Rewards in Education

Mark Smith considers the benefits, and otherwise of using rewards in education.  My feeling is that students should not be praised, or rewarded for doing what is expected of them, for example, doing classwork or homework.  Praising impressive work, or impressive effort is worthwhile, however.  This article considers incentives that have been popular in many schools, namely giving prizes for work.

The Importance of Speaking and Listening

I am a big fan of speaking and listening; I found that boys were particularly poor at this.  I also found that giving them an opportunity for formal speaking, without notes, was a very good way to encourage engagement and a positive classroom environment.  For Laura Kenwright's experience have a look at the following.