Have you ever found yourself wishing there was just one simple key that would make all your behaviour management and student discipline problems instantly vanish? I often joke with some of my colleges that the day someone develops some sort of fairy suit [the manly kind of course!] and a magic wand I will be
I came across the following picture yesterday that made me smile. Researchers say that if you look at the brains of our generation Z students (the latest group of students to start school) and compare that with a brain of a child from 20 years ago you can see a physical difference. The part of
I was reading book today that was totally unrelated to teaching. In it I came across a quote by Theodore Levitt that made me put down the book think about my classroom practices. According to Theodore Levitt Creativity can be defined as thinking up new things where as innovation is doing new things. It made me wonder
I came across this short TED Talk yesterday. The premise is that Google and Facebook are now tailoring your internet experience by learning what you like and the types of links you follow and then only showing you more of the same. There is a great screen shot of two identical search queries resulting in
There has been a fair level of debate online as well as around the water cooler in staff rooms about whether or not is breaching your professional relationship with your students if you are friends with them on Facebook or follow them on twitter. The argument generally revolves around the following 3 thoughts… Why you
In the last post we looked at the basics of how to use twitter to connect with other teachers, whilst avoiding some of the pitfalls and time wasters. One of the strategies we looked at was the use of hashtags (#). There are hundreds of hashtags specifically related to teaching. Originally I was going to
Have you looked at Twitter and wondered what all the fuss is about? Over the last few months I have been showing teachers how to use twitter to build their PLN (Professional Learning Network). Whilst doing this I have found that teachers generally have the same concerns: They feel overwhelmed with the potential information overload?
Have you ever found yourself favouring a particular student, yet another just has the knack of getting on your nerves? When you reflect on the situation it’s not that the student is particularly rude or disobedient, but there is just something that frustrates you. When it comes to classroom management a lot of the problems
In the previous post, we looked at one aspect of our personality that affects our motivation as a teacher. Today I want to look at the second aspect of our personality that affects our motivation as well as the motivation of our students. The purpose of this post is not to give you a tool
When looking at teacher motivation, the principles are exactly the same as student motivation. There is no one thing that you can do to increase your motivation; but every principle that you understand and implement makes a difference. One of the principles of motivation that is often overlooked or misunderstood by teachers is their personality.
In the last couple of posts we have looked at the first two foundational principles of student motivation and student engagement; Autonomy and Mastery. Today we will look at the third foundation which is PURPOSE.Purpose can be defined as the yearning to do something in the context of something larger than us. Every teacher regardless
I am yet to meet a teacher who doesn’t wrestle with student engagement, student motivation and classroom management. The great news is that increasing the motivation and engagement of your students is not rocket science you just need to have a few fundamental principles in place! Yesterday we looked at the first foundational principle of
