If you every get a chance to meet the legend that is Chris Kyriacou at York university, you will realise that this entertaining man talks much sense. Like with all the best thinkers, he speaks and writes with clarity and purpose, and presents useful working models for his well-researched ideas. …
Aiming to personalise your teaching according to yours students is what teaching is actually about. There is an assumption that the ‘cleverest kids will learn by osmosis’ (and perhaps they will!) while those who struggle require personalised support in order to function. The truth is that all students respond to …
As part of my reflection, I’m increasingly using audio notes. This video intends to reflect on the principles of my weekly lesson planning. It doesn’t quite tie everything up, but it is a useful starting point. See elsewhere for links on my markbook, my rubrics and the like.
For a long time I have wanted to devise rigorous medium term plans. The risk with a MTP is when it becomes an entity designed to satisfy the perceived whims of an outside agency. In my second year of qualified teaching, I planned every lesson for a year for each …
Ofsted don’t require a lesson plan. And there are rare times when a lesson should follow its own path: where what is taught is tailored to engage the students at that moment in time. But without firm context of what a lesson is trying to achieve, there is no ‘spark’ …
Today I am trying to summarise my thoughts about rubric-based planning prior to sharing with two experienced teachers next week. Through this I intend to lay out some of my assumptions of traditional PGCE-based planning (something that is content-based), and the benefits of rubric planning (something that is criteria-based). I …
Time management is an underrated skill, not least for teachers. Like all relatively autonomous jobs, tasks can expand to fill the space given to them. And when the emotional demands of the job are high (and not considered in national policy), procrastination and workaholism are always possible paths to slip …
It is on a Sunday evening that marking and planning and preparation come round. For those teachers googling such terms (and it appears there are a fair number) here are my tips: 1) Have something planned afterwards. I’m going to make a Thai Curry as soon as this is posted! …
Discussion in my school has often turned in the past two years to the notion of didactic teaching. Didactic teaching in the classroom has, at best, been disparaged over the past twenty years or so. However, I know some colleagues in the highest performing (albeit selective) schools in the UK teach with …
Teaching in the UK is embroiled about the question of ‘reasonable’. What is reasonable to some is not reasonable to others. For example, to create a rubric and insert it into excel takes me a minute or two. It could take others longer; they would need to judge whether they …
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