Blogwatch – Lunchtime Isolations, Teachers’ Breakfasts – And Isle Of Wight Hits Back At David Hoare
Our pick of the posts to have caught our attention over the last seven days…
- by Teachwire
‘Blogging has become more than a helpful learning tool for me. It has become a mindset.’ We start, appropriately enough, with this post at Drowning in the Shallow, ruminating on the process of educational blogging itself. Written to mark the blog’s two-year anniversary, those who have toyed with blogging themselves but are yet to make the leap might want to give it a read… Read post
‘People don’t necessarily want to hear facts – they want to be comforted, especially if the facts say something either wildly unexpected or demoralising.” Any post that embeds a Stewart Lee clip is okay by us, but this one by Toby French on the interplay of facts and beliefs in recent history is particularly good. French draws some interest parallels between the information wars of the Cold War era, and the overlooking of facts when it comes to today’s Twitter outrages. Which brings us to… Read post
‘All those running schools subjected to trial by tabloid be given our sympathy’ Last Friday’s Michaela Community School controversy proved to be the lightning rod for plenty of forthright discussion over subsequent days on the big themes of school discipline, pupil inequality and the benefits (or otherwise) of free schools.
One widely shared response was this lengthy takedown that aimed both barrels at not just the school’s much-maligned lunchtime exclusion policy, but also its wider educational ethos. An altogether different, and perhaps more pertinent perspective was put forward by Andrew Old, however, who pointedly observed that ‘The Daily Mail is still shaming schools’. Read post
‘Put the dictionaries away and don’t start off with ‘Who knows what x means?” Over at This is my classroom, Slough-based Deputy Teacher Nick Hart has been putting together a series of thoughtful posts reflecting on different aspects of schooling. His latest is on reading and well worth a…persual.
‘If we can nail it at breakfast time then chances are the rest of the day we will eat a little better’ Vicki Vincent highlights the importance of a healthy, nutritious breakfast, and explains why she’s calling on other teachers to share their tips and recipes using the #teacher5adaybreakfast hashtag. Read post
‘Being a ski-virgin is even rarer than having leprosy in teaching you see, and it’s something that must be cured, dahling, because everyone’s been skiing’ A post by The Quirky Teacher which begins with an impassioned rant against skiing, before questioning the wisdom of trying to tackle inequality by bestowing ‘the trappings of a middle class lifestyle’ upon working class children via charitable largesse… Read post
‘The ninth baronet and ex-banker said the Isle of Wight is a poor, white ghetto’ We finish with a post at the community-driven Isle of Wight media outlet Yoppul, which rounds up some early reactions to today’s TES report on remarks by Ofsted chairman David Hoare that were less than complimentary about the island’s inhabitants. As we write, it’s being reported that he’s since issued an apology… Read post
