As the year comes to a close, many teachers tend to become a little sentimental and melancholic about  letting go of classes we’ve enjoyed so much. Without a doubt, the pride of my teaching joy this year has been my year 8 English class. Consisting of students who have been identified as major trouble-makers in other subjects, I’ve been delighted to have no significant issues with behaviour or attitude to school work. It seems that using technology in a (hopefully) dynamic and innovative way, incorporating substantial choice and responding to students’ initiatives with flexibility and leighway have all worked in my favour. Now I just have to get ready to say goodbye to the kids!

Here’s a video on a unit that we all had a lot of fun with. The topic was entitled ‘Poetry Slam’ and explored how performance poets and hip-hop artists communicate their frustration about problematic issues in society through verse, rhythm, rhyme and music. A few other year 8 teachers also picked up this topic and the result was that the kids had quite a positive PBL-like experience that didn’t necessarily count towards their grade but that had them quite engaged, as you’ll see.

These podcasts and the reflection come courtesy of GarageBand and iMovie, both of which the kids found very easy to use: