Teachers

  • Why English Teaching Still Matters: Insights from the 2025 NATE Conference

    What does it mean to teach English with creativity, care, and courage in 2025? At this year’s NATE (National Association for the Teaching of English) conference, I joined a passionate group of teachers, academics, publishers, and educational innovators, some seasoned, others just starting out, to explore that very question. In this new blog post, I reflect on five powerful lessons from a day filled with poetic metaphors, Generation Alpha pedagogy, and mindful creative writing. From Clare Lawrence’s unforgettable lentil metaphor, to conversations about inclusive teaching for a post-2010 cohort, to the joyful solidarity of English educators nationwide: this was a conference where research met emotion, and practice met possibility. I also had the pleasure of leading a mindful creative writing workshop, inspired by my book The Mindful Creative Writing Teacher (Gilbert, 2025), and saw first-hand how freeing and transformative creative writing can be when rooted in reflection rather than performance. If you care about teaching English in ways that centre imagination, identity, and student voice, and want to explore this further, take a look at our MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths. 🔗 MA info: https://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creative-writing-education/ #MindfulWriting #NATE2025 #CreativePedagogy #EnglishTeachers #TeacherCommunity #FrancisGilbert #MindfulCreativeWritingTeacher

  • Let Poetry Jump Up: Five Key Ways to Teach Poetry Effectively

    Let Poetry Jump Up: Five Powerful Ways to Teach Poetry I wrote this blog after attending a fantastic workshop led by the brilliant Fiona Plant, a warm and inspiring poetry educator. Her session was a powerful reminder of how poetry can create joy, connection, and confidence in the classroom. Fiona shared five inclusive, creative approaches that make poetry teaching feel fresh and purposeful—ranging from “I Am…” Post-it Poems and metaphor games to redacted newspaper poetry and the thoughtful use of sensory prompts. She also explored how to use the CASTERS lesson planning framework (which I developed) to bring intention, reflection, and creativity into every stage of the process. Most strikingly, Fiona urged us to model the process of writing—not just share polished work. When children see poetry unfold, with all its mess and magic, they begin to see themselves as writers too. You can find Fiona’s slides, activity ideas, and lots more in the full blog post on my website: 👉 www.francisgilbert.co.uk If you’d like to receive occasional curated updates about creative writing, education, and mindful teaching, you can sign up here: 👉 www.francisgilbert.co.uk/subscribecontact/ #PoetryTeaching #MindfulLearning #CreativeWriting #FrancisGilbert #CASTERSFramework #FionaPlant #TeacherInspiration #EduBlog