teacherhead
Teaching and Learning
Ideas for better teaching. @teacherhead blog collection.
I’ve written a few of these round-up posts as a way of collecting ideas together. Hopefully this makes it easier to share. A glossary of terms to help us discuss learning: This is not a comprehensive list – but it contains some terms that I’ve found people wrestle with where some clarity might be useful. From … Continue reading
Goals, Set-backs and the Psychology of Giving Up.
I went running today and completed a 5km Finsbury Park @ParkRun. Here’s what the email says: Your time was 00:28:53. Congratulations on completing your 11th parkrun and your 10th at Finsbury parkrun today. You finished in 321st place and were the 246th male out of a field of 504 parkrunners and you came 20th in … Continue reading
Curriculum Thinking. Blog collection all in one place.
I’ve written a lot about curriculum in the last year or so… so here’s a one-stop-shop to access them all in place: Clarification about the idea of ‘knowledge rich’ and the wider context. What is a knowledge-rich curriculum? Principle and Practice. The great gift of knowledge and the joy of passing it on. Knowledge and … Continue reading
Curriculum Review at KS3: Some common issues.
Over the last couple of years I have had the great privilege of working with several schools on the process of curriculum review. It’s such an enlightening process for all concerned – asking questions about what should be taught, why things should be taught, what absolutely must be kept in, what gets squeezed out … Continue reading
A glossary of terms to help us discuss learning.
Increasingly I find that there’s a whole language that teachers would benefit from sharing so that, when we’re talking about learning, we are talking about the same things. The list could be very long – and I’m happy to add to this over time – but how about this for a start: (*Recency and … Continue reading
Great CPD. Poor CPD. What are the signs?
When I visit schools in my consultancy work or teacher-trainer role, I usually pick up on signals that indicate to me something about the school’s attitude to professional learning. Sometimes I’m blown away by the energy and commitment to it and I feel my input has a chance of feeding into something with impact; sometimes … Continue reading
From “I’ve done it” to “I’ve learned it”. Terminate the tyranny of the task.
If you go into lessons as an observer, it’s pretty standard to sit alongside a student and to engage in a short discussion about their work. I might say ‘hello, tell me what you’re doing this lesson’. The normal response is ‘I’m doing this sheet’ – as the student points to the worksheet task in … Continue reading
Engineering Success. A positive alternative to generic mindset messaging
In general I find that there is still far too much emphasis in schools on the generic language of growth mindset, the learning pit, resilience, ‘learning to learn’ and broad-brush life-goal motivation. This has its place at the level of a broad ethos in a school. It’s all part of creating the positive ‘feels’ we … Continue reading
Riding the Rosenshine Wave.
Well. What a week it’s been. As I write this I’m seeing that my new Rosenshine’s Principles in Action booklet is still in the top 50 of all books on Amazon and I’m stunned – as I have been all week. This post is simply a way to capture the moment because, for sure, … Continue reading
Studying successfully: motivation + strategy + habit
At home we’re in the midst of another exam window. My son has an AS and several internal Y12 exams to prepare for. As I documented last year during his GCSEs, I feel that it’s generally a positive process for him. He works hard and learns a lot in the process. I think there are … Continue reading
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