"THEDADREGIME"

Those of you who know me personally know I’ve lost some weight over the last year. I’ve been thinking about about writing about that but, I don’t want to get ahead of myself as I still have some distance to go. Through the process, however, I have developed a new addiction: blue berry, raspberry, milk and cocoa shakes in our Nutribullet. They’re bloody awesome and I needed one today. I’ve been buying the berries at the local farmers’ market. I ran out his week and had to buy

I’ve never been a fan of ability grouping in schools. I’m always left with the feeling that we automatically limit what groups of student will learn. As if, based on where they are now, we’re going to expect one group of students to learn less than another and therefore we expect less of them. Inclusion is about opportunity, and opportunity should be based on what a student can learn, not on what they have learned. #math #teaching #learning #classroom #abilitygrouping #stream

Why am I about to attempt to write everyday? Doing something for the sake of doing it is not something we do much as adults. When we’re kids we do things, just for the sake of it, constantly – it’s how we fill our days. We used to passionately build things with Lego, practice our sport, choreograph a dance, memorise song lyrics. As adults we do things for our careers, our responsibilities, our families – but rarely, just for the sake of it. But we did our best learning when w

Dear Pre-service Teacher, I’ve written this three times, already. Each time it hasn’t come out right. I’ve over complicated the message because there’s so much I want to tell you. I’ve gone off on tangents because there’s so much I want you to know. It took a card from a former student to remind me how simple the message is… Make a difference. We only get a finite number of role-models in our lives. You’re going to be a role-model for many. Value that responsibility. Be hones

A report, commissioned by the NSW Education and Standards Authority, has found no improvement in maths and reading among students in a decade and the results of disadvantaged students have declined sharply … No shit, Sherlock! … and now there are calls for the NAPLAN process to be reviewed … Um, educators, the people tasked with the actual teaching of the children, have been asking for it to be reviewed FOR 10 YEARS! I love Alfie Kohn’s rule of thumb: The individual’s enthusi

Such is the way of the world You can never know Just where to put all faith And how will it grow I entered December with Eddie Vedder’s words in my ears and genuinely unsure for how much longer I would be a teacher. Was I bored? In need of a change? Mid-life crisis? Had I lost my passion? I didn’t know, but I knew my head was starting to drift elsewhere. I had doubts about my practice and about my effectiveness as a teacher. On the last day of school Millie gave me a card. A

Whilst attending a Professional Development session recently I was challenged by a suggestion that I should come up with my own ‘model for t

Watch the video. No homework and a 20-hour school week? Sounds awesome, sign me up. That’s right in my philosophical wheelhouse; less is more; dispense with the unnecessary. So, why do I cringe when I see these clips turn up in my social media feeds? I have the belief that as educators we tend to overvalue the effectiveness of our pedagogy to teach things that don’t matter. We adopt practices and models, we change strategies and explore taxonomies, all with the intention of i

Mission: Minecraft Description: Rainy day fun and learning. Gaming with a purpose. Difficulty: Low – Medium Briefing: You can plan lots of weekend activities only to have them all come unstuck. You still want to have some fun when plans don’t work out, but also spend some time doing something meaningful with your children – how about Minecraft? Video games often get a bad wrap in parenting circles and there is no shortage of inappropriate games for children. I’m not advocatin

Lego. That noise … of searching through a box of Lego is a distinctive sound from most of our childhoods. I hear it and have to look – what’s being built? Has there ever been a better toy? A toy so unintentionally educational, meaningful and universally loved? Hell, even the movie was awesome! And it’s Danish – just like my wife! The President (4 y.o.) has really discovered Lego these holidays. I love that. I’m trying to encourage it, and I don’t care how much it costs. The