Mark Goodrich

@markgoodrich

Was a lawyer, now a primary teacher. Interested in politics, chess, citizenship and education. Has lived in 🇯🇵🇰🇷and 🇱🇦.

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Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· 19d

I find it difficult to read a sequel if the ending is perfect but but 3 where I think the sequel is even better than the first book! #KidsBookFriday Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan Big Change for Stuart by @lissakevans.bsky.social The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell

Cover of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters showing a boy with a sword against the background of a fierce sea.

Cover of Big Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans showing lots of tricks and magic elements in the background with an upside-down boy in one circle and a girl the right way up in another.

Cover of The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell showing two large mythical creatures at the top above a small boy and girl.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jul 17

Getting in early with the obvious answers… Varjak Paw by @whatsfsaid.bsky.social The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy

Cover of Varjak Paw by SF Said showing a black cat with orange eyes.

Cover of The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy showing a young witch on a broomstick with her cat clinging on behind.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jul 11

Not sure who needs to know this but #Croatia is incredibly picturesque. I am not a great photographer and yet…

A building with a stone cross on top in the foreground with a wonderful blue lake and forest in the background.

Blue lake with wild cloud formation above.

A blue boat in the foreground with the setting sun shine across the water.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jul 11

No #Saturday3 this week because I am on holiday in Croatia and have been walking more than reading so enjoy this unfiltered picture of one of Mljet’s lakes. Just incredible to see close-up.

One of the famous lakes of Mljet island.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jul 10

Getting in early on #KidsBookFriday because will lose reception later. Currently reading the second Crookhaven book by JJ Arcanjo and love the community shown by the children in these books.

Cover of Crookhaven: The Forgotten Maze showing three black-clad figures, one of which is just under the surface of some water with the other two standing.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jul 3

4 classics (even if 2 are relatively modern). Watership Down by Richard Adams The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

Cover of Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean showing a boy hanging from a rope over the mouth of a cave with gulls all around.

Cover of Watership Down by Richard Adams showing a rabbit silhouetted against a blue and violet sky.

Cover of The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell showing a girl in a red cape riding a wolf across a snowy landscape.

Cover of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett showing a girl from behind who is looking at a beautiful garden.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 30

Ditto. You have probably both read but I loved Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Cover of Murakami’s What I Talk About When I talk About Running.featuring an image which both has a man running and looks like a fountain pen nib.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 26

Lots of great choices already so have had to think hard. Here's my mixed-age selection. #KidsBooksFriday For younger readers - Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf (a classic that kids still love as a read aloud). Middle grade - Land of Stories / Percy Jackson (crowd-pleasers!) Teens - Song of Achilles

The cover of Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr showing a young blond girl making daisy chains with a large wolf.

Anniversary edition of The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer showing lots of fairy-tale characters against a dramatic sky

The cover of Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller showing the title on a Greek-style helmet against a blue background.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 23

Since everyone is doing “where was I when Brexit happened”, I was on South Korea’s slowest train on the way to stay at a hotel that looks like a cruise ship on the edge of a cliff.

South Korean hotel looking exactly like a cruise ship but perched on a cliff high above the beach.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 16

I actually started to doubt myself and had to bring up the excellent Tim and Zoe Paramour’s The Grammar Book to satisfy myself that it was optional and I hadn’t been teaching kids wrong for years.

An extract from The Grammar Book confirming that a comma is optional before the “and” in:

“I walked up to the door, and I stepped inside.”

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 6

So a quick mini-thread on the @teachertapp.bsky.social social media survey carried out yesterday. Here are the headline numbers for teachers use of social media for *work-related purposes*. Pretty much as I expected. (Figures also in alt-text)

Results of the Teacher Tapp survey of teachers using social media for work-related purposes.

Figures:

Facebook - 19%
Instagram - 13%
LinkedIn- 10%
Pinterest- 4%
TikTok- 5%
X - 11%
YouTube - 34%
Threads - 1%
Reddit - 1%
Bluesky - 3%
Substack - 4%
None of the Above - 39%

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 5

Loads of great choices in the thread. A couple of book covers that called to me across the bookshop for #KidsBookFriday. Monstrous Devices by Damien Love (the new cover is also great - this book needs more attention!) Letter for the King by Tonke Dagt (the new cover is not a patch on this one.)

Cover of Monstrous Devices by Damien Love with a black background showing a silhouetted cityscape and a stylised outline of a robot in the foreground amongst lots of favourable quotations.

Cover of The Letter for the King by Tonke Dagt with the title in an oval against a red background. At the top, there is a richly-turreted black and white castle. Lower down, there is a bridge over a wide blue expanse. At the bottom are men on horses silhouetted against spiky white mountains.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Jun 4

Not sure if these @teachertapp.bsky.social results are just for primary or are also secondary but it’s a disappointingly low score for visualiser. (Even more so if it is just primary).

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 25

👀 (maybe not a surprise to teachers)

Teacher Tapp chart showing that 57% found their previous career “much less demanding” than teaching.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 24

One quirk of living in Laos is that I am always reading months-old @economist.com magazines. Anyway, even though it dates back to January, I make no apology for posting this obituary of Nuno Loureiro, pioneer of fusion energy.

The Economist obituary of Nuno Loureiro.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 23

Can’t see this badminton brand catching on in the UK.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 22

I would definitely be rushing to get anything by: @whatsfsaid.bsky.social #KatherineRundell @peterbrownstudio.com and have just read the amazing Boy in the Tower, I am certainly going to be looking out for the next #PollyHo-Yen #KidsBookFriday #KidLitUK

The cover of Phoenix by S F Said showing a white outline of a boy with a fiery trail behind him with a black night with stars and behind him and a swirly red design around the edges.

The cover of Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell showing a boy and girl jumping from roof to roof of some stylised houses.

Copy of The Wild Robot by Peter Brown showing a stylised robot standing on some rocks with some sea in front and a forest of conifers behind.

The cover of Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen showing a black tower block surrounded by blue geometric shapes against a yellow sky with silhouetted birds.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 20

New appropriate shirt for Pint of Science Laos 🇱🇦 Day 2! #pint26

A middle-aged man (me) wearing a bright chemistry-themed shirt inside at at Corebeer.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 19

Approximately kitted out for Pint of Science Laos! #pint26 @pintsworld.bsky.social Should be a fun evening of interesting talks!

A middle-fed man (me) holding a #pint26 placard outside Pint of Science Laos.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 9

Which are these 5 councils who haven’t counted yet? #LE26

BBC local council results from 131 of 136 councils.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 2

OK, got to admit that I am quite shocked that 2/3 of teachers didn’t know the answer here.

Results of a Teacher Tapp poll which asked. Do you think the following statement is true or false? Buying a share in a single company usually provides a safer return than an equity fund. Only 32% answered correctly False, with 2% True, 3% Refuse to Answer and a whopping 63% for Don’t Know.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· May 1

Two each from my children (when they were younger). A bit more popular than my usual! Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan Diary of Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinnell Adventures on Trains series by @mglnrd.bsky.social and Sam Sedgman

Cover of Ballet Shoes by Noel Streafeild showing a red-haired girl performing ballet in the centre with a design of stems and flowers around the outside and locket-style portraits of 2 other girls in the top left and top right hand corners.

The cover of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan with the silhouette of boy from the back fighting a gigantic minotaur.

Cover of The Highland Falcon Third by M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman featuring the front of a large red steam train with lines indicating speed and a white boy in a yellow coat and striped t-shirt leaning out on one side and an Asian girl in a red t-shirt and dungarees leaning out on the other.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 30

Excellent social media advice from The Explorer. #KidLit #KidLitUK

You thought. Are you so grotesquely lacking in self-control that you cannot let a single idle thought pass through your mind without acting on it?

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 24

4 quirky teams for #KidsBookFriday: The Roman Mysteries series by @carolawrence.bsky.social Brightstorm series by Vashti Hardy All The Things That Could Go Wrong by Stewart Foster The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo

The cover of All The Things That Could Wrong by Stewart Foster. It has an orange background with with the title in a series of bubbles. "THINGS" and "WRONG" are in white capitals against a scribbly black bubble whilst the other words are in black against a white bubble. There are two small white silhouettes sitting on the WRONG black bubble.

A composite graphic of 6 books in the Roman Mysteries series - namely The Thieves of Ostia, The Secrets of Vesuvius, The Pirates of Pompeii, the Assassins of Rome, The Dolphins of Laurentum and The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina.

The cover of Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy showing a quirky airship against a blue background. There are two children - a boy and a girl - in the foreground sitting on a rooftop.

The cover of The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo featuring a girl with shaved head in a monk's habit and a goat standing in front of a tree.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 19

Although personally I would mention Katherine Rundell’s The Explorer, arguably her finest work (amongst many superb books).

Cover of The Explorer by Katherine Rundell, showing jungle foliage, a small plane and a large river running through the middle of it.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 19

Literally standing in front of some adventure books when I saw this! This is from the pile of books that my kids didn’t want to throw out. The Laura Marlin books by Lauren St John were popular but the Young Samurai books by Chris Bradford would be their top pick. Fantastic historical adventures!

A huge pile of Young Samurai books and with some Laura Marlin mysteries at the bottom.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 17

Some fantastic books on kindness already done in #KidsBooksFriday and as usual many of my favourites have gone. A couple of slightly less obvious ones where kindness is still a major part of the story. The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow Both great books! #KidLitUK

Cover of the The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow showing a boy standing on a school playground with angel wings coming out of his back.

Cover of the The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster with a typeface where the O in Boy is represented by a bubble. There is a boy in a red t-shirt sitting inside the bubble holding up a hand. Underneath the bubble are some stylised buildings and underneath them is a yellow banner stating:

"NOT ALL SUPERHEROES WEAR CAPES"

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 16

What woke madness is this?

A Greggs poster advertising three different types of matcha for £3.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 10

If you happen to see someone with a hand and wrist covered with threads like this then it’s highly likely that they have just come from Lao PDR. It’s a sign that they have been involved in a baci ceremony which the Lao use to celebrate major events.

My hand festooned with white threads tied
around the wrist.

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich· Apr 10

Another great #KidsBookFriday idea. For nearly all of my wider family's children, this was their dystopian book era! Popular choices: The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins Mortal Engines series by @philipreeve.bsky.social The Giver by Lois Lowry The Enemy series by Charlie Higson