...Semicolons

This very brief post (requested by students) aims to exemplify conventions for the use of semicolons in standard written English, in just three simple stages.

...Literacy Websites

This is a collection of English and literacy online resources.  It is compiled for teachers with a mild focus on the primary age phases and on early reading and language development.

Click HERE to access the collections, and use Ctrl+F or the 'Search...' box in the sidebar to locate relevant resources.

(To report outdated links and incorrect categories, or to suggest new content, please 'Contact me...')

...Reflective Practice - So What?

This post briefly reviews what reflective practice is, before explaining a relatively simple model which can be used to engage in professional reflection - Borton's Developmental Framework. 

In a nutshell, reflection is a learning tool.  It can help us to learn from our mistakes and to find solutions to problems. With a little more critical thinking thrown in, reflection can enable professionals to better understand their work, build on positives or identify areas for development and, therefore, improve their effectiveness.

...Research in Teacher Education [RiTE]

Since 2011 the Sir John Cass School of Education and Communities at the University of East London has been producing the RiTE journal - Research in Teacher Education.  This brief post aims to introduce RiTE, provide some background to the publication, and describe some of its successes.  Please read, share... and consider contributing your work to the publication! 

...Academic Citation & Referencing

We've adopted the Harvard referencing system at the University of East London (UEL).  It's a system which emphasizes authors' names and publication dates.  It compiles references alphabetically in a single reference list at the end of a piece of work, rather than utilizing footnotes throughout.  An example of its use can be found below.

As might be expected questions and queries come my way regularly, concerning punctuation, syntax and particular conventions.  So I felt a page collating advice and examples might be just what was needed, to help support writers in using the Harvard system consistently. Examples are provided to demonstrate in-text conventions, and how sources should be referred to in a reference list.

...Critical Incidents

This post discusses David Tripp's approaches to the analysis of incidents, and how the practice he describes can help teachers to develop their professional judgement. I'll start off by describing what we mean by critical incidents, and why they matter. I'll then share my understanding of Tripp's main strategies for effectively analysing our experiences. Hopefully I will help you to understand and employ the approaches, to broaden your professional awareness of the complex and sometimes emotionally charged events which occur in your school.

First of all, let's determine what a critical incident is not. Imagine you are undertaking a cold January playground duty, shuffling from foot to frozen foot. You hear a sudden shout from behind the emergency exit, and the head teacher falls headfirst into the playground. She slides a good 12 feet across the ice forming beneath the leaking water fountain, before bowling over a group of children from class 3b... 'What a critical incident!' you cry. Except it's not. Not by Tripp's definition, at least...

...Writing to Learn

This post aims to share my growing awareness of the value of writing as a reflective learning tool. I start by sharing my own early experiences and my feelings about writing. Then I briefly discuss a current view of reflective professional practice, before sharing the importance of self-reflection and 'writing to learn' - particularly for those of you working in a professional field.

I've never been one who keeps an up-to-date, intimately detailed diary of my life. And that's despite a number of genuine attempts to commit to doing so over the years. My failure has not been because I have nothing to say, or because the intimate details might be too gruesome, provocative or felonious... It's simply this: I find that writing is hard work. 

When I was at school, I found that having to communicate my knowledge by writing an essay was an unnecessarily tortuous process, which did little justice to my true understanding of a subject. But whether, like me, you find it hard, or if you write so prolifically that you're visiting Paperchase for a new journal every month, harnessing the writing process in a deliberate, critically reflective way can help you to make sense of the complex situations you encounter from time to time. 

...Blogging

For a number of years I had been considering adding to the world's 152 million* blogs on the Internet. My introduction to twitter (encouraged by @sharoneden, 'Just start tweeting, Daniel!') meant that I was exploring the nature of self-broadcasting, & settled quickly & comfortably into tweeting & re-tweeting education-related posts, links & articles.

But what to blog? Continue to share (re-share?) other people's links?

Well, for me there seemed to be an initial, straightforward decision between personal or professional. Having said that, twitter already blurred this simple division of interests when I became aware that Stamford The Lion twittered. Also, I am aware that successful bloggers, & micro-bloggers alike, share a little personality... consciously or unconsciously.

For instance, Diana Adams' conversational easy-access style (example: trying to translate humour online) makes her writing highly consumable... share-able... re-tweetable... and of great value to novicebloggers like me!
 

* http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/ as tracked by BlogPulse

geek and poke: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/11/page/3/