I suppose that's no surprise considering I am a writer myself.   Last week (November 2019) I was asked to deliver a creative writing workshop for a school in Kent. It's something I'd thought about doing for a while, so when they asked, I …

The challenges of part-time teaching

“Well, it’s not going to be as difficult as teaching full time is it?”   That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? I knew it, and you’re right. I taught full time for five years and I know exactly what the challenges are. After those five years, I felt burned out. So in January 2018, I decided …

Essential advice for new teachers

As a new teacher, you'll be looking back over the last year and feel as though you've been through a whirlwind. You've learned so much, you've come so far, but you may still feel like there's a mountain to climb. I asked the teacher community on Twitter, "what piece of advice do you wish you …

Five things being a teacher has taught me

As teachers, we always talk about the progress of our students. We watch them arrive (if you're a secondary school teacher like me) bright-eyed in year 7, and grow almost unrecognizably through to year 11 and sometimes even on to the sixth form. It's one of my favourite parts of the job, which I always …

Five reasons not to work during the holidays

During any holiday season, there always seems to be a big split amongst the teaching community on social media. There are those who are using the time to get ahead with their marking, planning or even going into the classroom to get things organized for the first day back. Then there are those who believe …

Six ways to make time to read when you’re busy

As an English teacher and a writer, I'm obviously all for reading. It won't surprise you to know that when parents of my students ask me what they can be doing to help their children, 90% of the time reading is the answer. That's because of the transformative effect it has... but I think you …

Creative writing mini scheme of work

I love teaching creative writing and young people can be so good at it. They have such great ideas which, when harnessed, creates some great pieces of work. I've already shared the Creative Writing Structure Strips which are incorporated into this short scheme of work.   I've used this a number of times, often when …

The cost of focus

  At the start of the year (now nearly three months ago) I made a pledge that 2019 was going to be the year of focus. Read 2019 THE YEAR OF FOCUS here. In 2018 I felt I was starting a lot of new projects, and enjoying working on a lot of different things, but …

“I haven’t got time for that” re-thinking time scarcity

  "I haven't got time for that." "There just aren't enough hours in the day?" How often have you used one of the above phrases? I would guess, knowing the pressures of modern life, especially those for us involved in education, it's fairly frequent. It seems to be a symptom of our modern age that we're …