Author Archives: sallythorne

Don’t ask me for a pen

Posted on March 3, 2011 by sallythorne

In my first year as a teacher, a colleague from another school told me she’d been to an inset where the presenter had suggested we help kids too much. He suggested we don’t hand their books out for them, as … Continue reading →

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Should we allow children to fail?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by sallythorne

I saw this question flash across my screen briefly from Twitter yesterday, but lacked the time to follow the responses. I’ve been watching the growing #purpos/ed debate with acute interest, but unsure of what voice I had to add. Until … Continue reading →

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Setting HW on Moodle #1

Posted on February 15, 2011 by sallythorne

School’s VLE of choice takes the form of Moodle. I have been looking at setting homework through it, particularly for my year 10s, who I think are finding the jump in the amount of HW they get this year quite … Continue reading →

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GCSE Success Criteria in History

Posted on January 31, 2011 by sallythorne

I’ve been studying for a Geology GCSE with some year 10s after school for the past year and a half. As you might imagine, what amounts to a weekly observation of a teacher from another faculty has had a big … Continue reading →

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Classroom Kindles: part 1

Posted on January 11, 2011 by sallythorne

In the autumn term I started to think about Kindles in the classroom. I was getting tired of photocopying the same sheets every year and having them ripped, graffitied or thrown away by the students using them. If I had … Continue reading →

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End of term activity: Candy Castles

Posted on December 15, 2010 by sallythorne

I think pupils do a lot of passive lesson activities this time of year. Mindful of this, I went to the supermarket last night and purchased cocktail sticks, bamboo skewers, sponge fingers, marshmallows and a variety of other sweets, and … Continue reading →

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Using Google Maps with a class

Posted on December 13, 2010 by sallythorne

When I posted the link to the Google Map I made of the homesteaders’ journey west on Twitter, a few History teachers tweeted back something along the lines of, “Great – did the students collaborate?” to which the answer, unfortunately, … Continue reading →

Posted in active learning, GoogleMaps | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

#tmbristol

Posted on December 2, 2010 by sallythorne

In a very belated post, I want to talk about #tmbristol, which took place at the Grange School, Warmley, on November 10th. Vital kindly sponsored the event, and Clare was very helpful when it came to publicising it to schools, … Continue reading →

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Feedback: WB

Posted on October 27, 2010 by sallythorne

WB is text talk for “Write Back”. I learnt this from reading scribbles in the corners of exercise books or screwed up bits of paper I had confiscated, and last year I started using it when I was marking exercise … Continue reading →

Posted in AfL | Tagged | 2 Comments

This week’s wins #5

Posted on October 17, 2010 by sallythorne

1. Wider reading with Y10 I mentioned in wins #4 that I was intending to use extracts from the Prairie Traveler with my year 10s; this happened over a week ago now, turned out to be very successful. I was … Continue reading →

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