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.
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