First, let’s address the elephant in the room: kids are maniacs. The young ones are adorable, the teens are budding adults, and all kids are the future of our society, but they are also bundles of chaos. And, if you think corralling these young minds is as easy as saying “please” and “thank you” orContinue reading “Herding Cats in the Classroom: Tackling the Tumult with Tactics and Tenacity”
Category Archives: Schooling & Education
Band-Aids on Behemoths: Decoding the Sisyphean Saga of Classroom Chaos
In the evolving landscape of education, one of the most pressing challenges that consistently emerges is student behaviour and the challenges this poses to teachers, who have consistently ranked this among the most complex challenges they face for the past 60 years, yes – SIXTY Years. I wrote the following passage in my thesis backContinue reading “Band-Aids on Behemoths: Decoding the Sisyphean Saga of Classroom Chaos”
Schools Mixing It Up: The Great Co-Ed vs Single-Sex Showdown
In the ever-evolving world of education, Sydney has become a focal point of a significant paradigm shift: the transition from single-sex to co-educational schooling. This is not merely a local phenomenon but a microcosm of a global re-evaluation of educational practices. The latest chapter in this narrative is Newington College, a stalwart of all-boys educationContinue reading “Schools Mixing It Up: The Great Co-Ed vs Single-Sex Showdown”
It’s not ‘Performance Pay’: You can call it what you want, but it still won’t work
So, if one listens to the news, one would be aware of a pending crisis in schools – a lack of teachers. Various pundits and government officials put the crisis at different points in the future. For example, the Commonwealth government projects a shortfall of more than 4,000 high school teachers by 2025, while NSWContinue reading “It’s not ‘Performance Pay’: You can call it what you want, but it still won’t work”
Teaching Strategies Part 3: The case for and against evidence
If you haven’t read the last article in this series, it might help set the context as I’ll be referring to a few of the authors and ideas presented in that post; however, if you would prefer to start here, the post can stand on its own as well. In the first post, I referencedContinue reading “Teaching Strategies Part 3: The case for and against evidence”
Is Teaching a Profession?
The answer to this question is not straightforward, unless of course you are a teacher or are working towards being a teacher, in which case, of course, for you, teaching is a profession. The current state of play is that teaching is now a profession, but it hasn’t always been considered as such. Teaching isContinue reading “Is Teaching a Profession?”
Becoming a Teacher: Teacher Identity
The next post in the Becoming a Teacher series is about what I consider to be one of the most important aspects of becoming a teacher and should be a sustained thread throughout a teacher training program – no matter if that program is two years or five years: building your teacher identity. There areContinue reading “Becoming a Teacher: Teacher Identity”
Teaching Strategies Part 2: What teachers know, but researchers fail to acknowledge
This will be a series of posts on teaching strategies and the importance of the recognition that the process of teaching, learning, assessment, feedback and appraisal is cyclical and that a one-size-fits-all model does not take into account the intricacies of most classroom environments. These posts are a long time in the making and followContinue reading “Teaching Strategies Part 2: What teachers know, but researchers fail to acknowledge”
School Choice
For those who follow the blog, you may have noticed that my posts have become less frequent. They started out at one per week, which was just a little too ambitious and then settled at one per fortnight. That is, until October when I went silent. Well, that silence was due to a new additionContinue reading “School Choice”
Becoming a teacher: The work of a teacher
When many people think of teaching, they may think of long summer holidays/vacations and short 6-hour workdays, but this is far from reality. When a parent thinks of their child’s teacher, they likely think about the 9 am-3 pm aspect of the day that that primary teacher spends in the classroom with the students ‘teaching’Continue reading “Becoming a teacher: The work of a teacher”
