Category Archives: Miscellaneous

My Top Primary Teacher Buys (Particularly Year 2!)

Stapleless Staplers I love these and they really seem to amaze other teachers! They make a great gift for teachers too. They work by punching a small hole and then folding paper back through itself to bind sheets together. Never … Continue reading

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Idea 233: ‘Improving Pairs’ and ‘Learning Lines’

A useful activity requiring no resources and little time that you can throw into any lesson to have children think about their learning and progress. The kind of activity that, if you have your children trained in advance, will look … Continue reading

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My Top 10 Ideas for an NQT or RQT in Key Stage One

  Below are 10 ideas that I’ve found have been really effective in my class this year. Every class and every teacher is different, but I hope you might find one or two of these ideas inspire you a bit! … Continue reading

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Teacher Workload and Written Marking

I am of the opinion that of the many, many things a teacher can do to help their pupils, written marking isn’t really that great a choice. Not completely useless, mind you. Sometimes it really does the trick. It’s just … Continue reading

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Idea 220: 5 Quick Plenary Ideas For Any Lesson

Below are some simple activities you can use at the end of any lesson as a plenary to check the level of understanding amongst your pupils and to spot any misconceptions that might have otherwise slipped you by. Sentence Summary … Continue reading

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Idea 209: End-of-Day Routine ‘Draw What You’ve Learned’

I was reflecting on my routines in the classroom and thought there had to be a way to get the children ready to go home in a better manner. All of my class piling into our small(ish) cloakroom at once … Continue reading

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Marking is a hornet

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Idea 206: Simultaneous Show and Tell

Show and tell is a common classroom activity (particularly with early primary) where children can bring in something from home and then tell the class about it. I found recently that due to having so many things to fit in, … Continue reading

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Idea 205: Quiz Quiz Trade Differentiation Top Tip

Previously (Idea 184) I mentioned the Kagan structure called ‘Quiz-Quiz-Trade’, where children walk around quizzing each other with cards that have a question on one side and the answer on the other. For an observation I had, I went ahead … Continue reading

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Idea 204: Encouraging Children To Listen with Kagan ‘Timed Pair Share’ Structure

How I previously used ‘talk partners’ in a lesson: “Do you think a car is alive? Discuss with your talk partner what you think and why.” After perhaps a minute, I would signal for everyone’s attention and then randomly-select a … Continue reading

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