Trying to watch the new season of Star Trek: Picard. Accidentally started the very first episode of season one instead. I'd forgotten how good an opening it was: Picard is playing poker against Data. The conversation between them prolongs the hand. Data asks Picard why he is stalling. Picard answers: 'I don't want the gameContinue reading "Picard"

It's taken me longer than I'd hoped, but I should be able to finish Hero of Two Worlds in the next week while I'm away. Finishing a book begs the question of what to read next. Will it be another biography - I'm particularly looking forward to biographies of JFK and Donald Trump (quite theContinue reading "Up next…"

Students, just like everybody else, can often put themselves under pressure. This pressure can often be associated with a fear of failure. Whether it is making a mistake, getting an unsatisfactory score or some other action which we interpret as failure (and interpretation is important), if we don't have a healthy relationship with failure, thenContinue reading "Our relationship with failure"

At my previous school I used to run trips to Parliament. I have a vivid memory of one workshop in which one of the presenters said 'ideas are like currency around here'. Remembering that quote got me thinking about today's post... Ideas are stimulating. They challenge us and make life interesting. Good ideas help usContinue reading "Currency – intellectual and political"

Having finished watching The Recruit, I needed something new to watch. Not wallpaper TV, but also nothing that needed too much concentration. Flicking through the various streaming services I've acquired, Disney Plus offered the answer with The Simpsons. Twenty-two minute bursts would be perfect. Also I hadn't watched too many of the newer episodes. SettlingContinue reading "Springfield stories"

When is it acceptable to give up on watching a film? I ask this question while watching Shotgun Wedding on Amazon Prime. Admittedly it's only filler TV - on in the background while I'm doing something else. This is somewhat hypocritical as I'm regularly telling students about the myths of multitasking. Even as wallpaper viewing,Continue reading "Bad films"

I don’t know whether this is a real trend, or a case of only spotting the exceptions, but it appears that Ofsted may be doing a better job of celebrating schools. I saw on Twitter today another teacher celebrating their school’s report. They weren’t screaming about results or metrics though, they were chuffed that OfstedContinue reading "Celebrating schools"

I am thinking of home. I don't mean the UK; or rather I don't just mean the UK. Home is an abstract concept; or rather it is not solely a concrete concept. On an everyday basis, home is a building, a physical space, and yet it is more than that. For most people, most ofContinue reading "Home"

I wrote a teaching-related post last week revisiting the real purpose of writing: to transmit ideas from one person's mind to another. When you consider the openness of this definition, it is liberating and empowering. One of the reasons I think I have stuck to my writing resolution, almost to perfection, is because I enjoyContinue reading "Righting the wrong with writing"

Simplifying with checklists: I try to break down the steps of what I need to do, put them in order and then work through them. Reduces complexity, reduces stress. Not going for 'just one more': I had developed a nasty habit of getting to the end of an episode on a streaming service, and ratherContinue reading "Two for Tuesday"