teacherhead
teaching
Small change; big impact. Six suggestions.
Sometimes switching to using different teaching strategies can feel like a fairly major upheaval for some people. That is especially true if they require new resources to be produced. However, very often, I think that a teacher could make a big impact in their practice by making quite small changes to the routine way they … Continue reading
Rosenshine’s Principles: 10 FAQs.
Having published the little red and black booklet, Rosenshine’s Principles in Action, I now get asked to talk about it a lot. I also get asked a lot of the same questions. Here’s a sample of 10 FAQs. 1. Do the principles all apply to every lesson? No. It’s really important not to think of … Continue reading
Are Rosenshine’s Principles “just common sense”? #rED19
In my work supporting teacher development, I always refer to Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction as a major go-to source of ideas, linking findings from cognitive science and other research to classroom practice. There are lots of reasons for these ten principles gaining a wide audience, one of which is that, to many teachers, they feel … Continue reading
Teachers can only improve themselves. But how?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of teacher improvement – naturally enough, given that this is my full-time job these days. Increasingly I think that we need to be very clear to understand the process as a very individual one and less of a general one. Essentially teachers are only going to improve … Continue reading
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. The #1 problem/weakness in teaching and how to address it. A popular post exploring the problem of enabling all students to learn all the material with some common weaknesses in teaching and how … 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
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
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
Teaching and Learning Agenda 2019/20
The summer term is often a time when people gather their thoughts for the year ahead. The work I do with schools and colleges is largely driven by a medium term improvement agenda: combining some initial support – establishing areas to improve in current practice, setting some goals for the next 12-18 months – and … Continue reading
The spirit of people in our system is incredible.
In the last few weeks, I’ve been reminded time and time again about the very human, emotional side of being a student, of being a teacher and of leading in a school. The spirit of people in our system is incredible. Here are some snapshots. An Oldham student with additional learning needs, working independently on … Continue reading
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