This year our English and Media faculty are undertaking a coaching programme as part of our constant quest to keep getting better. We were lucky enough to have our ugly, ramshackle classrooms …
Questioning – Top Ten Strategies
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein Questioning is the very cornerstone of philosophy and education, ever since …
Oral Formative Feedback – Top 10 Strategies
Quite simply, effective teaching hinges on oral formative feedback and questioning on a lesson by lesson basis. It appears to me that the greatest benefit of experience that I observe in excellent teachers is …
The Three Fs of Technology: Flexible, Familiar, Frequent
The idea of students sitting in front of PCs learning how to use Word is as dead as the proverbial dead parrot. It is already an antiquated model of learning and technology …
Questioning & Feedback – Making Marginal Gains
My most recent post on #marginalgains was an attempt to move my thinking forward and explore what I view as the most important marginal gains for my teaching, as well as exploring …
A Taste of Berger: Reading ‘An Ethic of Excellence’
Reading Ron Berger’s ‘An Ethic of Excellence’ should not be undertaken in the hubbub of morning buses or busy trains, nor it the middle of a lively office – it should be …
Crafting and Drafting – Creating a Culture of Excellence
Firstly, may I say that this post is directly inspired by Ron Berger’s book, ‘An Ethic of Excellence: Building A Craftsmanship with Students’ and ideas related to the concept of #marginalgains. My …
Beating the ‘October Blues’
It is over a month in, the start of term vigour and optimism has waned for almost all involved, and everything begins to feel more like hard work. The ‘October blues’ phenomenon …
Using ‘Marginal Gains’ for Self-Assessment (with useful resources)
Today I got to properly embed the concept of #marginalgains into my practice as an effective self-assessment tool. After the fantastic spectacle of the London Olympics I was determined to utilise the …
Student Learning Using ‘The Aggregation of Marginal Gains’ Model
After watching ‘Road to Glory’, about the inexorable progress of the Sky Pro Cycling team, it foregrounded the mantra of “The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” that is at the core of David …