Toward the end of last year (2022), Erin Neilson (a senior teacher of a Year 4 class at Selwyn Ridge School, Tauranga) contacted me because she was very excited about writing produced by three of her lads (James, Jedd and Liam). She described these lads as “boys who always struggled with writing, didn’t like it, thought it was boring, handwriting … Read More
Watching me using Anthony Browne’s wonderful picture book Voices in the Park as a catalyst for character writing, Sue Fennell (a teacher of Year 5 students at Lower Hutt’s Eastern Hutt School) was inspired to use the text as a way into diary writing by her students. Sue loved the book; she assumed her students would love it as well … Read More
Ja migrated to Aotearoa/New Zealand from Myanmar as small child. She attends school in South Auckland as a Year 6 student and has worked hard at attaining both proficiency and fluency in English as a speaker, reader and writer. I came across Ja as a writer when I was analysing student texts with her teacher Mary, as part of Mary’s … Read More
Earlier in 2022 I was in Robert Raynes’ Year 7-8 class in Howick Intermediate (a decile 9 school in Howick, Auckland) when I noticed some very attractive and interesting student texts hanging from the ceiling. I asked Robert (a provisionally registered teacher) what they were about and he introduced me to a picture book called My Shadow is Pink by … Read More
In September last year, I described and illustrated 3 creative and highly motivating writing lessons that Nicola Blight from Newton Central School had undertaken with her New Entrant and Year 1 students. I was in Nicola’s class again last term and I saw something else that bowled me over. Like many teachers across Aotearoa, Nicola was using the occasion of … Read More
Kia ora tatou As challenging as it was, I hope that you had a reasonable Term 2 and that Term 3 (which we are well into now) will be a good one for you. Contents Term 2 Recap Exciting New Resource Launched ! New Video Lessons, Classroom Story & Arts Blog Looking Ahead Term 2 Recap Term 2 was good for … Read More
Kia ora In my previous newsletter from February earlier this year, I talked about being ‘in uncertain times’ but also being ‘determined to make 2022 as normal as I can.’ Well, Term One was anything but normal for me, with probably more days postponed or deferred during the term than I actually worked. I’ve never had a term like this. … Read More
Kia ora tatou I want to say welcome to the 2022 school year but I suspect that most of you are ‘well into it’ now. Although we are in uncertain times – in terms of Covid – I am determined to make 2022 as normal as I can. I have already undertaken six beginning-of-year courses for teachers as well as several … Read More
Stratford School is a reasonably large, decile 5, full primary school in provincial Taranaki where I have been leading a PLD project in writing since the beginning of this year. As part of this project, I have been demonstrating the launch of writing topics as well as shared writing across several diverse classrooms. In one of the Year 5-6 classrooms, … Read More
In Term 4 2021, teachers from the two Year 5-6 teams at Golden Sands School (a decile 9 school in Papamoa, Tauranga) shared some writing that super-impressed me. It particularly bowled me over because much of it was written by students who could generally be described as ‘reluctant writers’. Some had specific learning disabilities; others were just disengaged with school … Read More