A Teaching Blog
With many of thrown into an unexpected period of distance learning, I wanted to highlight how my digital reading comprehension activities can help your students maintain and improve their reading skills. I’ve put together a free activity so you can trial Digital Reading Comprehension for Distance Learning. Let me unpack this free resource for you. The Purpose of this Free Digital Reading Comprehension Resource The
To help with any teachers dealing with school closures or the possibility of home and distance learning, I’ve put together these Home Learning Choice Boards. If your school doesn’t close, these would still make great activity sheets in the school holidays. Thank you to the many teachers who collaborated by sharing their incredible ideas. It was great to see everyone working together to help crowdsource
The goal of improving student vocabulary should be front and centre for all teachers – it really is that important. Vocabulary development is enormously vital for all students, especially for their development of reading comprehension and writing skills. In fact, research has shown that children with larger vocabularies achieve better results at school, including higher reading achievement in particular. Unfortunately, research also shows that many
For a myriad of reasons, it is possible that your school may need to close from time to time. It’s great to be able to use digital resources during school closures to provide options for at-home learning. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the reality of school closures is less possibility and more reality for many. But even if it isn’t affecting you right now, it is
International Women’s Day, held every March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. What a great opportunity to celebrate women leaders in your classroom. We have two great resources that celebrate awesome women who passionately fought for women to have the right to vote. Kate Sheppard – Leading Suffragette Kate Sheppard, featured on the New Zealand $10
It is important that we give students choices in the classroom and the “Must Do, Choose Two” format is a great way to do this. Benefits of giving student choices Giving students choices: Ensures they do the activities you definitely want them to do while giving them choice on the other activities they complete. Gives students opportunities for differentiated learning. As Katie Usher explains in
Setting Up A Spelling Programme How do you set up a spelling programme? Now that’s a topic that could get you 50 different, passionate responses! Interestingly, it is also a topic that is not practically covered in many teacher training courses. This blog post explains some practical ideas for setting up a spelling programme because I know that is what I would have found useful
I have a wonderful new Te Reo Praise Phrase free resource for you and I’ve put together a quick blog post to explain its importance! This beautiful Te Reo Praise Phrase poster is a handy display tool in your classroom. I use the word tool because this poster is a great way to prompt and remind you of encouraging te reo phrases to use with
In this guest blogpost, Sarah Tohill explores the mentoring relationship that all beginning teachers will experience during their first two years in the classroom. There are great tips and advice for both beginning teachers and their mentors. Read on! When you qualify as a teacher in New Zealand and you’ve finished all those assignments, readings, exams and placements, it’s time to spread your wings from
I’ve put this blog post together to highlight some great Treaty of Waitangi Books for Kids. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Treaty of Waitangi Treaty Ideas, I am actually surprised by the lack of books for children around such an important issue in New Zealand’s past, present and future. However, with a bit of hunting, I have five fantastic Treaty of Waitangi Books
Shared Reading is for Upper Primary, too. Often when people think of shared reading, they think of a teacher in the junior school sharing a big book with a class of 5-7-year-olds. However, I am here to tell you today that Shared Reading is for Upper Primary, too. I’ll give you a quick rundown of what shared reading is, why it is important, and how you
Utilising The Positive Note Home is a simple and effective way to encourage positive communication between school and home. Why The Positive Note Home? Communication is key! One way to promote positive communication between school and home is by sending home simple and brief positive notes. Consider this: some parents have only had negative experiences with school life. They may remember some bad moments they
Beginning Teacher tips: Setting Up a Reading Program (Year 3-Year 8) Welcome to the second in our series of blog posts to support beginning teachers. When I studied teaching at University, one of the things I was most surprised with was the lack of practical advice given to teachers about the day to day workings of actually running a classroom. Yes, I got some “thrilling”
While Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi and Waitangi Day are important parts of New Zealand’s past, present, and future, these topics aren’t always easy to teach in the classroom. Read on to find some great Treaty of Waitangi teaching ideas for how to make the Treaty of Waitangi and Waitangi Day engaging and thought-provoking topics for your students. For a lot
Welcome to the first in our series of blog posts to support beginning teachers. The following tips for beginning teachers have been sourced from teachers in New Zealand, Australia and around the world. I surveyed teachers and asked them a simple question: What do you wish you knew when you were starting teaching? They had a lot to share! Setting Up Your First Class Here are
I’ve created 34 Staff Certificates That All Teachers Will Relate To. Share this post with a teacher who will understand! Keep reading to download all 34 certificates for free! These certificates are a fantastic way to celebrate the school year at your end of the year staff party or celebration. 1. ‘Science Experiments’ in the Staffroom Fridge 2. The Mystery of the Disappearing Forks 3.
One thing you need to know about me is I love Christmas, so I have been looking forward to writing this Christmas Activities for the Classroom blog post for a long time! Downunder, in New Zealand and Australia, celebrating Christmas in the classroom can be a fun way to end the school year, while in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a chance to take a
The end of the school year can be tough, it can be chaotic, and it can be wonderful. Most likely, it will be a bit of all three. I was given some great advice on surviving the end of year chaos when I started in the classroom, and I’ve also reached out to some of my teacher friends to share their thoughts in this blogpost.
If you are looking for New Zealand History teaching resources, here are four topics you definitely need to cover. When studying New Zealand’s history, model to your students how to use critical thinking skills. Demonstrate how to look at a piece of information and analyse it critically. Students can then think critically to explore who is telling the story and whose story is being told.
Effective Classroom Management is a goal of every teacher, so I thought it would be a great focus as part of my Beginning Teacher blog post series. If you are going to read one book about classroom management, then I wholeheartedly recommend Managing Challenging Children by Gerard Gordon – this is not an affiliate link – I just think you really should read it! You
The upcoming Rugby World Cup is a great chance to integrate a high-interest topic into your classroom program. Keep reading to learn more about Rugby World Cup activities you could use in your classroom. Rugby World Cup Activities The 2019 Rugby World Cup, hosted by Japan, will be watched by an audience of millions, and no doubt is already a topic of great excitement for
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori – Maori Language Week is coming up on the 9th-15th of September. The theme is Kia Kaha te Reo Māori – Let’s make the Māori language strong. I’ve put together this blog post to highlight free and low-cost resources to use during this week (and hopefully all year!). There are many free and low-cost resources available; learning and promoting
Overcoming Teacher Imposter Syndrome I have been weighing up whether to write this post for a while now because it is a lot more personal than usual. But here I am, sitting down at the keyboard and its time to get started. From the day I stepped into my first classroom, I struggled with imposter syndrome. For me it is a feeling of being an
Yes, you should be teaching New Zealand History in your classroom! Now that we’ve got that sorted, let me explain four reasons why. 1. Students Need To Know Their Past (and Not Just Some of It) We’ve all heard the classic quote from Edmund Burke, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”. Quotes don’t become classics like that without at least some
Kia orana! I’ve put together this blog post to highlight Cook Islands Language Week Activities. Read on to gather some ideas for bringing the language and culture of the Cook Islands into your classroom this August. Cook Islands Language Week: Te ‘epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani runs from Sunday, August 4th until Saturday, August 10th. Did you know there are three different languages
Digital Task Cards are a great way to engage your students in 21st-century learning. Read on to learn 5 Reasons to use Digital Task Cards in your Classroom! What are Digital Task Cards? Digital Task Cards are paperless task cards used on digital devices such as Google Slides, iPads, laptops and cellphones. They can easily be shared to your students and accessed wherever your students
Learn Four Interactive Ways to Teach Beginning Sounds. One of the most important literacy skills in the early years is learning to tell sounds apart. In oral language, this is known as sound discrimination. Even if you don’t know this fancy term, it is likely you have done some sound discrimination as you’ve helped children distinguish between sounds like “b is for bath”, “f is
Australia is a fascinating country of contrasts – arid deserts and lush rainforests, white sand beaches and bustling cities, rich history and new technology! But how much do your students know about Australia? This blog post explains how to explore Australian Geography and Landmarks with your students through our new resource. Australian Geography and Landmarks Success Criteria and Curriculum Links By the end of our
With our crowded curriculum, it is almost impossible to cover all subject areas without a level of integration. Matariki is a great topic to integrate across subject areas as it easily links into social studies, science, te reo Māori, social studies, drama, visual arts…and the list goes on. Read on for some practical suggestions on exploring Matariki across the curriculum. The Benefits of Exploring Matariki
Matariki, the Māori New Year, has many symbols that explain its significance. I’ve put together this blog post to explain how to explore the Matariki stars through visual language. Read on to see a step by step process of how the Matariki stars can be used as a great context for exploring symbols and symbolism with your students. What is Visual Language? Visual language is the
