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.
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
Taylor McGrath is in his third year of teaching and works at Howick Intermediate which is a medium-sized decile 4 school in East Auckland. He is currently working with a diverse group of 30 students from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The Love of Writing & Music Taylor loves teaching writing and he loves listening to contemporary music. … Read More
I had the pleasure of working at Raroa Normal Intermediate (in Johnsonville, Wellington) for two days at the end of last term, modelling good practice in classrooms. At the end of my second day, one of the teams (Whai Wahi, led by Ethan Porteous) invited me to an after-school display in the hall that they had put together based on … Read More