Archive

Building resilience: Sir, I'm stuck

May 05, 2012 | Category: learning

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. I have this quote from Samuel Becket's play Worstwood Ho! up in my classroom and regularly refer to it. It's there as much for...

#Darren Mead #Billy Ocean #Jim Smith #lists. resilience #stuck

Feedback: it's better to receive than to give

Feb 20, 2012 | Category: assessment

As every teacher ought to already know, feedback and formative assessment are the most powerful, most effective things you can be doing. This means we need to be taking every opportunity to let our s...

#Hattie #praise #feedback

Slow Learning - allowing students to achieve mastery

Jun 24, 2012 | Category: learning

Of all the sessions I attended at The Festival of Education on Saturday the one I was most looking forward to (and most disappointed by) was entitled Slow Education: making time for deeper learning. D...

#Festival of Education #Maurice Holt #Mick Waters #slow learning #Transit of Venus

Is SOLO a waste of time?

Jun 04, 2012 | Category: learning

Stop blaming your lack of experimentation, risk and innovation on your lack of time.Hywel Roberts - Oops! Helping Children Learn Accidentally It was pointed out to me recently that I can afford to exp...

#SOLO taxonomy #John Hattie #Phil Beadle #direct instruction #Hywel Roberts #Jigsawing #time

Teaching creatively vs teaching creativity

May 20, 2012 | Category: learning

What is creativity? Can it be taught? Can it be aped or emulated? Or is copying something that someone else is doing, by its very nature, a lack of creativity? Oft quoted creativity guru Sir Ken Robin...

#creativity #Ian Gilbert #Sir Ken Robinson #Nina Jackson #Richard Wiseman #Salvador Dali

Slow Writing: how slowing down can improve your writing

May 12, 2012 | Category: English

NB - my latest thinking on Slow Writing can be found here.Exam season is nearly upon us and English departments across the land will be gearing up to the Herculean labour of training students to churn...

#AQA #Slow Writing #writing

The evils of Powerpoint

May 07, 2012 | Category: learning

For some time now I've found myself becoming increasingly convinced of the evils of PowerPoint. What's that you say? It's just a tool? Isn't there some old cliché about bad workmen blaming their tools...

#Andy Hutt #Powerpoint

Deliberating about practice

Apr 22, 2012 | Category: learning

Should learning be fun?A few years ago I remember saying that was all learning should be. If you weren't enjoying it, why on earth would you do it? But now I'm not so sure.One of the most frequently u...

#John Hattie #Michael Jordan #10000 hours #deliberate practice #fun #Malcolm Gladwell

How not to improve a school

Apr 21, 2012 | Category: leadership

Everyone agrees that 'lasting and sustaining improvement in student outcomes' is a good thing and there's little doubt that we should also seek to narrow the gap in achievement between different group...

#Dylan Wiliam #John Hattie #Ben Levin #school improvement #Sutton Trust

Stress. How much is too much?

Apr 13, 2012 | Category: English

[caption id="attachment_3931" align="alignleft" width="300"] One possible solution?[/caption]Like most teachers, I'll be back at school on Monday and already I've got the heeby jeebies. Apart from all...

#Sir Michael Wilshaw #Alistair Smith #inverted U hypothesis #stress