How would you lead teaching and learning? #360Review (Part 2 of 6) Here, I offer my reflections on my own school leadership. In this post: How would you lead teaching and learning? I pose a series of questions for the reader and offer my very own #360Review. You are reading part 2 of a 6-part series of leadership articles on: ‘How would you lead teaching and learning?’ #360Review The context for this post is here in Part 1. How would you lead teaching and learning? Considering everything you have learnt; experienced; witnessed; read; mistaken. This leadership reflection has been taken from the Leadership Standards and falls under two distinct categories and into six key areas. The categories are Knowledge and Professional Qualities.The key areas are Shaping the future; Leading learning and teaching; Developing self and working with others; Managing the organisation; Securing accountability; Strengthening the community. Leading Learning and Teaching (Knowledge): Do you know What and How to lead teaching and learning? Self-review of Knowledge: Don’t be a parrot!
Slow Writing - Literacy Across the Curriculum Part 1 A New Hope IV: Slow Writing / Deep Reading / Thoughtful Talking I have done my first INSET session this week and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. In fact, I was very scared. So scared that I would make a complete fool of myself. It didn’t help that I had man-flu at the same time. Slow Writing Deep Reading Thoughtful Talking Some of these ideas are adapted from other people's ideas. I have designed a three year plan for improving Literacy. With writing in mind, I then thought about what our main priorities could be. In the past (when I was in school) • Mostof the writing done in school. • Reading mostly done at school. • Didn’t usually write at home unless you had homework or a pen pal - sadly, I never had one. • Read if bored and the weather was bad and nothing on TV. Now… • Some writing done at school. • Some reading at school. • Students writing at different times of the day on Twitter, Facebook and mobile phone. • Students are constantly looking at phone throughout the day.
Tech Resources Coming to you from the wonderful Nova Scotian city, Halifax (Canada), Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is an educational blog dedicated to curating, reviewing and sharing EdTech tools and mobile apps. The purpose is to help teachers and educators effectively integrate digital technologies into their day-to-day teaching, learning and professional development. For any questions regarding the blog website or the published content , please contact EdTech admin, editor and blog owner, Med Kharbach at: info@educatorstechnology.com. Med Kharbach is a doctoral researcher and a former teacher with 10 years of classroom teaching experience. Kharbach, M. Example: Kharbach, M. (2016, December 30). 9 Fundamental digital skills for 21st century teachers [Blog post].
Modelling & Questioning The 15 Minute Forum was led tonight by English teacher and Literacy Leader, Lucy Darling. Lucy started the session by saying that when she was using modelling in her lessons, she also considered the key questions that she would need to use, in order to get to the best outcome. Clearly this can only be done to a certain degree, as often the most effective questions are in response to student responses. However, the key areas where questioning will be used can be planned. Lucy then went on to walk us through a Product Design lesson she helped a colleague to plan, with modelling and questioning in mind. Anchor them in Use the ‘Probing the continuum’ approach from Andy Tharby to get students thinking about the key issues, relating to the 8 mark question students will eventually answer. Students write their names on a post-it and stick it on the continuum, in line with their opinion on the issue. Unpick the terminology ConciseIllustrateMass Production Reminder about the big picture Plan it
Dusty Springfield - i just don't know what to do with myself (HQ) #5MinPlan series As teachers, I cannot imagine you’ll disagree with me when I say that we are all pushed for time. The demands placed on educators in any type of classroom, plus the expectation for planning to meet the needs of all students; or the expectations placed upon teachers from systems and management, can create unnecessary bureaucracy. The original 5 Minute Lesson Plan was designed to reduce planning time. *Updated August 2015: Welcome to The 5 Minute Series. Licence: @TeacherToolkit Ltd. by Ross Morrison McGill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. The 5-Minute concept philosophy, has evolved into the variations that you can find now find below. The 5 Minute Plan Series: The Series: Click to enlarge. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. FAQs: Below are some of the Frequently Asked Questions I’ve received since 2008. Do Ofsted accept its use? Yes! No!
National curriculum in England: geography programmes of study Purpose of study A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Aims The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils: Attainment targets By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. Schools are not required by law to teach the example content in [square brackets]. Subject content Key stage 1 Locational knowledge
Why I’m placing #LearningWalks in Room 101 by @TeacherToolkit This academic year, we have shelved #LearningWalks. This is nothing to do with fashion or fad. It is purely a localised issue, dependent on the needs of our own school. So please, do not take this blogpost as verbatim. Slightly short of 3 years, I first arrived at my current school as assistant principal, with overall responsibility for teaching and learning, initial teacher training and staff development. Now, please note., I am no breakdown recovery service flying in to save the day! Ofsted-blues: I started this position on the ‘day after‘ an Ofsted inspection. So, I waited half a term. Phase 1 (1st half-term): The first thing I accomplished, was to introduce myself to each of the teachers that were not observed by any of the inspection team. (Geoff was so delighted to be receiving his first ever observation!) The reason? My own initial action plan, was to act methodically, carefully pitching my movements based on the context of the situation. I had the perfect starting point. Informal:
#Peepshows and #Rubbernecks by @TeacherToolkit Now that I have your attention; this post is all about marking; feedback; re-drafting and book scrutiny. Definitions: Peepshows = Observations; Learning Walks; Book Scrutiny; Faculty Reviews. Rubbernecks = Observers who twist one’s head; to stare at something in a foolish manner in order to find flaws. I recently published that, as a school; ‘Why I’m placing #LearningWalks in Room 101?‘. What? Below is the step-by-step process that has taken place over the past 2 years. The first stage was to conduct informal observations (Peepshows); days after an Ofsted inspection! Are you a Rubberneck? What now? We do know how staff are performing. We now only operate book-looks as a Peepshow with no Rubbernecking. Rubbernecking has been re-established as simple conversations at an informal level. Why look? Because looking at books has been our whole-school priority, long before any Ofsted updates in 2011. What do Ofsted say? The process: Formal: Click to download Informal: Like this: Like Loading...
Class Teaching | Sharing best practice in secondary teaching and learning Six Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students What’s the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? Saying to students, “Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday.” Yikes! No safety net, no parachute—they’re just left to their own devices. Let’s start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids. Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common, though. So let’s get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet. 1. How many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Try a fishbowl activity, where a small group in the center is circled by the rest of the class; the group in the middle, or fishbowl, engages in an activity, modeling how it’s done for the larger group.Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. 2. 3. All learners need time to process new ideas and information. 4. 5. 6.