Scene 1 The glass doors slide open and a middle-aged lady enters the hall. She is dressed as if she has arrived straight from work and appears in a hurry. She scans the hall and refers to the flimsy piece of paper in her hand, trying to find where she should be going. Finally, she … Continue reading Sliding doors
Wear the damn earrings
My wife doesn't wear earrings. She stopped wearing them 25 years ago when she met me. I was an opinionated young man (as opposed to the opinionated older man I am now) and made it clear that I had no time for jewelry and piercing. She should have just carried on wearing them anyway, but … Continue reading Wear the damn earrings
Let knowledge drive your lessons
Thinking about the knowledge you want students to acquire is fruitful. We spend a great deal of time as teachers planning lessons and sequences of lessons, but perhaps not enough time considering the nature of the cognitive specimen in question. I am currently teaching Year 7 students how to use spreadsheets. Critical to basic spreadsheet … Continue reading Let knowledge drive your lessons
What was down the rabbit hole?
"You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Morpheus, The Matrix (1999) In 2015, I swallowed a red pill and accepted the uncomfortable … Continue reading What was down the rabbit hole?
The toilet roll market
In the late 1990s, I worked at a school with a formidable Headteacher. Her reputation had been partly forged during the era of Thatcher cuts to school funding. Legend had it that, at the height of the crisis, she had announced at a meeting of staff that from this point on everyone must bring in … Continue reading The toilet roll market
MBWA
I often get asked by one or other of my daughters what I've done at work that day. I usually give them one of two answers. I might say "Nothing exciting. A few meetings. Wrote a report. Had to sign stuff." These are the bad days when I've had to plough through the things that … Continue reading MBWA
The right stuff
At the risk of over simplifying things, don't children go to school to learn stuff? Okay, that's not the only reason, but can we agree that it is basically the point of school? But what stuff should they learn? Is it useful stuff (that will help them get a job), or relevant stuff (which they'll … Continue reading The right stuff
Enough is enough
"We are spending record amounts on our school funding. We are the third highest spender on education in the OECD" Nick Gibb on Radio 4's Today programme. After 2000 headteachers marched on Downing Street hoping to provoke the public in to outrage about school funding, Nick Gibb scored a tremendous own goal by claiming not … Continue reading Enough is enough
The Domain of Leadership
My daughter has a new, favourite TV show. It is called 'What would you do?". The premise is that various contentious situations are set up using actors, and members of the public are drawn in. Viewers are invited to think about what they would do in such a situation before watching how others react. The … Continue reading The Domain of Leadership
Bad homework
Don't worry, this isn't road-kill. I'm just dissecting a rat. The rat in question is 'bad homework'. Why does it happen? Much has been written about what constitutes good and bad homework, most recently this pithy blog post by Greg Ashman (it's hot off the press as I write and has prompted this response). I'm … Continue reading Bad homework
Matthew Evans 