Any teacher can wholeheartedly tell you that planning and teaching lessons in depth, during the last few weeks leading up to Christmas, is a real struggle! Below are my top 5 reasons why teachers hate the Christmas term… Deadlines: Reports, assessments, tests all have to be packed in before the Christmas holidays. Teachers are running left right and centre to…
Poetry should be a curriculum priority in English classes, as it can help students become more versed in writing and literature. Many teachers shy away from poetry because they find it hard to teach or they don’t see a place in the curriculum for it. I have not regretted a single poetry lesson I have taught so far, and I…
Anyone had thoughts about abandoning age-old practices of Friday spelling tests? You all know the drill, I’m sure many of you did it when you were still at school: you get the words on a Monday to practice them during the week, then take a test on Friday. Great! If you get a high score, not so great…
This year, after reading the book “When the adults change everything changes” and with the completion of an informative INSET day from Pivotal Education I realised the importance of greeting students, before they enter the classroom. To back this claim, I also found numerous studies online, validating that greeting students at the door sets a positive tone and can help…
We have been back in school for a month now and my classroom reveal is long overdue! The truth is, it’s still not quite how I want it, but I’m not sure when it will be though and…. I’m just dying to show it to you all, so no more waiting! 🥁 For those of you who don’t know, this…
The mathematics curriculum in primary schools, requires that mental maths strategies are taught to children from an early age. I have been teaching mental maths strategies for many years now and every year I see the struggle that children face. I do my best, each time, to improve my teaching and increase students’ engagement. I believe that the key to…
Boost staff morale and spread the love, by bringing positivity to your school with a ‘Staff Shout-Out’ board! So often, teachers get caught up in the manic pace of school life and get sucked in by surrounding negativity. This is incredibly easy to happen to anyone, especially when they feel tired and unmotivated. This shout-out idea isn’t mine of…
Don’t you think that it’s beneficial for children to have a reading corner in the classroom? I do! I think having a reading area in the classroom is very important for children to start loving to read and to read for pleasure . Watch this video to see how I made my reading corner in my dragon themed classroom! I…
To go with my dragon themed room this year, I wanted to put up the alphabet in the front of the classroom so that children could refer to it, whenever they needed to. Even though I will be teaching Year 4 and children will already know how to form the letters, as well as the order of the alphabet, I…
Follow me to school to see how I change a plain background into one with dragon scales for my dragon themed classroom. What is your classroom theme? Have you got one? Let me know in the comments below! Till next time…
