Whether you are starting at a new school this year or returning to familiar ground, the first few days of term 1 are always filled with a kind of nervous excitement - for both students and staff! My first lesson of the year with each grade is one of my favourites and is also an important one to get right as it sets the tone for the rest of the year. So how do you plan the first lesson of a school year? What should you include? If you are new to a school, of course there will

I first came across the concept of centres or stations a few years ago when I was doing some classroom release for a leading teacher. The activities she had left for me were part of a whole-year-level Literacy Rotation. This involved grouping together various students by ability and allowing them to rotate around different activities related to literacy such as a worksheet practising suffixes, a creative writing task or a reading comprehension activity aided by the teacher. A

So you've just made conscious taa and ti-ti. Now what? Instead of charging full speed into the next rhythmic discovery, it's important to give your students the chance to put their new knowledge into practice and play around with their newfound rhythmic friend. It's also important for you as a teacher to be able to assess that they have in fact fully understood this new concept. There are 6 broad forms that this practice may take: Performing, Reading, Writing, Composing, Impr