Top Notch Teaching

So I’ve really been struggling with this lately….who else out there has soooo many things that they want to do, but just can’t seem to fit them all in? I’ve read quite a bit about time management and ‘making’ more time to fit in everything I want.  I’ve also read articles that ditch the concept [...]

I’m a big believer in getting my students to think about their learning at the end of a lesson, and reflect on how they think they went. Before moving on, I want my students to really consider what they did, why they did this and also take note of their strengths and weaknesses. I have [...]

Well you may be thinking I’m over exaggerating or embellishing when I say I cried for 3 months, but I’ve gotta tell you…this is pretty damn accurate. No one actually ever told me how hard, difficult and demoralising being a teacher could be.  I’ll be honest I started my teaching degree when I was a [...]

Thanks so much to everyone that entered my birthday giveaway and for sharing what has been your favourite article from Top Notch Teaching. Each person that entered received 3 entries; these were numbered according to when you commented.  For instance, the first comment had entries 1-3, the second entries 4-6 etc.  I then used a [...]

It’s party time…today is Top Notch Teaching’s first birthday.  I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started this blogging journey….it’s gone by so quickly.  It’s been a great, scary, rewarding and hard 12 months, but I definitely wouldn’t change it for one minute. Probably the best thing that has come out of the [...]

Managing teaching stress and burnout can be quite a challenge.  At various times during my teaching career (especially in the first couple of years) I have suffered from quite severe stress and I have had to work on ways to overcome this so that I don’t burnout completely. I think for me the stress comes [...]

Continued from Tales From A First Year Teacher: Adapting To Life In The Pilbara Now back to my classroom.  So much to do and so little time….how am I going to get everything I want done?  I have big plans for my classroom and students.  Now I get to put in practice all the things [...]

Last week I shared with you my article, 3 Creative Play Activities Using Colourful Fabrics, as a way to get started with some play ideas.  I’ve found another great creative play idea that I also wanted to share with you. The Creative Play Box is an idea that I have seen in some form or [...]

This week I’d like to share with you a teaching strategy that I was first introduced to in my first year of teaching and that I find helps to focus my students during a lesson. When planning my lessons I always set a few learning objectives that I hope my students will be able to [...]

Some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood was when I was able to dress up in all sorts of different clothes and fabrics.  Now that I have a daughter I get to relive this all over again.  Check us out below; we’re dressed up as DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba (don’t [...]