There is much rich material out there for teachers of all aspects of English and English (and other languages) literacy. It can be difficult to locate just what you want for a specific focus. Here’s some of the good news. PETAA – The Primary English Teaching Association Australia has just released their first fortnightly ‘round-up’…
How do I create a lesson sequence? This is a question I get asked a lot, both by pre-service and in-service primary teachers. You may feel you are great at designing single lesson ideas that are related or whole programs, but maybe the flow could be better – more conceptually than topically related. For example,…
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all. Many members of our school community have been exposed to trauma, and will need care and support during the transition to whatever the new ‘normal’ is. We need to make sure we don’t overload our students (and ourselves) as we return to what has been familiar. In this…
With school holidays approaching in many parts of Australia, I thought it was timely to recommend some holiday reading for primary teachers of mathematics. Last year I wrote a blog titled Keeping up with the current that focused on three mathematics education research articles for teachers to explore. The current blog provides a few recent…
This week’s blog is inspired by research that James Russo, Toby Russo, and Leicha Bragg have recently conducted (and will present at the upcoming MERGA online conference) about factors that influence the mathematical games teachers’ choose. They propose a number of factor themes related to why teachers choose specific games – I will utilise these themes to share a…
Primary Learning’s online courses have been approved until 31 July 2021 under NESA’s interim arrangements. This is a great opportunity to work on proven PD and ensure both learning and hours are consolidated.
We are a creative lot, always discovering new things and combining familiar ideas into new ones. The term COVID-19 is one such term, created to explicitly refer to this pandemic we are all experiencing.
“Children are always learning.” Rebecca Brooks, The myth of ‘catching up’ after Covid-19 As restrictions continue to ease in NSW, I have resumed some of my support and professional learning with primary schools via Zoom. One of the first things I have been reiterating to teachers is, don’t feel the pressure to ‘catch up’. My…
It’s Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you! This contemporary acknowledgement of the classic movie series provides an introduction to the power of those sayings that we often quote, and frequently use to guide – or justify – our behaviour. It’s time to share some of these words of wisdom with our students.…
As part of Primary Learning’s online professional resources, we are launching the ‘Exploring Literacy’ series of courses for teachers. Each course consists of a reading or research, questions to consider, and ideas for implementation in the learning process; possibilities for our students’ learning are introduced. Each course is available as a ‘stand-alone’, or as part…