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? […]
Adolescence is a Netflix show about a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper) who is arrested for murdering a female schoolmate, Katie Leonard (played by Emilia Holliday). Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini, it has amassed 66.3 million views since its launch and is being described […]
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, […]
This is a collaborative guest post I contributed to Tom Mahoney’s site, The Interruption. The encounter with the face of the other is a command that tells us all, uncomfortably, that we are our brother and sister’s keepers – Emmanuel Levinas This year, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that despite cost-of-living pressures and the declining percentage […]
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 […]
With the arrival of the new Premier in NSW, Chris Minns, has come a hasty announcement of “sweeping” mobile phone bans to be introduced “from day 1, term 4” across all NSW public schools this year. The move follows similar policies in all other states, except Queensland and the ACT. The goal of the ban? […]
By Melanie Ralph Last week, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet fronted the media to apologise for wearing a Nazi costume to his 21st birthday party 20 years ago in 2003. Calling it a “terrible, terrible mistake,” the premier’s “genuine hope” is that “good will come of this.” Whether you are forgiving enough to view […]
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 