When you are doing something fun with your teacher you are learning that learning can be enjoyable. The people who say 'but they'll remember the wrong thing!' about unusual or creative lessons are completely missing the point. 🤷♀️
James Durran
@jdurran.bsky.social
Teacher of English, media & drama for 24 years; now an adviser. Literacy, English & all things teaching. Views are personal. jamesdurran.blog
"Don't ask 'What do you think?' questions. They're a waste of time." In reference to uninformed guessing, this may make sense. But if it becomes a general instruction to teachers (as it has in some schools - I've literally seen it worded like this) then that's catastrophic.
Route 9 has been substantially revised since the 2015 edition. Includes some fascinating less well known places as well as the Holyrood Parliament and the view from Salisbury Crags.
George Harris@historylecturer.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy guide book to Edinburgh has ten chapters about the main sites, and the history, of the city. There's a eleventh adding some extra things to do if you have time. #Edinburgh www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Know...
Remember - there is nothing wrong with the placebo effect. Parents and adults working with children rely on it all the time.
A privilege to work with a group of such thoughtful and committed teachers. A really good day!
National Association for the Teaching of English@natecommunity.bsky.social · 2mo agoToday we launched NATE's Creative Approaches to Teaching Poetry project, funded by Tower. Teachers from Hall Cross, Wales High, King James's and King Edward VII schools joined @jdurran.bsky.social for a day of shared reading, discussion and creative exploration. Updates to follow!
Route 3, on the bottom of the Royal Mile, had had a lot if changes. Holyrood Palace has a new tenant, and the museums keep evolving.
George Harris@historylecturer.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy guide book to Edinburgh has ten chapters about the main sites, and the history, of the city. There's a eleventh adding some extra things to do if you have time. #Edinburgh www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Know...
With the "inclusion" focus, as a school we are looking at how we manage (day in day out) the balance between challenge/overwhelm and between engagement/distraction. The balance and interplay. Not swinging to extremes. Thank goodness.
The purpose of the edu-fad is what it does: Post → christianmooreanderson.com/an-edu-fads-...
James Durran@jdurran.bsky.social · 2mo agoAlways sad when managing cognitive load, or increasing learning efficiency, becomes about default joylessness. Blank classroom walls. No jokes. Always silence. The argument is always about "marginal gains". But we're not shaving milliseconds off a cycling time. We're teaching children.
Always sad when managing cognitive load, or increasing learning efficiency, becomes about default joylessness. Blank classroom walls. No jokes. Always silence. The argument is always about "marginal gains". But we're not shaving milliseconds off a cycling time. We're teaching children.
I love those hashtag-less posts that seem to assume that everybody is watching the same event. Things like: "Wow! That was some finish!"
Talk, Drama and English: An EMC Teacher Conference "A truly brilliant day. The workshops were practical, useful and engaging. The panel were informed and motivating... I left buzzing with ideas that I am excited to implement at our school." Book by: 8am on 10th June buff.ly/0OKAMOk
Talk, Drama and English: An EMC Teacher Conference
Full day teacher conference, featuring keynotes, presentations, workshops and interviews exploring both talk and drama in their own right, as well as and looking at how they intersect.
buff.ly
Thought experiment for #English teachers: decades away, what individual pieces of writing about #literature might current #KS3 pupils remember doing? The only one I remember was a detailed proposal for staging Twelfth Night. I set it on an ocean liner.
This took me by surprise, as I wasn't aware that the solar system had a warranty. From Magrathea, presumably.
Despite teaching to them for many years, it's only now, as a parent, that I've come to understand how completely and utterly I Ioathe and despise exams and the system built around them.
Are we teaching English if students are silent + not allowed to articulate ideas? This blog shares one teacher's experience of a curriculum imposed from above. EMC view: English this ain't! @warwickmansell.bsky.social @natecommunity.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social tinyurl.com/5a9anapp
How English pupils are being silenced in lessons
An English teacher sets out how he is required to teach by his senior leaders - and what it is doing to students
englishandmedia.co.uk
I think the MAT thinking behind this is related (among other things) to my new post: "Information theory and why "clearly explaining" isn't enough" christianmooreanderson.com/the-transmis...
The Transmission Trap: What information theory tells us about teaching - Christian Moore Anderson
Claude Shannon's groundbreaking information theory focused on getting a message from A to B. We can use its principles to think about classroom communication: a
christianmooreanderson.com
Yes. Never forget that every subject is different. One size fits all is bound to cause problems.
Just a reminder that the recently published research on #setting pertains specifically to #secondary #maths.
I’m available to support schools, trusts and organisations with: • Curriculum development • CPD • Quality assurance • Subject leadership support • Department improvement over time 3/4
"Others might bring up that abomination of a sentence, ‘learning is change in long-term memory’, which just ignores most of the ways in which we use the word..." I enjoyed this very thorough exploration of the visibility of learning, from @bernardandrews.bsky.social
Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
It's fascinating to watch people define 'inclusion' entirely according to what they already believe and do.
This is utterly jaw-dropping. A school that bans Atwood, Zadie Smith, Terry effing Pratchett and *literal George Orwell* is actively harming its pupils. www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...
School book banning escalates in the UK as Greater Manchester secondary school censors scores of books - Index on Censorship
A school librarian faced a disciplinary hearing and scores of books were removed from her school library after she stocked Laura Bates’ Men Who Hate Women
indexoncensorship.org
What does the poem do? A #GCSE_English #poetry revision tool. This is an OLD blog post, but many still find the approach very useful, especially at this time of year. #GCSE_English_Literature #Revision #Poetry jamesdurran.blog/2017/05/11/w...
What does the poem do? A revision tool
This is an approach which I have used successfully when revising clusters of poetry for GCSE. (Apologies for any parts which seem commonplace or obvious.) The basic idea is familiar – to prac…
jamesdurran.blog
What does the poem do? A #GCSE_English #poetry revision tool. This is an OLD blog post, but many still find the approach very useful, especially at this time of year. #GCSE_English_Literature #Revision #Poetry jamesdurran.blog/2017/05/11/w...
What does the poem do? A revision tool
This is an approach which I have used successfully when revising clusters of poetry for GCSE. (Apologies for any parts which seem commonplace or obvious.) The basic idea is familiar – to prac…
jamesdurran.blog