Mentoring

This year I have achieved one of my short term teaching goals: to train a new teacher in the profession. This has been on my list since I was trained; I had two amazing mentors who pushed me to take risks and encouraged me to improve my practice. I still meet up with both these

As I am

Y’all gonna hate me. (Probably for that opening sentence). But oh well here it goes. Let it go. Yes the song is annoying and yes once it is in your head, it is stuck there forever. But we can learn a lot from this song. And despite the repetition, the annoyance, it can actually help

Marking Grids

I have written and presented about one of these things before. Marking grids (MrThorntonTeach). Honestly they began, for me, as a way to record down who deserved praise and who needed actioning in lessons- as I was awful at rewarding but also keeping track of those who needed me the most. Since training year, I

“We can be sheroes forever and ever!”

Inspired by similar blog posts on twitter, I thought it time I jump on the #shero bandwagon to celebrate some truly awesome females. I have been privileged to work with these women in education so time to celebrate their awesomeness. I am not an original Star Wars nerd. It was 1996, I was 3, and

Happy History

I was teaching Russian History today and I am not going to lie, not much of it is what one would call ‘happy’. Russian History is mostly studying about the downfall of a royal family who had ruled the country for three centuries, starvation, cold and just general mess ups in government. A year 12

The Power of Positive Relationships

My previous school heavily focused on positive relationships with pupils, and building bridges with them to help them achieve. This ethos has shaped me as a teacher and how I interact with the young students we come to deal with day to day. Just to be clear. This doesn’t mean being a students friend: there

Modelling

“Miss?” “Yes?” “Do you want to know something?” “Depends…” “You look like sadness from Inside Out.” That might have been the defining moment in my career. Bottom set Year 10, with some very tricky individuals and I was trying to teach them about Hitlers’ grip on power in pre-Nazi Germany. I am not sadness. I

NQT Reflections

At the end of my NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) year I moved schools. I left for a few reasons but the main one was to get the Sixth Form experience which was not available at my previous school. My NQT year was difficult, on a work load level but also a personal and well being