Several years ago, a colleague walked into our department office looking visibly distressed. She filled her water bottle and drank almost a litre in one go. She was usually cheerful, energetic and bubbly, but not that day. I knew something was wrong. Pic credit: Initial caricature made by yours truly with final touches given by…
Stephenson’s Mathematical Methods for Science Students has been around for decades, and there is a good reason it keeps getting recommended. It is one of those quietly reliable books that does exactly what it says on the cover, without fuss and without unnecessary padding. The book is aimed squarely at students in the physical sciences…
I’ve started thinking you can tell quite a lot about a school before the students even arrive. Just look at the INSET timetable. Seriously. That first week tells you what the school thinks teachers need. It tells you what they value. And, probably more importantly, it tells you how much they trust the people they…
Phone bans and locking systems may reduce visible phone use, but lasting change requires student agency, parental cooperation and a broader conversation about digital attention. Schools everywhere are searching for a solution to the smartphone problem. Yondr pouches, phone lockers, confiscation policies and campus-wide bans all promise something educators desperately need: classrooms in which students…
Richard Earl’s Towards Higher Mathematics: A Companion is the kind of book that fills a gap most students do not even realise exists until they are already struggling. It sits in that important space between school mathematics and the rigour of a university degree, and it does so with real care and intelligence. The book…
For years, LinkedIn rewarded people who could make simple ideas sound complicated. Not necessarily the people with the best ideas.Not necessarily the people with the deepest expertise. Just the people who could package ordinary thoughts in polished corporate English. Some built entire careers around sounding intelligent without actually saying very much. Now AI has arrived…
I have taught Mathematics in India, the UAE, Singapore and Switzerland. Each system taught me something the others could not. Here is what I carried forward from each one.