Being a Lifelong Learner – Thoughts about Teaching After 15 Years (and why most teachers don’t improve after 3-5 years)
An Easter of reading raises some old truisms: That most teachers do not ‘improve’...
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Category: PGCE advice
Weekly Lesson Planning ideas: (my practice five years ago)
This is a video detailing how I planned my lessons five years ago. I am more pragmatic now, and...
Read MoreExplaining English NC Report to Parents
In every school I have worked in, there have been parents who ask what a report with NC levels actually means. Even with the shifting of terminology (with current levels being abolished and the numbers 1-9 arriving in their...
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Eights points in Aiming for excellence – Room at the Top
Experiencing excellence transform you. Once you have achieved at the highest levels available at...
Read MorePlanning for Receptiveness – 3 aims for applying Kyriaciou’s model
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...
Read MoreDifferent Types of Lesson Planning Part 3 – Planning for Students and Planning for Teachers
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...
Read MorePrinciples of Weekly Lesson Planning – 24th March 2013
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...
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7 intentions for our new Medium Term Plans (plus some examples…)
For a long time I have wanted to devise rigorous medium term plans. The risk with a MTP is when it...
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Different types of Lesson Plan Part 1 – Lesson Planning for Observations
Ofsted don’t require a lesson plan. And there are rare times when a lesson should follow its...
Read More4 steps in planning – content-based planning compared to rubric-based planning
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...
Read MoreUsing calendars – an update
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...
Read MorePlanning and Preparation (and chores)
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...
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