When you someone who teaches overseas it can easy to develop a 'grass is always greener' mentality. There's always another country and there's always another school just over the horizon. Those who tend to be wanderers often have no fixed schedule, or timeline for how long is too long to stay in place. It's a gut reaction. It's hearing... Continue Reading →
Harkness discussion in Elementary Schools
This a classroom idea I stole from Chad Walsh and Sam Sherratt at Time Space education, the Harkness discussion. Put simply it is a discussion where classroom discussions are tracked by a teacher (or a better yet a child). The observer draw lines between participants in a discussion and jot down interesting ideas in the... Continue Reading →
Restoring relationships through restorative practices
One of the challenging aspects of working in an international school is navigating cross-cultural differences between children. A harmless playground game can quickly escalate into a major incident when children are not aware of the ramifications of their actions. One such incident occurred last week in class when fooling for one group of children was... Continue Reading →
One word visual goals – a powerful form of thinking 8/365
I hate setting SMART targets. Both for myself and also with the students. I hate reducing the complexity of learning down to some meaningless sentence that I write down somewhere and then forget about. The kids goals often end up being more behaviour focused rather than learning focused. Moreover the process of writing often impedes... Continue Reading →
Weekly Reflection: taking time, making space
In the next few weeks the Year 5 classes have to do a mini exhibition. For those not familiar with the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the exhibition is the culmination of the PYP where kids get a chance to showcase their learning to the broader community. My school has mini-exhibitions for younger children. Year 5's turn is at... Continue Reading →
Teaching the Teacher 