Part one of this blog discussed various issues about To-Do lists and the way we manage our own time. This one deals with the main issues middle leaders face: Line management and prioritising. What about when others give you jobs? This is the real crux of the issue. The fact is you are in a... Continue Reading →
Empty hands: A tale of back pocket phrases, deliberate practice and teacher improvement.
I was working with our head of RE recently. I was videoing his routine for stopping the class, which I had been told was very successful. When he wanted to stop his class discussion he would simply say "Silence in, three…two…one…now empty hands and track me." Brilliant! By Jacek Dylag https://unsplash.com/@dylu This is a back pocket... Continue Reading →
Delaying No Opt Out
No Opt Out is part of the excellent Teach Like a Champion questioning flow that is used all the time. The combination of Cold call, wait time, right is right and no opt out is dynamite at increasing the think ratio in the classroom and helping students learn more. Here is a typical quick version:... Continue Reading →
Time management, productivity and wellbeing part 1: To-Do lists
The work of a teacher can sometimes feel like an endless cycle of writing To-Do lists and trying your best to get as much done before you give in to the need for sleep/wine. It's easy to see why time management and productivity are key concerns when it comes to wellbeing in education. Lots of... Continue Reading →
Videoing lessons: A cheap and easy way to set up a secure lesson filming system.
OnePlus Nord. Our phone of choice Why film lessons? Recording videos is great, but also its totally cringe. I can vividly recall watching back my 10 minute explanation of the Bernoulli principle during my PGCE 20 years ago. The overuse of ‘yeah’ and my nervous rocking side to side. Aside from the embarrassment, filming yourself... Continue Reading →
From you to we: How to bypass a resistant teacher’s defenses and help them develop.
Can't help a Star Trek reference, soz. Coaching is a common form of teacher development used in schools. The more open-ended coaching models like the rise model are often used to work with leaders while more directive instructional coaching models are preferred for working with teachers. Jack Tavassoly-Marsh identified two types of instructional coaching in... Continue Reading →
Making the juice worth the squeeze: Retrieval Practice (again)
In this new series of blogs I aim to look at common aspects of classroom practice and describe the different ways they are done. I then want to suggest why some methods are better than others and make a case for my preferred method. This blog is not about why you must do retrieval practice.... Continue Reading →
A peek inside my lessons: How I teach osmoregulation
I started my career in 2003 as a Biology teacher. While nowadays I spend more of my time teaching chemistry, I still love to get stuck into some biology. One of the unusual benefits of covid related staff absences last term was the chance to get back to teaching some biology when I covered the... Continue Reading →
Making the juice worth the squeeze: Retrieval Practice
**I had to move this post due to a glitch please find it here
A peek inside my lessons: How I teach Work done
I’m prepping a training session on effective explanations for Jan inset and I thought I would share the example I’m going to give of what I think is a pretty decent explanation. A lot of my thinking around explanations has been framed by the brilliant work carried out by Adam Boxer over the years. While... Continue Reading →
Reflections on Education 