Marvels in the Mundane
Does Rest Really Make Us More Productive? There are several kinds of rest and we need all of them at different times: 1. Physical rest: Getting enough sleep at night, and the occasional nap rests our bodies and helps our brain to move what we learn during the day...
Bringing Back Wonder
As the leaves change from summer’s lime and olive greens, to autumn’s crimson and amber leaves that fall in crunchy piles on the grass, we feel a change in the air. Mornings and evenings are cooler and the days are getting shorter. The dew on the grass is heavier and...
What Does “Success” Really Mean?
Do You Set New Year's Resolutions?If you’re anything like me, my new year's resolutions are usually phrased like ‘get better at X’ or ‘do more of Y’ or ‘don’t do Z’. These goals are well meant, aimed at helping me to grow into the happy, confident and successful...
Number Sense: The Key to Math Success.
What is number sense?Number sense is the fundamental skill that all mathematical learning rests upon. In short, number sense means understanding how the basic rules of numbers work. Unless you’re a teacher, it’s not unusual if you haven’t heard of number sense. We...
7 Reasons Why Literacy is the Most Important Learning Goal
What do you think of when hear about ‘literacy’?Most of us associate literacy with the ability to read words, but that definition only scratches the surface of what literacy really is. As a tutor, when I teach literacy, my job is to teach more than just reading...
No Child Left Behind
When it comes to receiving educational support, students with specific learning needs are often left behind. There are a myriad of reasons for this including a low classroom resources or a lack of support staff at school, to the student masking their struggles to fit...
The Battle For Balance
High school students know the struggle of time management all too well. Throughout primary school, we managed our home readers, maths worksheets and the occasional poster or diorama without thinking about it. All of a sudden, we reached year 7 and we’re expected to...
Exams: They’re about more than grades
What if I told you that there is more to exams than striving for a certain grade? Many students, particularly studious HSC candidates approaching their trial exams, would be astonished to hear this. Actually, they probably wouldn’t believe it at all. That’s not hard...
Inspiring growth through constructive critique
Ah, half-yearly reports. Some students are thrilled to see their achievements praised by their teachers. For others, it’s a time of dread where they feel like they don’t measure up to expectations. For both groups, learning to receive constructive criticism is a...
Curiosity: Toddlers have got it right
Since the iPhone brought the internet out of cyber cafes and into our pockets, our worlds have grown smaller. We might think that increased access to Google means that we’ve become more curious, but curiosity is actually more about the questions we ask than the...
Science confirms multisensory learning enhances memory
You might have heard the saying that people remember: 10% of what they read 20% of what they hear 30% of what they see 50% of what they hear and see 70% of what they say 90% of what they say and do. These percentages, represented visually in D.G. Treichler’s Cone of...
Is knowing your times tables overrated?
It is a common misconception that since calculators are used more often in schools and since calculators are freely accessible on our phones (and even our watches!) that learning multiplication times tables by heart is as outdated as an accountant using an abacus. It...
Why Study Shakespeare?
February is the month of love, romance, and all things pink, red, rosey, and chocolatey. Love songs, classical poetry and cheesy greeting card rhymes abound even after Valentine’s Day is over. Here’s one you’ve probably heard of: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s...
Reflective climbing for academic success
As we draw nearer to the start of a new school year, it’s worth taking time to think about how our reflections from last year can be turned into actions. Last year, students developed greater resilience through lockdown, learning from home, dealing with the emotional...
Silver linings
2020 was a year that changed much of the way we do things. In some cases, the changes have been irritating and time-consuming, such as the fact we can no longer dine in at a restaurant without ‘checking in’ for contact tracing, or that long-awaited international...