There are some days when teaching is merely a series of small battles. With management, with colleagues, with pupils, with parents even; with computers which get huffy at exactly the same time you want them to be your friend. I had some of those battles this week in preparing for Episode Three of Inanimate Alice. … [Read more…]
January 26, 2011
There is something which scares me more than a generation of illiterate kids sitting in my class; and that is the very real possibility of them being alliterate. A generation of kids who can read but choose not to do so. This is why I think it is absolutely vital that we spend more time… [Read more…]
January 23, 2011
I received some fantastically supportive comments on my last ‘Alice’ Blog post. Most astonishingly for me anyway, a direct response from Kate Pullinger, the original writer of ‘Inanimate Alice’. A convincing argument for a global classroom if ever there was one. Within minutes, yes minutes, of posting my Blog on Twitter I was receiving messages… [Read more…]
January 19, 2011
The last ten years or so seems to have witnessed a renaissance in children’s literature. Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Artemis Fowl, Twilight, Northern Lights, Jacqueline Wilson…need I go on? So it always comes a s a surprise to me when I’m told that kids don’t read any more. Take a walk into your local book… [Read more…]
January 14, 2011
For about a year and a half now I’ve been peering enviously over the wall at those incredibly inventive teachers who been teaching and enjoying the amazing Inanimate Alice, the interactive digital narrative which has been lighting up classrooms for a few years now. The blog posts, the wikis, the web pages I visited all… [Read more…]
January 5, 2011
Do you remember the days when all of your friends would gather at school and discuss the progress you’d all made with that difficult Dickens novel you’d agreed to read by the end of the month. The fall outs and arguments over whether Jane Eyre was a victim or a heroine? Whether Thomas Hardy could… [Read more…]
January 1, 2011
My first ever Blog post. It is a terrifying prospect, proposing to reflect my thoughts, feelings ideas, moans and groans about Learning on a Blog but I’ve been putting it off for ages now. Always an admirer of others who Blog freely and effectively, I’ve never found the courage to do so myself. Until now.… [Read more…]
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January 29, 2011
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