The Quill Guy

Teaching Powerful Knowledge

Hello and welcome to this website of my teaching. I teach and lead classrooms of wonder, teaching powerful knowledge to all walks of life. To teach others is to teach myself.

The best classroom is one curious in cultures beyond your own. It is only through knowing others that we can truly know ourselves. This powerful call for self-knowledge resounds throughout the ages:

This above all: to thine own self be true – Polonius (via Shakespeare)
Know thyself – Socrates (himself)

It is for this reason The Quill Guy promotes the teaching of powerful knowledge and cultural capital. Those experiencing a procedural curriculum structured around exams will find here a different path. Structuring a curriculum around an exam board is flawed and cowardly. Exam success is essential. Success in external measures (exams) provides a passport to the next stage of academia.

But a deep and wide perspective of life means any path you walk can be better appreciated and enjoyed. Cultural capital enriches your perspective. The kinds of cultural capital enjoyed in the best classrooms is reflected here, as well as links to my books and MA writing.

Below you can find resources and guides for learning and teaching literature and more for 11-19 years old and beyond. You can also read more of my teaching and learning philosophy. In my contact page I am available for consultation and collaboration.

I hope you find this useful; please contact me above for any consultation or conversation. Thank you for reading.

Gregory Anderson 2019

My Teaching and Learning Philosophy

Learning for School

Learning for Life

Thoughts about Duffy from Rees-Jones’ Book ‘Writers and Their Work’

by thequillguy | Jul 23, 2019 | For School

Yesterday I read about 50 pages of Rees-Jones' book of Duffy's work. Despite Duffy's A-Level presence, she lacks background material. This book is fairly dense. These thoughts are those that remain: Surrealism - Duffy employs surrealism to explore ideas that do not...

Improving Inference as an English Teacher

by thequillguy | Jul 18, 2019 | For School, For Students, Practical Teaching

Teaching students how to read is not really the remit of the secondary classroom teacher. It is a tremendously difficult task that ideally requires several MA-level qualifications and one-to-one time with students. It is a SENCO-level role that is very rarely funded...

Being a Lifelong Learner – Thoughts about Teaching After 15 Years (and why most teachers don’t improve after 3-5 years)

by thequillguy | Jun 13, 2019 | Conceptual Teaching, For School, For Teachers, PGCE advice

An Easter of reading raises some old truisms: That most teachers do not 'improve' after 3-5 years. That most ineffective teachers 'catch up' to expert teachers after 10 years or so. That these statements are made in terms of impact on external performance measures....

Podcast Libraries – Educating Yourself beyond a Curriculum

by thequillguy | Jun 9, 2019 | Conceptual Teaching, For Living, For School, For Students

Teaching students for fifteen years has allowed me to recognise some of the deficiencies of my early education. One choice every teenager needs to make in school is whether to follow a vocational or academic route. It is an impossible choice. I would define the...

The Vegetarian Book Review: Planting Desire and Rooting Order?

by thequillguy | Jun 5, 2019 | Book Clubs, For Living, For School, For Students, For Teachers, How to Plan and Mark

The Vegetarian is a dark book that has sat with me for a few weeks now. Conventionally about the descent of a Korean woman into self-harm and mental illness via her change to a vegetarian lifestyle, it defies easy definition. Instead, I think it seeks to challenge...

Book Review: The Good Terrorist: Life in an 80s Commune

by thequillguy | Jul 19, 2018 | Book Clubs, For Life, For Living

The Good Terrorist is my first Doris Lessing and has been on my shelf for far too long. It kept my interest from start to end, evoking the banality of communism's reactive culture. Learning more about Lessing's history, especially her experience in communist groups...

Is there a moral element to teaching literature? Some thoughts over breakfast today.

by thequillguy | Jun 30, 2018 | Cultural Capital and Education, For Life, For Living, For School, For Students, Writing for Life and Publication

A literature curriculum offers a strong moral element that students should not be denied. That moral experience, however, must be tempered by the school context and the teacher's professionalism. This post is in response to a recent conversation about the extent to...

One of my first games on Chess.com: Should Take the Queen Exchange

by thequillguy | Jun 15, 2018 | For Life, For Living

Book Review: The Wizard of Earthsea. A child’s fable revisited.

by thequillguy | Jun 15, 2018 | Book Clubs, For Life, For Living, Methods of Reading

One of my more imaginative childhood reading experiences was enjoying The Wizard of Earthsea in 4E (or whatever unimaginative name labelled that class). Stylistically denser than the Game of Thrones world, it contains a gentler message: know thyself. Despite its...

An Introduction to Fiscal Education: Five Thoughts from an International Teacher

by thequillguy | Jun 14, 2018 | For Life, Index Funds

As part of my website redesign I have created sections on fiscal education. In it I plan to write about things I wish I knew about money when I was younger. My attitudes are fixed in my cultural experiences as a British man growing up first in the Midlands and then in...