‘Not for the first time, I wonder if this is how he speaks to his parents’The Secret Teacher: What we facilitate in class has more to do with learning to interact with othersTue Jan 25 2022 - 00:00
Effects of loose leadership in schools greater now due to OmicronThe Secret Teacher: We hear about leaders being under pressure, but what do any of us do about it?Tue Jan 11 2022 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: We’re pushing our super learners into a squeezed middleGrade bands for both the Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert are due an overhaulTue Dec 14 2021 - 00:00
Our students are less resourceful than ever. What’s going on?The Secret Teacher: We’re denying students challenge of learning to overcome obstaclesTue Nov 23 2021 - 00:00
Schools’ core values can set students up for success in future careersThe Secret Teacher: Pupils are in desperate need of essential soft skillsTue Nov 02 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Knowing when to stop caring is an essential survival skillMost teachers do care, but a healthy awareness of where to draw the line is vitalTue Oct 19 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Those who can’t, teach – that’s what my da says’Passive learning no longer applies – it’s all about engaging learners nowTue Oct 05 2021 - 00:00
Teachers live in permanent fear of their shortcomings being discoveredThe Secret Teacher: In front of 20-something pairs of eyes, very little goes unnoticedTue Sept 21 2021 - 00:00
We have no business debating the need to wear masks in schoolThe Secret Teacher: It is irresponsible to offer our own viewsTue Sept 07 2021 - 00:00
What happens when you set your class a 30-day homework challenge?The Secret Teacher: I have never covered more academic work in a month with a classTue May 25 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Must we go back to State exams as we know them next year?We have here a real opportunity to conduct proper reformTue May 11 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: What makes 21st-century students tick?We can’t expect students to be happy with what we catch and feed them any moreTue Apr 27 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: It is okay not to have the answerWe’re living through a prime opportunity for growth and learningTue Apr 13 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Labelling students is an appalling lack of professionalismThe Secret Teacher: Upon seeing the name, not the work, I’ve heard colleagues exclaim ‘oh, he’s a D’Tue Mar 23 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: This year’s Leaving Certs are the hardest workers we’ve ever knownEnforced distancing has served the students who want to learn well in many waysTue Mar 02 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: I envy the breakfasts I see being delivered during 9am classBizarrely, it seems easier to get children into school than on an online classTue Feb 16 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: This is not the time to limit ourselves to online traditional schoolTruly fantastic interactions occur if teachers are brave enough to experiment with the technologyTue Feb 02 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Our belief that Leaving Cert is exemplary is at dizzying heightsA hybrid plan is no plan when it comes to school closureTue Jan 19 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Students have grown in new and unexpected waysResilience, gratitude and understanding – we have a cohort unlike any beforeTue Jan 05 2021 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: We hold all the power when it comes to school reportsPoorly judged comments can lead to serious disappointment for studentsTue Dec 15 2020 - 00:00
Teaching in Covid-era: Students are now listening, engaged as classmates sit a metre awaySecret teacher: Silence in classrooms this year is of the most productive kind with an unnerving aura of tuned-in-nessTue Dec 01 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: How pupils feel back in school may surpriseBad seat allocation and lockerless burden of schoolbag: we should gather experience dataTue Nov 17 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: What’s the point of punishing students who won’t do their work?Covid-19 reminds us teaching should be about encouraging and inspiring not coercionTue Nov 03 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Pandemic pressures have hardened us to our bashersWe have bigger things to worry about, as absences from class create unsettlednessTue Oct 13 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: My students’ capacity to socially distance is worryingly low10 important lockdown lessons I’ve learnedTue Sept 29 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Grading the Leaving Cert class of 2020 was my toughest ever taskThere will be students who will officially learn that they were considered bottom of the classSun Sept 06 2020 - 09:50
The Secret Teacher: I’m genuinely petrified we aren’t properly preparedTeachers risk being the real casualty here … we’re under strain with the lack of rehearsals and little empathyTue Sept 01 2020 - 00:00
There’s absolutely no anonymity in this year’s Leaving CertThe Secret Teacher: Our transformation from lowly teachers to ‘assessors’ is officialMon May 25 2020 - 09:57
The Secret Teacher: Young people suffer as school rites of passage disappearIt isn’t like a funeral but, on so many levels, it isn’t unlike one eitherTue May 05 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Too many students are failing the coronavirus testWe need to do as we are asked – whether we like what we are hearing or notTue Apr 21 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Giving students full marks for cancelled tests isn’t fairStudents who differed vastly over the last 5½ years are suddenly now equalTue Apr 07 2020 - 00:27
‘See you in September,’ say some cheery colleaguesThe Secret Teacher: People need to ‘get’ the gravity of the situation, and soonMon Mar 16 2020 - 10:40
The Secret Teacher: Do we really need a longer school year? Give me a breakHas it occurred to commentators that, educationally, the school calendar actually works?Tue Mar 10 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Lots of homework is left undone because parents aren’t strict enoughWhat would be wrong with both parents and teachers making rewards greater?Tue Feb 25 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Our State exams are far too open to tweaking and manipulation’Students deserve total transparency: what they achieve should be the result they getTue Feb 11 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Social media contact with students is an absolute no-go area’Many teachers still leave themselves wide open to an array of safeguarding problemsTue Jan 21 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Rising tide of anxiety infiltrating our classrooms’In 2020 anxiety and homelessness must stop becoming the norm in schoolsTue Jan 07 2020 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Should we allow teachers have their own child in class?We strive to treat our pupils equally. Bringing a parent-child dynamic into the classroom compromises thatTue Dec 10 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Desperately seeking a Junior Cycle sample paperThird years are preparing for the first-ever exams in a range of subjects so why are we only seeing the first sample papers now?Tue Nov 26 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Sure, your woman can’t teach, everyone knows that’In every school there are ones you definitely don’t want to see on your roll bookTue Nov 12 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: The public stands by our nurses. But why not teachers?In school I’m surrounded by people and yet I truly feel I have nobodyTue Oct 22 2019 - 09:38
The Secret Teacher: Our obsession with wellbeing risks making it taboo to be okayPeople are becoming so greedy about their own wellbeing that they lose sight of what’s happening to othersTue Oct 08 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: I’m all for promoting student voice (so long as there’s a mute button)The old adage of having one mouth and two ears and using them in proportion should applyTue Sept 24 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Seeking special treatmentTo my fellow teachers: please don’t pull rank. We desperately need solidarityTue Sept 10 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘Little wonder people have a go at us over our summer break’I often wonder how my pupils will have changed over the holidaysTue Aug 27 2019 - 00:00
An open letter to this year’s Leaving Cert studentsThe Secret Teacher: Your grades are not a reflection of who you are as a personTue Jun 04 2019 - 00:00
The Secret Teacher: Sport should never come at a cost to a child’s school workExtra-curricular work is invaluable, but too much can affect pupils’ overall wellbeingTue May 14 2019 - 16:00
The Secret Teacher: ‘People just love having a go at us’Many other professions envy the fact that we get so much media attention at EasterTue Apr 23 2019 - 00:00
Classroom humiliation is the last thing a secondary student needsThe Secret Teacher: Parents need to alert us if their child is having a tough timeTue Apr 09 2019 - 00:00
Lesson plans are easy – until 30 students get at themThe Secret Teacher: The classroom is no place for control freaksTue Mar 26 2019 - 00:00
