I’m currently completing my last ever practicum placement and as such have been ridiculously busy gathering resources, planning lessons, reading up on the units I’m teaching and trying to memorise over 100 students’ names. I feel extremely lucky to have been given a placement in what is pretty much my dream school, and have been working really hard to make a lasting impression, in the hope they may remember me when I start filling in job applications at the end of the year.

Today I took a year 8 English lesson on active and passive voice - a concept they seem to have a tremendous amount of difficulty understanding. After trying to explain it in 3 different ways, I ended up telling them to forget everything I’d said. Then I wrote a sentence on the board. I asked them to tell me who or what was the person or thing ‘doing’ the action. I then asked them to identify to whom or what the action was being done. I then asked them what would happen if we switched them around. And BANG! It was like 23 lightbulbs went off in the room. I love those moments when students ‘get it’. They were creating their own sentences and switching from passive to active voice to their hearts’ content after that!

It just goes to show the power of doing rather than saying.