KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE

When I became a teacher I started to do the things using my student perspective, not being fully aware of the fact that time had gone by and thinking that I had to teach my students the way I had been taught.
It lasted for very short time as reality showed me that we were not living in the 90s anymore, that children today live in a different world and that the only things that remained the same at school were the walls and the stairs, nothing else. It is something nobody teaches you during traineeship, while you are supposed to be learning how to be a teacher. Most times it is all loads of theory and theory, which are so far away from what you are about to face in the classroom.
Then, when I started to realise that I had to do things in a different way I felt overwhelmed as there were lots of things to be done: preparing lots of lessons, memorising lots of names of students, keeping reports up to date, checking homework, photocopying, attending meetings, using technology, trying to do your best, teaching stuff, making children learn...and an endless list. What I did then, was to start reading on blogs and webpages, getting information from experienced 21st century teachers that wanted to share their knowledge with the world, which eventually became the most helpful resource I could get.
Now, that I am gaining experience, what this experience is teaching me is that we need to focus on what really works, to keep things simple, to go straight forwards to what we want to achieve and to speak clearly to our students.
This is, somehow, the aim of this blog, to show some of the ideas that are simple and work at teaching and to share my experience. (All the experience and resources I keep in my teaching trunk).