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Jim Smith

Fireworks teaching: why less might well be more

2014-08-22T19:17:36+01:00July 15th, 2013|Featured, planning|

Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Philip Larkin – Toads Many people (and many students) seem to expend considerable energy in attempting to use their wits to drive off the need to work. This provokes the ire of others (often teachers) who consider it character forming and good for them and I-had-to-do-it so-why-shouldn’t-you? The ability to work hard and get on with difficult and onerous tasks is a terribly important life skill and I expend a fair bit of my energy in convincing [...]

Building challenge: differentiation that’s quick and works

2017-01-02T15:16:55+00:00January 19th, 2013|English, learning, planning|

UPDATE: These two posts represent my latest think on differentiation:  Is differentiation a zero-sum game? April 2015 Why do we overestimate the importance of differences? November 2014 Since having a good long think about differentiation some while back it doesn't keep me up at nights nearly as much as it used to. But this is still one of my most visited posts so clearly other folks continue to be troubled. I want to set out my stall early by saying that this is yet another of those troublesome topics which is far simpler than most teachers imagine. My bottom line is that mucking [...]

Building resilience: Sir, I'm stuck

2012-05-05T23:15:17+01:00May 5th, 2012|learning|

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. I have this quote from Samuel Becket's play Worstwood Ho! up in my classroom and regularly refer to it. It's there as much for me as my students and there's been plenty of times when (after another cunningly wrought lesson has nose dived into a flaming ball of shame) I've been grateful for the sentiment. Never mind, I tell myself, it'll be better next time. I hear about the need to make students independent learners all the time but I think that might be missing the point. It's not really about independence. Although there [...]

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