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Why write?
This is an early extract from our book Practical Writing Strategies, which will be published in 2023 by Amba Press. The elephant in the room Most of the time, we get students to write so we can assess them on their knowledge. Simple. It’s a sad truth that the main purpose of most writing in…
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Teachers as Writers: Term 4 Professional Learning
Last term I wrote a three part series of posts reflecting on the importance of teachers as writers. In part one I talked about writing for an audience – whether that’s students, teachers, or the general public. Part two focused on the various kinds of writing teachers might engage in, from classroom modelling through to…
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Review: Simple Tools by Martin Jorgensen
When I first received a copy of Martin Jorgensen’s Simple Tools I expected a book filled with suggestions for apps and digital tools to use in class. In fact, there are only a few recommendations for tools scattered throughout the text. What I found instead was a much more purposeful and systematic method for selecting…
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AI and Creativity: A Conversation with Tom Barrett
Last week I had a great conversation with Tom Barrett about the future of creative AI tools in education, including AI writers and AI image generation tools. We’re both optimistic about the potential for these technologies in the classroom, as long as they are adopted from an ethical, playful, and creative stance. Check out the…
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Guest Post: Natalie Gleeson – St Francis Xavier College
In this guest post Natalie Gleeson discusses how she has used Practical Reading Strategies with senior English classes to explore the deeper meaning in Twelve Angry Men and On the Waterfront. Students have created questions which connect their texts to the real world, and have used the Meaning Maps activity to interrogate the texts in…
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Interview with Mike Sharples: Story Machines
Feature image by DALL E & Leon Furze I had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Sharples, coauthor of Story Machines, which is available now from Routledge. You can also check out Mike’s AI story writer at https://story-machines.net/ if you want to try your hand at writing (or co writing) an AI story yourself. Transcript…
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Teachers as Writers: Part Three
In the previous two posts in this series I explored the reasons teachers might wish to write, and some of the ways in which teachers could increase their writing output. In this third and final post on the subject, I’ll explore the process of moving from teacher to author, and how to get published. Calling…
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1001 Solutions to the Teacher Shortage
The release last week of the Teacher Workforce Shortages Issues Paper came with few surprises. The media has been rife with stories of plans to address the crisis of teacher attrition for months, and many of the solutions suggested in the paper have already been covered in detail. As the stories have unfolded, I’ve been…
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Repost: Review of Coaching Teacher Writers
While I’m writing about teachers as writers, I thought it would be a good opportunity to repost this review from last year. This book contains some great advice for those of you wanting to delve into writing professionally in education. Coaching Teacher-Writers, by Troy Hicks, Anne Elrod Whitney, James Fredricksen and Leah Zuidem a provides a…
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Teachers as Writers: Part Two
In the first post in this series I explored a few of the reasons teacher might want to write, including the personal and professional benefits of writing. In this post, I’ll go into more detail about four kinds of writing teachers might want to engage in, ranging from modelling in the classroom through to publishing…