Tag: education

Lesson Plan for Murder – Lori Robbins (Review)

~ Dan ~ Leave a comment

lpfmOn the first day of term, Liz Hopewell clears clutter, plans lessons, and discovers a corpse. Marcia – polished, professional, and ever-so-superior – is sprawled on her classroom floor. Understandably enough, busy teachers and police leap to the comfortable explanation of “natural causes”.

Mysterious lesson plans and a tainted coffee cup raise Liz’s suspicions, but it’s hard to investigate with a full timetable (including some of Marcia’s classes) and a busy home life. Add to that a devastatingly handsome policeman, pushy parents, and possible further murders: Liz is definitely in danger of something, and only solving the mystery will reveal what.

Continue reading “Lesson Plan for Murder – Lori Robbins (Review)” →

Top Ten Tuesday – Fictional schools that would be better to teach in than an actual school

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Top Ten Tuesday

“Top Ten Tuesday” is a feature started by “The Broke and the Bookish“, in which people list their top ten books that match some given criterion. It changes every week, and happens on a Tuesday. Lots (a frankly ridiculous number) of bloggers take part.

This week the theme is “back to school”, which is not normally something I enjoy thinking about. In the spirit of that theme, I’ve decided to list fictional educational establishments which – in one way or another – would be preferable to real-world schools. Importantly, this list is about schools it would be preferable to teach in, not to learn in – most fictional schools would give you a terrible education.  Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday – Fictional schools that would be better to teach in than an actual school” →

World Book Day and Reading Aloud

~ Dan ~ Leave a comment

It was World Book Day recently , a day which does not figure much in the consciousness of anyone except the over-worked librarians of secondary schools.

Ideally, it should be a day in which people all over the world come together to celebrate the “uniquely portable magic” of books. It should be a day filled with competitions and conversations and reading and recommendations. On that day, everyone should be talking about books – what they look for in a book, what their favourite book is, et cetera.

In actuality, it is a much less notable affair. Across the UK, at least, it passes mostly unremarked, save in bookshops and schools. Children are given book tokens (redeemable for special World Book Day books, some of which are kind of awesome – I have a copy of Cloud Wolf, purchased with such a token), and some schools have fancy dress days: come as your favourite book character, or as any character by a particular author. Continue reading “World Book Day and Reading Aloud” →