Anonymously Famous (thanks Ofsted)
I’m not a particularly huge fan of Ofsted. However I have just discovered some of my work has made it’s way into their Learning: Creative Approaches that Raise Standards report that was been recently published here. Although I am mentioned anonymously in the report there is a very small case study of a lesson Ofsted [...]
“You are what you feel…”
In Orange Class we’ve been doing quite a bit of work based around the story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours, which included making our own coat of many colours and watching the DVD production of the musical show. The children really enjoyed experiencing the story through music and quickly started to learn [...]
Doctor Who – Infinite Possibilities
A few people have asked me to post some information about the Doctor Who work my class completed last week. It was planned with the aim of beginning to engage some of the learners who had negative attitudes towards literacy. I’ve always found using the children’s own popular culture in the curriculum to be an [...]
Finding a cliff by the sea
Thank you to everybody who sent really great feedback about the Brer Rabbit critical literacy project I really appreciate it. I’ve also heard that it was being talked about at the Decatur Book Festival after The Wren’s Nest (the birth place museum of Joel Chandler Harris in the USA) picked up on the project. All [...]
New horizons await…
It’s the last week of the summer holidays! I currently feel like the only teacher in the world who is looking forward to returning to work. I’m very excited about what the new academic year will bring. Not only am I looking forward to working with Orange Class on the new Ratatouille and Cliff by [...]
Futurelab
A few months ago I recieved an email asking if I would be interested in visiting Futurelab to discuss the use of digital literacies in the primary classroom. For those of you who haven’t heard of Futurelab (you should have!) it’s an independent non-for-profit organisation interested in transforming how people learn through innovative practices mostly [...]
Multiliteracies from MultiMartin
I have finally got around to uploading the paper I presented at the UKLA Conference earlier in the month. It was presented as part of a symposium about integrating digital worlds in the classroom with Lynda Graham, Angela Colvert and Jackie Marsh. The paper explores some of the work that Orange Class has completed over [...]
The parting of the ways
Today was the last day of day of term… I don’t know how I feel. Everybody around me seems to be celebrating the end of the school year and the start of summer. I can’t. I have had the most incredible year with my class, we have done so much, achieved so much and made [...]
The Busy Week
Those who have been working with me know that this has been the exceptionally busy week that I have been talking about for months now. With the normal end of term rush to finish everything I have also attended the launch of the fantastic Centre for the Study of New Literacies. I heard some brilliant keynote [...]
A fresh look…
I haven’t had much time recently to do any work on the Multiliteracies Learning Initiative. The website is getting a considerable amount of daily traffic so I feel the need to add to the content. I’m really lucky to have so many great people willing to work as part of the teacher group and as [...]