The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) begins on the 8th of October. The event has been going since 1987. Every two years, “teams from leading international universities and technical institutes, together with private entrepreneurs and even high schools, come together “Down Under” to test and promote the ultimate synergy of nature, motion and innovation” (source). Why in Australia? Well there are two very obvious things we have, sunlight, and a […]
Category: English
Strategies for teaching public speaking skills
Speaking in public to an audience can be challenging, not only for students but adults alike. I remember giving my first lecture at university. As an invited speaker, I found myself standing at the front of the lecture theatre, the same lecture theatre which I attended as a university student for my very first lecture. I had a microphone pinned to my shirt and my presentation was displayed behind me. […]
Primary English: Teaching explanation texts
There are always particular genres which primary teachers love to teach and those which they don’t. I love teaching narrative, poetry and persuasive texts, but until recently, I never really liked teaching explanation texts. I’ve just finished teaching a unit on explanation texts and I loved it. I came up with a new strategy which worked really well, and the texts my students produced were really good. After deconstructing various […]
STEM through literacy for Junior Primary Teachers
Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), is based on the philosophy of teaching the four disciplines using an integrated approach, a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications, rather than as separate discrete subjects. Many junior primary teachers are already teaching this as subject integration underlines their daily teaching. So what do they need to do, to be considered teaching STEM? First of all, I don’t think they need to […]
Integrate Coding with other subjects
Coding doesn’t have to be a stand alone subject. With the heavy demands of a full curriculum, finding ways to integrate subjects not only allows teachers to cover more content, it makes learning more meaningful for students. Here are two unplugged (coding without devices) activities, followed by two Scratch suggestions. Firstly, I like to integrate coding with English through the genre, procedure writing. As I blogged previously, one of my favourite activities is […]
Free Early Years Literacy Resources
Literacy Solutions is a company which offers professional support for educators through workshops, consulting, online courses and resources. You can visit their resource page for free, downloadable resources. Resources include black line masters for reading activities, deskmats, charts and prompt cards.
Teaching fantasy texts?
Fantasy is my favourite genre with one of my favourite authors being Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon. However, teaching the genre can be rather challenging. There are so many elements which bind together to create a fantasy realm. It pushes teachers and students beyond the traditional narrative themes. Watch this: As with any genre, I begin with students deconstructing texts. I like to use student’s work samples so that students […]
Use Canva.com and Pixabay.com to create tiles for websites or school projects
Below is a short video explaining how I used Canva.com and Pixabay.com to create tiles for my SharePoint page. Under the video I have explained what each of these products are. Canva.com is s a free graphic-design web based tool. Subscription is free, however, if you are asking your students to subscribe parental permission is required for students aged under 13 years. You can use it to design presentations and social […]
Use MineCraft Ski Resort to Teach Maths and English
Minecraft Ski Resort 3.0, a build from Minimumwageminecraft, allows students to ride chairlifts, gondolas and pomas, ski over 65 runs, play min-games to earn money and upgrade ski boots to ski faster. So what does it look like? Check this out: There are many ways you can use this world in your classroom. Here are a few ideas: Mathematics: Students work in small groups to create a map of a section […]
