You’re going on a journey now, so document it. Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Covid19: Document it!

April 23, 2020

Looking on the bright side, if you have started teaching your classes online, or setting work for your pupils online, this forced closure of many schools is a great opportunity to carry out some research.

Book review: Little Quick Fix: Find the theme in your data

April 22, 2020

How do you find out what main themes are coming through your qualitative research data? In short, how can you see the wood for the trees? This is the issue which this book addresses

Discipline in the classroom: what, why and how (Updated)

February 11, 2019

UPDATED What is classroom discipline? Why is it needed, especially in lessons where technology is being used? How can it be established?

10 reasons to use comics and cartoons in the classroom

December 18, 2017

There are at least ten good reasons to use cartoons or comics in your lessons. This article explains what they are, with links to research and useful resources.

5 mistakes I made when teaching Computing, by William Lau

October 7, 2016

In this very incisive article, teacher William Lau discusses 5 mistakes he has made when teaching Computing, in the light of experience, research and reading.

25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #23 Be pernickety

September 2, 2011

All too often these days there is so much to be done, and so little time to do it, that we have to adopt a “good enough” attitude. That’s fine most of the time, but not always.

Recent book reviews

Review: How I review books on edtech

My views on what constitutes a book on edtech are fairly catholic. Indeed, it would me more accurate to denote the books I review as books for teachers of ICT, Computing, digital literacy etc etc,, rather than books on edtech. The latter tend to have titles like “How to teach Computing”, or “How to use Excel in the classroom”.

Review: Nuts and Bolts: How Tiny Inventions Make Our World Work

It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.

Review: Love Triangle: The Life-changing Magic of Trigonometry

Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...

Review: Making Sense Of Chaos – A Better Economics for a Better World

Before you rush off on the grounds that this book has nothing to do with Computing, let me reassure you that it does.

Bjork & Bjork’s Desirable Difficulties in Action

The original work on which this volume is based has perhaps been honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Review: Coderspeak – The language of computer programmers

This book won’t necessarily help a student pass a computing exam, but it will almost certainly make them a more aware, and thus better, programmer.

Review: Quiet Power, by Susan Cain

Introverts thrive by being allowed to be quiet, having time for reflection and not being required to 'perform' all the time.

Quick look: Desirable difficulties in action

The idea of desirable difficulties has always appealed to me. In my teaching I’m partticularly in favour of applying Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development.

Review: The Collaboration Book – 41 Ideas for Working Better

Most people would agree that collaboration is a good thing – so how can we collaborate more effectively in school settings?

Review: Listen: On Music, Sound and Us

This book might not directly address obvious aspects of the music curriculum, but it can certainly give teachers access to a rich seam of facts and anecdotes with which to embellish their lessons.