This week, I was asked by a Year 9 student, “Miss? Do you ever want to punch a kid for being annoying?” The whole class tuned in for my response. Note that I go to boxing every morning and can throw a damn good jab, but of course I replied, “No. I do not. That […]
Through a culture of high stakes testing (e.g.: NAPLAN) and the rise of ‘audit culture’ in education, we have created a school climate of standardized, neat conformity. As a result, kids are understandably tempted to produce neat, standardized answers. To achieve this, they are increasingly outsourcing their thinking to AI. Is anyone surprised by this? […]
By Melanie Ralph. Last year I had an amazing opportunity to take part in the University of Adelaide’s filming for their Classroom Confidence Micro-credentials course. These continuing education courses are free and self-paced, focusing on classroom management, explicit teaching, and phonics. It was a pleasure to meet the team, which was led by Joanna Anderson, […]
Image: Group 1 National Teacher Mentorship participants with teaching artists Emily Edward (left) and Huw Mckinnon (right). Photo credit: Clare Hawley (2024 NTM Bell Shakespeare) Last year, I was scrolling through an English Teachers Association of Queensland newsletter and the words ‘Bell Shakespeare Teacher Mentorship’ caught my eye. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Bell […]
By Melanie Ralph Last year, an OECD report described the “disciplinary climate” in Australian schools as being among the “least favourable” in the 38 participating countries. This has sparked many calls in the media and from ‘experts’ to “beef up discipline” and return to stricter approaches. Missing in much of the discussion has been the voices […]
By Melanie Ralph Suites of ready-made resources may be a crutch for some teachers, but we stand to lose the best and brightest if we pursue more top-down reforms that would deskill teachers and kick a struggling profession while it’s already down. Recently, think tank The Grattan Institute published a report titled Ending the lesson […]
Melanie Ralph 