If you are a teacher like myself then I am sure you have heard at least one, if not all of the myths below. Teachers, are constantly bombarded with common misconceptions about their occupation. While teachers know the truth, it seems that no one outside the teaching profession is aware of the amount of work, continuing education, and paperwork that…
As yoga is becoming more mainstream for adults in recent years, the benefits are indubitable; more and more schools are starting to embrace the power of yoga and mindfulness to improve the wellbeing of their students. Being a yoga newbie myself and a full time primary school teacher, I have been wondering about ways of bringing yoga into the classroom.…
It’s that time of the year when all teachers are busy writing reports! What stage are you at? Read on for the ten stages of report writing… 1. Initial shock when you find out that you have to start writing reports along with assessments, data collecting, marking and 500,000,000 other things on your to-do list. 2. Pretending you didn’t get…
I just love this comic to show the D.I.R.T acronym in a nutshell! If you are wondering what DIRT stands for you are in the right place! Read on to find out how you can get your DIRT on, in teaching… D.I.R.T is an acronym that stands for Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time. It’s the time you allocate for pupils…
Teachers love to teach but you know you’ve been teaching for too long when… 1. You go out in public and get an uncontrollable urge to correct other children’s behaviour. 2. Everything makes sense once you meet the parents. 3. You get your life back during holiday time. 4. You want to slap the next person who says to you,…
Child neglect is a form of child abuse and is a deficit in meeting a child’s basic needs. The UK government’s statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’, defines neglect as: The persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. It can occur in different…
When used effectively, a teaching assistant can bring about an improvement in a pupil’s reading of between three and six months. If you are like myself, so used to managing on your own for many years, using a teaching assistant most effectively can be a challenge. A 2015 report from the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) on making best use of Teaching…
Those of you who have read Carol Dweck’s work on changing mindsets, it may have made you wonder about your own. You will have probably found that like most people, you are a mixture of both a fixed and growth mindset, depending on certain situations. In order to create a classroom environment that allows shifts in pupils’ mindsets, teachers themselves…
Reports help parents see their child’s progress. As a teacher, you will need to highlight any concerns you may have but also take the opportunity to congratulate the child’s efforts. It is important that a school report is truthful, diplomatic and paints a true picture of the child’s strengths and weaknesses. It is important to communicate the way forward to…
Teaching has moved away from a strictly traditional teacher orientated class, where the teacher talks and the pupils are expected to only work individually and independently. Pupils are required to develop skills that help them work well in a team. Setting groups and giving children the opportunity to work together for a common goal helps strengthen their relationships and develop…
