Kia ora koutou colleagues, This will be my final newsletter of 2021 and I hope it finds you all well. Probably a bit stressed – particularly if you’re an Auckland teacher – but even if you’re not, you’ve undoubtedly got end-of-year ‘requirements’ looming up fast. All’s good with me, and I’m about to undertake my first face-to-face visit to a … Read More
Most of us would agree on the importance of listening to student voice when developing and implementing a classroom programme. In the context of an instructional writing programme, this means finding out: How do my students feel about writing? How do they feel about themselves as writers? How do they feel about the writing instruction they receive at school? Finding … Read More
Nicola Blight’s Year 1 classroom at Newton Central School (a multi-cultural inner Auckland school) is a wonderfully creative and vibrant space in which colour, movement, shape and wonderings abound. Nicola – who has been teaching for more than 20 years – continually seeks artifacts and experiences that will challenge her students, deepen their natural curiosity and enable them to express … Read More
Kia ora koutou katoa Updated Oct 26th 2021. I do hope that you are doing OK out there in lock-down. We have had several enquiries on how to share videos with students. As a result of the lockdown, we have decided to make some of the videos easier to share with your tamariki. About Working With Video Lessons As a … Read More
Online security is important to us and we will shortly be enhancing our website login security for Membership Subscribers. From 10th November 2021, we will be introducing a technology known as Two Factor Authentication (abbreviated to 2FA). What Is Two Factor Authentication (2FA) When you log in to an account online, you mostly use a simple ‘username and password’ combination to … Read More
One of the picture books I use for story writing in my on-line subscription resource (Building Excitement, Engagement and Achievement in Writing with Dr Murray Gadd is Handa’s Hen by Eileen Browne Set in a village in Kenya, it is the story of Handa and her friend Akeyo searching for Handa’s grandmother’s lost hen and it outlines what they discover … Read More
Kia ora tatou, Hope you all had a great break – though it probably seems ages ago now – and that the weather and/or the trans-Tasman bubble breaking didn’t interrupt your plans too much. The purpose of this update is to inform you of what’s new on the website – both free and paid resources – and to catch you … Read More
2020 was a tough year for all of us, given the two lock-downs that Auckland educators faced during the year as well as the abandonment of overseas travel. But I finished it nicely. I’m just completing six weeks of relaxing (mainly at home), reading, swimming, walking and a little bit of socialising. I hope your break has been good as … Read More
These three months have been a mixture of lock-down and ‘traffic light freedom’. Consequently, I have not only had a chance to hunker down into reading but also to move back to the cinema. This has been exciting. But it has mainly been reading that has preoccupied me. BOOKS I have read some wonderful fiction and non-fiction in the past … Read More
Because of time limitations, my involvement in the Arts has been largely restricted to reading fiction over the past three months, with a focus being around the Booker Prize (see below). Hence, I only discuss books in this update, rather than the occasional movie, play or Netflix series that I may have watched. BOOKS My reading over these three months … Read More