Ofsted, Outstanding Teaching and the iPad

If OFSTED were to walk into a lesson tomorrow they would see the following: Prior to the lesson students would have viewed an 8-10 min screencast introducing the topic. This resource would have been produced and sent via twitter to the students when appropriate.Students would have uploaded work required to Edmodo that is then assessed, annotated and sent back to students again prior to the lesson. The nature of the work is determined by perceived difficulty of the topic. The initial task would be a Socrative quiz to establish understanding for the lesson (AFL) – this often includes one multiple choice and two short answer questions. With a given problem the students would then have to produce an explanation of the problem on the interactive whiteboard app ExplainEverything - collaboration in groups of 3. Socrative would then be used again to assess where the students are and the lesson would be adjusted accordingly. So what would OFSTED make of this standard lesson? Attitudes to learning.

POST 100: 12 steps to a ‘Great Teacher’ reputation. Introduction. I’m celebrating writing my 100th post, by trying to link together various posts relating to teaching. I suggest in my post ‘How do I know how good my teachers are?’ that there are three key sources that contribute to my judgement of the effectiveness of my teaching staff: Data – the measured outcomes from assessments and examinationsObservation – those artificial snapshots of teaching that are over-loaded with significance in the OfSTED process.Knowledge – the drip-feed of micro-feedback gleaned organically from multiple sources: Essentially this is what I mean by Reputation. So, whilst ideally we shouldn’t worry too much what other people think of us, in the context of being judged as a professional teacher, having a strongly positive reputation is a great asset. The agile teacher… responsive, risk-taking, juggling continually. 12 steps to a ‘Great Teacher’ reputation. PART ONE: In the classroom. 1. This is obvious isn’t it?! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. PART TWO: Beyond the classroom

Great Lessons 6: Explaining “Stick it to the man….” Let me Explain. At the core of a great teacher’s skill-set is the ability to explain the concepts, theories and techniques that make up their subject. On the reputational scale, there is no doubt that teachers who explain things well, making the complex simple, score highly as Great Teachers. Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough” “Then a miracle occurs” Classic cartoon… not too far from reality?! For me there are two implications of this 1) Getting students to explain ideas to the teacher and to each other is a great way to determine the depth of understanding. 2) As teachers, for high quality explanations to be habitual, we need to know our subjects, taking time to develop our own capacity to explain the key concepts simply. Crucially, Explaining doesn’t have to suggest didactic one-way traffic. No point standing there explaining…hoping that it’s hitting home. 1) Make connections from abstract ideas to everyday life Like this:

ideas Thwart the Grim-Reaper: #Ofsted reworks (Sep ’13) Here are some key Ofsted (September 2013) updates relevant to teaching and learning in the classroom. I have provided a summary of what will change for the teacher alone; ignoring all other updates. Any text in red, is crucial to ‘Thwart the Grim-Reaper’ from entering your classroom this academic year. N.b. Thwart the Grim-Reaper: #Ofsted reworks. Definition: “In some cases, the Grim Reaper can actually cause the victim’s death, leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted in order to retain one’s life.” The above definition in Ofsted speak: “In some cases, the inspector can actually cause the teacher’s death, leading to an Ofsted report where the inspector can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted, based on a 25 minutes observation in order to keep you in a job.” Cartoon by Malcolm Laverty (Copyright) (If you want to skip the full details of this post, I have provided the changes ‘In a nutshell’ underneath the peanut image!) Which way have the goalposts moved? In a nutshell: