Learning from my mistakes: an English teacher's blog

A long, long time ago. I shared some simple targets for marking the English Language exam papers. They’ve saved me hours of time and stopped...

Over the years, I have seen various approaches to marking. Some good. Some bad. Some as quick as a sneeze. Some as slow as a snail with a li...

Again, I am writing about marking. Anybody, would think I have some deep-seated psychological issue with marking books. I don’t, honestly....

A couple of months ago a new student in a year called me over to his desk. I had recently marked a piece of work. He said, ‘Where’s the ...

Things have changed. There wasn’t a sudden announcement, but the emphasis in observations has dramatically changed over the last four yea...

One of the frustrations we face daily in marking is that students don’t read our corrections. Their eyes search avidly for the final level...

There’s a battle inside every English teacher. It’s not a fight between Austen and Bronte. It’s not a war between Dickens and Poe. It is ins...

I find it incredibly funny that English teachers often moan about marking, yet put them in a room for a bit with some other English teache...

Be assured that the title is not something I have said. It was, in fact, something a colleague said to me a few years ago. The teacher of a ...

Progress is the new swear word in schools. It is used frequently to describe everything. Often, you will hear phrases like 'this is prog...