whatonomy

A year’s work coming to fruition.
Delighted to see Discover Geography now publishing. This is more than a textbook series. It’s a complete KS3 / lower secondary curriculum package designed for both UK and international contexts.

No. The week after. This is the one I really wanted.

Yes, the Doom Bar is talking. I'm elated at the prospect of return. I'll calm down. A bit.

Whoop!

Yes. Whoop, indeed.

a close up of a man 's face with the word woo in green letters ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the word woo in green letters

After 17 years of teaching in private schools, I taught 30 minutes in a state school today. And. It. Felt. Goooood.

So... When I am ensconced as an English teacher in the UK, what is the very first conference I should go to? #whatfest

Hello Hayley! It has been too long. Lovely to hear from you. ♥️

The teacher who came in from the cold. That's the 1st blog in almost 3 years. There's a new game in town: reigniting the dream of social mobility.

Ha! Milton Keynes Free House. Doom Bar. 🤞

The best bit? I got to spend time in a great staffroom with a wonderfully diverse and intellectually vibrant bunch of teachers. A good staffroom is a thing to cherish. It is a glorious box of the most nutty cats.

Thrilled for you. I hope all the Bluesky advice panned out. ❤️

By way of celebration. Here's to teaching like a champignon one last time!

It did. My EduTwitter crowd is still out there. I'm really looking forward to being back in the think of it.

Thank you! I'm absolutely thrilled. Finally coming home. And finally giving back. Feels cathartically wonderful.

Got a job! That's it. I am back in the UK for good and will be teaching English in a UK state school from September. I am made up. 😎

Finally getting round to eating my Christmas treat of a Marzipan pig from the Norwegian Church in Rotherhithe

#teamenglish What general things would you say a modern UK English department is looking for in a demo lesson? Please RT

Two interviews! Back in the UK next week and first week of March. The game is afoot!

If Bilbo had Chat GPT

This is a brilliant take-down of that heavy lifting the I is doing in AI. Outline details - pretty good. Drill down - a hopeless desert of nonsense.

Oh, and the author *hasn't* used hallucinating. Humans hallucinate. Machines get things wrong. DEFINE IT.

#openai #chatgpt #gemini #grok

On chasing the rainbow of intrinsic motivation And the viable alternatives teachers can adopt to support effort and learning

rebeccabirch.substack.com/p/on-chasing...

Merchant of Venice in Year 7. What do we think about that?

Interview on Thursday. Wish me luck. 😬

Okay, better now. One interview and one pre-shortlisting task. Nice to have fingers in pies.

That's really good advice. I'll just apply and have the conversations as and when I need to. I can cross bridges when I come to them. Thanks, Rachel - I really appreciate your advice.

You don't think prospective schools will think badly of me?

I certainly would feel very guilty and feel disinclined to let my students down mid-year, but at the same time feel bound to look after my health and my family (and know that I have a better chance securing urgent April hire positions).

Moral dilemma time: legally, I have a 2-month notice period here in CZ and it's normal here for teachers to come and go at any point in the year. If I see April start English jobs, should I go for them, or will I come across really badly?

I'm going to finish this school year, so ready to start a new job from July. Yes, I'm currently a head of English.