“Sir, I don’t know where to start with this Scrooge essay!” “Neither do I…” “How many paragraphs do I need to do again?” “What does redemption mean?” Even the best laid lesson plans of expert teachers go awry. Regardless of deftly planned schemes of learning, teaching is not merely imparting knowledge in linear, formulaic fashion. […]
Adaptive teaching: What is it anyway? Read More »
Debates about spelling never really go away. No matter what technological advancement is ushered in, it appears that spelling development still matters and we should sustain the teaching of spelling. For young writers in particular, spelling is linked to writing, reading and vocabulary development. But teachers need support to understand the challenge and teach spelling
5 Free Research Reads On… Teaching Spelling Read More »
“Curriculum development must rest on teacher development” Lawrence Stenhouse, ‘An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development’ Paying attention to the careful, skilled development of your curriculum is essential business for every school. Though it has always been in view for teachers and school leaders, there is no doubt the focus has become more acute for
Curriculum Development and Teacher Development Read More »
Year after the year, the same pressures attend exam revision. Each year teachers try the old favourites, alongside a few new revision strategies to keep our students interested. Happily, we now have a wealth of evidence to support some revision strategies over others as we approach the revision stretch. We know that students are not the
Top 10 Revision Strategies Read More »
Each year we are all faced with the nerve-shredding, tolerance-stretching spell that is revision. It never seems to get any easier. Each group of students proves a unique, gnarly challenge as we go about training, convincing, supporting, and more. It has proven a consistent topic for me to write about, and has drew a lot
The Revision ‘Collection’ Read More »
And the evidence says… Feedback is the answer! It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a teaching wanting to help their students learn effectively must give lots of feedback. Marking, lots of it, should get to the root of many of our problems. We just need more of it, right? This easy assumption neglects a
Focusing on Feedback Read More »
So, 30% of teachers quit within five years. This news has been emblazoned across the BBC website and has been recycled across the news cycle this week. Sadly, alas, this ‘story’ is nothing new and it is a bleak tale that has beset the teaching profession for decades now. Place this poor retention rate alongside
The Problem with Teacher Retention Read More »
