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Mr. Hill's Musings - Education & Personal Development
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What’s Movember All About? – Mr. Hill's Musings
It's that time of year again! Men all around the world will be sporting glorious moustaches throughout Movember. But what's it all about? Why does it matter? This blog post aims to shine a light on Movember's important cause and outline ways that everyone can get involved, moustache or no moustache. I'll be taking part…
Grade 5 Residential: Four Days of Kindness and Risk-Taking – Mr. Hill's Musings
Every year, the International School of London enjoys the 'Week Without Walls' in September. This is when all students from Grade 3 upwards (primary and secondary) enjoy their residential trips. For my first ISL residential, I had the pleasure of accompanying Grade 5 on their 'Wild Week' with Nick Carter. Nick's goal was to give…
I’m Writing a Book! – Mr. Hill's Musings
I'm delighted to announce that my book, STEM-Powered Leadership (working title), is on the way! The book will be published with Code Breaker Inc., founded by Brian Aspinall and, yes, the publishing agreement has been signed. It's happening! Although it's still very early stages, I'm making progress and I'm beyond excited to share it with…
My New Chapter – Mr. Hill's Musings
It has been a summer of transition. After nine incredible, life-changing years abroad, I have now returned to the UK. It really feels like I've closed one chapter and started a totally new one but, perhaps surprisingly, I'm as excited to return as I was to leave all those years ago. However, it doesn't feel…
Apple Distinguished School: VPA’s Journey So Far – Mr. Hill's Musings
This year, Victoria Park Academy has been working towards the Apple Distinguished School certification. As a one-to-one iPad school, we already met the first requirement (the one that requires significant investment), however, we needed to ensure that the iPads were utilised effectively and monitor their impact on teaching and learning. "Apple Distinguished Schools are centres…
Summer Reading 2023: Eight Book Recommendations for Teachers – Mr. Hill's Musings
It's that time of year again! Summer is a great opportunity to catch up on some professional reading and carry the ideas and inspiration into the new academic year. Every year, I reflect on the books I have recently read and personally recommend five for my blog readers. In addition, I share three books that…
Takeaways from the School Leaders Bootcamp – Mr. Hill's Musings
Presented by Toddle, The School Leaders Bootcamp was an online conference aimed at school leaders and aspiring leaders. Grounded in research, it aimed to unpack four domains of transformational leadership: set directions, build relationships, improve instructional practices and develop organisation. The conference was actually held in early March but I intentionally waited a couple of…
VEX Robotics at VPA – Mr. Hill's Musings
At Victoria Park Academy (VPA), we value STEAM and are committed to investing in resources that enrich student learning. We recognise that coding is an important skill for our students to learn, but coding activities often lack collaborative opportunities and hands-on creativity. With VEX, all of the boxes are ticked! We're absolutely loving VEX so I'd like…
My partnership with Causeway Bay Victoria – Mr. Hill's Musings
Last academic year, I had the great pleasure of working with Causeway Bay Victoria Kindergarten & International Nursery (CB Victoria) as a STEAM consultant. This was a year-long partnership that was mutually beneficial. I brought expertise in STEAM and they brought expertise in early years education. Together, we brought STEAM to life at CB Victoria! I…
I’m an Edruptor! – Mr. Hill's Musings
I'm thrilled to announce that I have been recognised as an Edruptor of 2022: an international education influencer of the year! I'm very grateful for this recognition from ISC Research. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the term 'influencer'. It means different things to different people. In this context, however, I'm absolutely honoured! "We named…
VPA STEAM Day 2022: “STEAM Everywhere!” – Mr. Hill's Musings
As a brand new school, family events at Victoria Park Academy (VPA) have to showcase the exciting learning opportunities that we offer and highlight our educational philosophy. Our very first event was a celebration of STEAM back in August. I was unable to access my blog at that time but, months later, I'm still keen…
Big update: I’m a principal! – Mr. Hill's Musings
First of all, I'm sorry that my blog has been inactive since the summer. I promised to share lots of updates from my new chapter but I couldn't. For some reason, I have been unable to reliably access my blog since I moved to China. Even with a VPN, it has been very patchy. I'm…
Eight benefits of being a specialist teacher – Mr. Hill's Musings
This year, for the first time, I stepped out of the role of classroom teacher and into the role of a specialist teacher (also known as a single subject teacher). To be honest, I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it but I gave it a go because it wouldn't have to be permanent anyway.…
Teaching takeaways from the pandemic: two years later (Guest post for Edpuzzle) – Mr. Hill's Musings
Two years ago, I wrote an article for Edpuzzle about how COVID-19 was impacting parts of Asia and how we were forced to teach remotely. As you can imagine, it quickly became outdated! A lot has changed since February 2020! COVID-19 did not last long as a problem that was exclusive to Asia! Despite this,…
VSA STEAM Day 2022 – Mr. Hill's Musings
At VSA, we recently held our first STEAM Day. We're currently teaching and learning remotely in Hong Kong due to a rise in COVID cases, but we still made it happen! The event had multiple aims: To promote all things STEAM To give students creative, hands-on experiences at home To 'shake up' remote learning after…
Summer reading 2022: eight book recommendations for teachers – Mr. Hill's Musings
The summer break is once again upon us! This is a time to relax, recharge and (for many of us) read some exciting teacher books to inspire the year ahead. Like every year, I have added eight recommendations below. Five of them are ones that I have read already and personally recommend. The other three…
Victoria Park Academy: a new leadership chapter in Shenzhen – Mr. Hill's Musings
Check out the photos in this blog post to see Victoria Park Academy (VPA) - a brand new, state-of-the-art school opening this summer... and I'm going to be the Deputy Principal! The school is located in China's innovation hub, Shenzhen, and will be the new sister school of Victoria Shanghai Academy (VSA). I'm delighted to…
My aims for next year (2022-23) – Mr. Hill's Musings
Every summer, I outline ten aims for the upcoming academic year but, to be honest, I considered skipping this year. With my new leadership role in a brand new school in a new city, there will be countless challenges and lessons to learn! In many cases, I don't even know what I don't know! Identifying…
Learning with the Microsoft Educator Center – Mr. Hill's Musings
I only discovered the Microsoft Educator Center recently. With this blog post, I want to put it on teachers' radars in case - like me - you weren't taking advantage. I will also outline some of the main features. What is the Microsoft Educator Center? The Microsoft Educator Center is a hub of high-quality educational…
Goodbye, VSA! – Mr. Hill's Musings
This week, I said an emotional farewell to Victoria Shanghai Academy (VSA). This blog post is a reflection on eight wonderful years and an attempt to express my unending gratitude. Let's start at the beginning. I've told this story before but indulge me one more time. The seed of this adventure was planted on December…
Year Five mBot Camp – Mr. Hill's Musings
Due to the pandemic and current restrictions, overnight camps are unable to go ahead as normal. Instead, our Year Five students had three days of special activities without needing to stay anywhere overnight. The grade was divided into three groups and they rotated around each of the three activities. Two of these activities were day…
Design and biomimicry with Year Two – Mr. Hill's Musings
I've recently had the pleasure of working with Year Two students and teachers as part of their How We Express Ourselves unit. This was a fantastic opportunity to get creative with the little ones and apply our approach to design in the lower grades: Think, Make, Improve. Think, Make, Improve is the creative process outlined…