Musings

Regularly I see you in my classroom. You are not there right away, but if I don’t manage to make the first five minutes of my lesson enticing (which, unfortunately happens more often than I like), then you appear. Even without staring right at you, I am aware that you are drifting off: the way you comfortably slump down into your chair (as comfortably as one can in a plastic chair designed to guard against the very mood you are settling in to); the shifting of your gaze to the window, with a quick first glance up at the clock; the strategic movement of your ar[...]

Teachers in our society aren’t viewed as professionals. This really hit home for me when I first saw myself through the eyes of a 14-year old boy. Let me take you into one of my classes a few years ago. I was giving a career-guidance lesson to my 9th graders and somehow university entrance came up. I had just finished explaining about my own Oxford interview experience and acceptance when Charlie, one of the most polite and definitely one of the brightest student I have ever had the privilege of teaching, raised his hand.      “Isn’t Oxford one of the b[...]

It was a hot, stuffy Thursday afternoon. I could hear my boisterous (read ‘challenging’) freshman class making their way down the hall as I desperately tried to gather the enthusiasm needed to teach the opening scenes of Romeo and Juliet. The previous evening had been a parent-teacher conference, so this particular Thursday came with its own special kind of exhaustion and despondency. Playing on loop in the back of my mind were all the discussions with difficult parents who wanted to know what I was going to do to get their child’s grade up; the chats with[...]

I love receiving emails from my readers and buyers: I enjoy connecting with like-minded people; I appreciate engaging in conversations about education; I value sharing in your experiences. Recently I had a reader email me to ask about how to get students reading the novels they study in class. read more[...]

For teachers in the Northern hemisphere, it’s summer which means time for that well-deserved vacation. For me, summer means long evenings, Pimms cocktails, Wimbledon, strawberries and lots of time to read. (Can you see how summer brings out the British in me?) Occasionally my thoughts drift to the upcoming new school year. And then I find myself thinking of the first impression I want my students to get as they walk into their new classroom – and what frame of mind I want them to come to me in. A new year brings with it the chance to wipe the slate clean and[...]

Student teaching: an exciting, daunting, overwhelming and thrilling experience. It’s the first time you step back into the classroom on the other side of the desk and realize that the view is rather different from here. Student teaching wasn’t all that long ago for me, and in the last few years, as I have sat at the back of the classroom and observed other student teachers, I have thought about the experience a lot. These are the eight things I believe all student teachers should know. 1. We were all student teachers once. Sadly, you will encounter many te[...]

Can you identify a particular teacher who shaped the person you are today? I can. Her name was Mrs Carter and she was simply wonderful. She wasn’t a big personality. She wasn’t a comedian or an entertainer. She didn’t have a commanding voice or a captivating teaching style. In fact, in many ways, and to many people, she was neither remarkable nor impressive. Yet to me, Mrs Carter was inspiring. A small lady, softly spoken and gentle; sat down when she taught, spoke quietly and listened intently. Classroom management was not her forte – but it didn[...]

I have a love-hate relationship with Grade 9. Walking into the classroom, you can almost smell the hormones in the air: the anxiety of teenagers trying to shake off primary school identities and find their ‘grown-up’ individuality; the adolescent angst; the confusion of young people trying to come to terms with growing up. You see the lovesickness in the eyes of those going through their first crush (which is so all consuming, don’t you dare tell them that their attention would better turned to prepositions for forty minutes). Childhood friendships shift[...]