In this episode I’m talking to Professor Nutsa Kobakhidze. Nutsa is a Director at the Comparative Education Research Centre and Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University. Her areas of expertise include comparative education; privatization of education; globalization and education and large-scale international assessments. I wanted to speak to Nutsa particularly in regard to the privatization of education and more specifically, private tutoring. Having read an interview with the professor in...

In this episode I’m talking to Sarah Cottingham. Sarah is Associate Dean at Ambition Institute, author of Ausubel's Meaningful Learning In Action, a Professional Development Consultant and former English teacher. I was really eager to speak with Sarah after reading her work about Ausubel’s theory and applying it to recent discussions about how English can be approached in a more conceptual manner. Added to this is the requirement that every subject be approached conceptually within the IB...

In this episode I’m talking with Drew Perkins. Drew is Director of Thought Stretchers Education and host of the ThoughtStretchersEducation Podcast. I wanted to speak to Drew as I continue my exploration of what inquiry looks like in the classroom and particularly how it applies to English. Drew is an active advocate for implementing inquiry in a meaningful manner within education and has helped thousands of individual teachers to do so. We discuss: The difference between inquiry,...

This week I’m talking to Zach Groshell. Zach is an instructional coach, teacher in the American school system, has a PhD in instructional design and hosts the Progressively Incorrect Podcast. I have listened and loved Zach’s podcast for a long time now, particularly as the first season deals with the tension of progressive ideas and ideologies around inquiry based teaching as well as direct instruction as a pedagogy. For me, these are two approaches that a teacher delivering the PYP, MYP or...

In this episode I’m speaking with Sarah Donarski. Sarah is a Head Of English Department, PGCE & NQT mentor, speaker, blogger, researcher and author of The researchED Guide to Assessment. I recently relistened to an episode of Craig Barton’s Tips for Teachers with Sarah and immediately jotted down a number of questions and I had about assessment in English, which she has been kind enough to come on and answer. We discuss: 1. What final or summative assessments should look like in a KS3...

In this episode I’m talking with Kirun Goy. Kirun is the co-founder and co-host of the BrainTools podcast, a show dedicated to sharing practical brain science for everyday people. Additionally, he is a Leadership Facilitator with Harvard Business Publishing. I was lucky enough to have Kirun run a workshop for teachers at my school recently and after looking up his podcast, I realised it was rare to have someone with so much actionable insight on neuroscience also be well versed on students...

In this episode I’m speaking with Andrew and Dave of the IB English Guys. 2023 saw the first roll out of the IBDP English A course’s Paper 2. As such, teachers across the world rallied to prepare students for a comparative literature essay that featured unseen prompts and the opportunity to select any of the studied texts from across their two years of study. I was keen to chat with Andrew and Dave as they have been a fantastic point of contact on relevant IB teaching forums and of course...

In this episode, I’m speaking to Chris Youles. Chris is a Classroom Teacher at Taipei European School and author of Sentence models for creative writing: A practical resource for teaching writing.  Chris’ book is one of the most instantly applicable teaching books that I’ve come across in recent years and coupled with a robust grammatical understanding for students, it can really help students to understand how and why writers make certain choices in their sentence structures as well as how...

In this episode, I’m speaking with Craig Barton. Craig is an author, maths consultant, former Secondary Maths Adviser to TES and OG podcaster who originally hosted a TES podcast before going on to produce the Mr Barton Maths Podcast and Tips for Teachers podcast.  For me this was an enormous highlight of my own podcasting experience so far given that Craig’s was the first teaching focused show I ever listened to many years ago and was responsible for my discovery and interest in the likes of...

In this episode I’m speaking with Carly Leung and Vinci Tam. Carly and Vinci are Development Director and Business Executive respectively at V’air, Hong Kong. V’air is a youth-initiated environmental education organization with the mission to promote low-carbon local tourism as a means to mitigate climate change. V’air uses its digital platforms, ecotours and public education events to recommend less conventional travel destinations in Hong Kong. I wanted to talk to Carly and Vinci as part...

In this episode I’m speaking with Kate Beatty. Kate is the first returning guest I’ve had on the podcast and one I’m always very pleased to speak with about all things MYP. Kate is an IB Consultant, workshop leader, IB school accreditation team leader and programme leader, executive coach and author of educational resources including the INTHINKING MYP English Language and Literature website. For this episode, I wanted Kate to guide me through her thoughts on an MYP unit I had constructed...

In this episode, I’m speaking with Leon Furze. Leon is an international consultant, author, and speaker with years of experience as an teacher in the UK and Australia. Leon is currently studying his PhD in the implications of Artificial Intelligence on writing instruction and education and as an English teacher is very well placed to advise how recent innovations in AI may affect the subject.  We discuss:  1. In laymans terms what is a chatbot? What can it do and not do? 2. Why the likes of...

In this episode I’m speaking with Julie Stern. Julie is a four-time, best selling author with titles that include: Learning that Transfers, Visible Learning for Social Studies, The On-Your-Feet Guide to Learning Transfer and Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding.  She is an advocate for sustainability, equity and well being in education and has spoken internationally to help facilitate this in many schools around the world.  We discuss:  1. How conceptual learning and transfer...

In this episode, I’m speaking to Ben Walker. Ben is an English and TOK teacher here in Hong Kong as well as the current CAS coordinator. Next year he will be taking up the Head of Secondary English role at his current school. We discuss: 1. The best book he’s ever read, taught or been taught 2. The advantages and disadvantages of running the 5 year MYP course all the way up to the DP 3. His perspective on inquiry and authentic assessment and whether they look different in Year 7 v.s. Year...

In this episode I’m talking with Cathryn Berger Kaye. Cathy is president of CBK Associates, ABCD Books and travels globally to provide professional development on the likes of service learning, 21st century competencies and environmental sustainability. She is the author of 'The Complete Guide to Service Learning', 'Going Blue' and 'Make a Splash!', which are student guides to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands. In addition she has also authored a range of books for the ‘How...

In this episode, I’m talking to Benita Chick. Benita is the CEO and Founder of Encompass, a social enterprise in Hong Kong, which supports different social causes and NGOs financially as well as advocating for how Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be better implemented in businesses and schools. Benita is also a Board Member at KELY Support Group and Youth Arch Foundation, Education Director of Pink Alliance, Mentor for HKUST HeadStart Fellows and a mentor at the RESOLVE Foundation,...

In this episode I’m speaking with Nadia Abdallah. Nadia is a former Head of Department for English, Director of Teaching and Learning and MYP Principal in Jordan. She has also worked as a workshop leader for the IB and is currently Chief Education and Development Officer for Junior Achievement Worldwide, a nonprofit organisation providing hands on learning in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship skills I wanted to speak to Nadia about the IB’s MYP and more specifically the...

In this episode I’m talking to Eoin MacCarthaigh. Eoin is a Head of Department in Bangkok, teaching the IGCSE and IBDP. He is an active participant on Twitter and can be relied upon to ignite, continue and support conversation for international teachers.  We discuss: - The best text he’s ever read, taught or been taught - A quick introduction to his career to date - What he has seen or read in the last 12 months that has had the biggest impact on his practice - The significant challenges he...

In this episode I am talking to Amber Rhinehart. Amber is an MYP Coordinator in an international school in Accra, an MYP Workshop Leader, an IB Site Visitor, MYP Personal Project Examiner and teaches Language and Literature as well as individuals and Societies. I was really keen to speak to someone as experienced and knowledgable as Amber owing to the many valuable but demanding aspects that the MYP framework has to offer. We discuss: - A short introduction to Amber’s career to date -...

In this episode I’m talking with Tanay Naik. Tanay is Secondary School Deputy Principal for Teaching and Learning at United Nations International School of Hanoi. He has recently co-authored an article in The International Educator and is a  contributor and advocate for the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color. In the show we discuss: - A quick introduction to Tanay’s career in education to date - As a school, why and how UNIS Hanoi recently decided to gather staff...

In this episode, I’m talking with Dr Daniel Rosen. Dan is currently Head of Secondary at St George's Düsseldorf. He also writes a brilliant blog entitled Musings of a Dr and more recently hosted the International version of TeachMeet Icons. Over the course of the conversation, we discuss: A quick introduction to Dan’s career in teachingHow recruitment for schools in Germany has been affected by the pandemic and BrexitThe extent to which international schools struggle to keep pace with...

In the episode I’m talking with Dr Rick Smith. Rick is a former teacher and now provides individual counselling for students working with stress and anxiety. He specialises in ADHD and attention-related disorders and has helped a great many students from his practice in Hong Kong and beyond. The conversation with Rick came about due to watching him in a fantastic seminar he did earlier this year and also a longstanding sense that despite my efforts, I may never have been doing enough to...

This is the latest in a series of podcasts where I focus on a particular part of English instruction or English related matters in detail. In this episode I’m talking with Trevor MacKenzie. Trevor is a world-renowned speaker and author and is best known for his work with inquiry based teaching approaches. As an IB educator, inquiry is a word, strategy or concept that comes up on a daily basis with students and colleagues. Given its fundamental role within the MYP and DP, getting Trevor on to...

In this episode I’m speaking with https://twitter.com/edu_feminist (Rosie Georgiou). Rosie is an English teacher, KS5 Lead and PhD student living in London. She first came to my attention during the most recent TeachMeetEnglishIcons event, in which she discussed the process and benefits of creative writing in English. During our conversation we discuss: The best text Rosie’s ever read, taught or been taught? The ways in which creative writing can be metacognitive The relationship between...