In this section, I aim to share classroom stories from around New Zealand that I think will interest and motivate other teachers. Find below what I hope will become a growing list of different stories.
Some will be stories of innovative literacy practice; some will be stories of progress and/or achievement by particular students; some will be reports of motivating lessons that I have observed.
Some will be snippets of stories; others will be in-depth stories. Whatever the type or length of the stories, I will write them as ‘possibilities for other teachers’ to emulate. We can all learn from each other.
If you think you’ve got a story worth telling from your school or classroom and you have some photos to go with it, please contact me via the contact page and let me know.
I aim to make the range of stories as wide as possible in terms of year level and types of schools, and different contributions are very welcome.
I have been working with the teachers at Pahiatua Primary School (in the Manawatu) since the beginning of 2025 on ways of teaching students to become writers. From the Teacher Only Day that began our project, Luke Harding (team leader and Year 6 classroom teacher) and Katrina Gavigan (deputy principal and Year 6 teacher) thought carefully about the notion that … Read More
Jane Va’afusuaga (who I had the privilege of teaching at Wellington College of Education in the late 1980s) now works with small groups of (mainly Pasifika) students at Favona Primary School in South Auckland at building their English language and literacy. Most of her students speak little English for a range of reasons. Jane, of New Zealand European heritage, spent … Read More
Toward the end of Term Three 2024, I was working with teachers in Hawke’s Bay and two shared great pieces of writing with me that had been written by their tamariki. Although very different pieces – one is as gentle and personal as the other is bloody and gory – both were written by Year 6 boys who often resist … Read More