66.The first classroom you remember has a high ceiling, high windows, a plastic trough where you play with water. There are books that are read to you while you sit cross-legged on the floor, your feet tingling with pins and needles. You sit at your desk pondering over workbooks that have puzzles and questions, theContinue reading “…a history of classrooms”
Tag Archives: Teaching
…apophenia: an experiment
apophenia • nounthe tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things (such as objects or ideas) Experiment: To take a selection of random words, phrases or ideas and find a meaningful connection between them (meaningful to you, that is). MethodTake 1x novel, 1x textbook and 1x catalogue and choose items at random. Write them downContinue reading “…apophenia: an experiment”
…things that make you smile
42. Children when they’re far away. The smell of a vinyl record as you slide it out of its sleeve, placing it on the turntable to watch the undulating grooves, the crackling moment when the needle touches down. Worms (the earth variety, not tape or thread). Beginning a new teaching semester, the promise of newContinue reading “…things that make you smile”
…teaching in the age of Covid
25.You return to teaching after many months away. But this is not teaching as you know it, sitting around a table with your students to debate, discuss and enquire. Instead you are in your living room, meeting your students on a laptop screen. This is teaching in the age of Covid, and this is whatContinue reading “…teaching in the age of Covid”
If you don’t know the answer, still ask the question.
This week has seen a hiatus in my own writing while I mark my students’ work. This is for the Teaching Writing module, and the work they’ve produced is in the form of a blog, charting their progress over the past few months and reflecting on how the theories and ideas about teaching have fedContinue reading “If you don’t know the answer, still ask the question.”
Paperclip Girl loses the plot (and her character)
This is the time of year when the high wire act of balancing teaching and writing becomes most tricky. End-of-semester submissions have been handed in with another batch due at the beginning of May. This means I’m going to be marking, immersed in other people’s writing, for around six weeks. In addition to this, thereContinue reading “Paperclip Girl loses the plot (and her character)”
The things that scare you…
A couple of weeks ago I bumped into an ex-student at a seminar run by the Higher Education Academy. I taught her as an undergraduate on a module where writing out of your comfort zone and experimentation was encouraged. She told me I gave her two pieces of advice that she’s never forgotten and nowContinue reading “The things that scare you…”
Sally Gander 