UKLA Conference
Last week I spent four days in Greenwich while I attended the UKLA conference and focus day on writing. It was great to see so many people attending the conference and a chance to meet up with old friends is always welcome. I enjoyed catching up with Guy, Julia and Jackie as well as Lynda [...]
Injecting SATs with a strong dose of popular culture…
SATs arrived into my classroom this week without fanfare or pre-warning. I won’t teach to the test and I give them little acknowledgement in my class. They are not the backbone of our curriculum, they are an assessment tool and nothing more. My class entered the classroom to see their desks rearranged in rows (something I had to do). [...]
High School Grumble 2
OK, so I caved. I watched High School Musical 3 and enjoyed it. After my previous blog post where I grumbled about the franchise escalating out of control, I felt I should watch the latest film. I was really pleasantly surprised. The finale of the series (above) is very touching and signifies the end of [...]
Learning to Tweet or Tweeting to Learn?
After initially being sceptical I have now been bitten by the Twitter bug and hence my lack of blog posts recently. I think part of the reason is Twitter is easier than blogging. You provide a short snapshot of what you are doing and click update – that’s it. It’s interesting to view your timeline after [...]
Rise of the new literacy practices…
One of my favourite television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has finished its current run in America. The general word on the internet is that the show won’t be renewed and the current season was the last. I find the reaction by fans on the internet to this news to be very interesting. Obviously [...]
Fighting the Web 2.0 battle…
I have been enjoying the new series of The Apprentice on BBC1, which has at its core the need to be proficient with communication, language and literacy. If you cannot communicate effectively, for a range of purposes and audiences, you quite simply fail. Above is a picture of Margaret Mountford, one of the senior advisors, who is dismayed at [...]
Joomla Juggling
I’m still working on developing four websites using the Joomla content management system and things are starting to get complicated. The UKLA Learning Today website needs to be finished, packaged up and moved to a different server. The MLI website needs updating with more guidance and information about research and I must remember to keep blogging [...]
Changing formats…
I’m really pleased with how this blog has turned out and I definitely think that moving it away from the main MLI site gives it a unique identity and more scope so that I don’t always have to talk about literacy theory. I also think it looks more like a blog now! I have taken [...]
The issue of writing… or issues with writing?
Let’s face it… writing has always trailed behind reading in the educational debate unless needed as a case of despair as ‘standards’ drop. Last year we had the National Year of Reading and this year many schools seem to be identifying writing as an urgent issue to address. But what really is this ‘issue’ that so [...]
Influences of expression…
Two blog posts in one day. The reason… on Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Cirque Du Soleil: Quidam at the Newcastle Arena and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. This is not a traditional ‘circus’ with random disjointed acts and a faint smell of sawdust. Quidam contains a [...]