Tales from the Chalkface

A big sigh of relief – the holidays are here. I’m doing a jolly dance around a pile of presents

Summer days make me more inclined to take a stroll home rather than jump on the tram, so last week,

How do you know? In whose opinion? What’s the measure? Here’s an account (very one sided) of the best lesson

Got your attention? That’s what I watched in school this week. Let me explain: my oldest students performed a piece

It’s mad March and I have a list of deadlines so long I dare not look at it. Mostly I’m

I’m a lark not an owl, so if I have marking to do I’m up by 6, rather than finishing

One of the delights of working in a language school rather than a regular school is never having to impose

The run up to Christmas is like wading through a morass of ‘to do’ lists: the usual marking, preparing for

My view of the summer break has changed as my teaching journey has lengthened. At first, as a new teacher, six weeks seemed far too much. By week four, I was secretly bored and aching to get back to the classroom, though too embarrassed to admit it for fear of seeming a sad case…

While students don’t get to enjoy (or is that endure?) too many meetings, unless you count lessons, we teachers meet in various groups with the aim of oiling the wheels of our educational bus and either speeding it on its way to academic improvement…