CPD, LEARNING, NQT, SOCIAL MEDIA, TEACHING

Advice & Anecdotes for NQTs

I often share the quote above because I remember reading it and feeling completely liberated. The quote is taken from The Confident Teacher: Developing successful habits of mind, body and pedagogy (2016). It is my favourite book about education and you can read my review of it here. In the early years of my career I often felt exhausted. I was constantly chasing perfection and desperately trying to complete the endless to-do list. There’s always something we can add to our lists as teachers, whether that’s developing schemes of work, lesson planning, paperwork or even tidying up displays. Read more

CPD, RESEARCH, RESOURCES, TEACHING

Examples of Dual Coding in the classroom

It can be argued that Dual Coding is a teaching and learning strategy that teachers have been using for years and years. Yet the term and the discussion around this approach has only become widespread in recent years (despite the work of Allan Paivio with his dual coding theory dating back to 1971 and he states that dual coding has its roots in the practical use of imagery as a memory aid 2500 years ago!). There are now lots of videos, blog posts, podcasts and presentations shared by educators about how dual coding can be used effectively in the classroom. Read more

CPD, LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, RESOURCES, REVISION, TEACHING

A recipe for effective revision & successful results …

The exam season is fast approaching and this can often be a time of stress, anxiety and pressure for students and teachers alike. I have taught GCSE and A Level throughout my career and whilst some aspects have become much easier, for example in the first few years of teaching I would have fears that I wouldn’t teach all of the required content in time … but I always managed to with time to spare. Careful planning, confidence and experience can help teachers with these worries but I like many other experienced teachers are teaching new exam specifications for the first time. This has brought new challenges such as being the first year to sit the new exams, meaning limited examples of past papers and a lack of clear grade boundaries. Read more

EDTECH, EDUCATORS, LEADERSHIP, NQT, SOCIAL MEDIA

What I wish I knew as an NQT …

The NUT (National Union of Teachers) states that “Teachers’ workload is currently far too high and surveys show that recently qualified teachers work longer hours than their more experienced colleagues.” Clearly, this is not acceptable but fortunately there appears to be a movement recognising and tackling this problem. No one wants to see teachers, especially enthusiastic and optimistic NQTs, suffering from exhaustion and burn out caused by excessive and unnecessary workload. It can take years for some teachers to find the right balance in their life between work and home life. Sadly, some teachers never find the balance and leave the profession as a result. However, managing workload can be a skill that teachers can get better at, especially with the right support. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say. There are some experiences that teachers have to experience for themselves and learn from, for example we can reflect on a lesson that we didn’t feel went well and do things differently next time or ask why the lesson plan didn’t actually go to plan as we hoped for? However, there are lots of experienced teachers, myself included, who are willing to share their stories and offer advice to support NQTs and other educators from repeating mistakes we made. Here’s some advice I have to offer … Read more

CPD, EDTECH, EDUCATORS, LEARNING, LITERACY, RESEARCH, RESOURCES, TEACHING

Recommended research to improve & impact Teaching & Learning …

I didn’t fully engage with educational research at the start of my career but in recent years it has transformed my teaching practice and further built my confidence in the classroom. As a trainee teacher I was told that educational research informed us about VAK learning styles and the idea of the learning pyramid! This so-called research is now better known by many in education as edu-myths, theories that have been debunked because they are not supported by the science and research as initially claimed. This post isn’t about debunking myths but if that is something you are interested in then I can highly recommend the work of Pedro De Bruyckere, Paul Kirschner and visiting the popular blog by US educator Blake Harvard. Read more

HISTORY, TEACHING

History teacher film review of Mary Queen of Scots

There have been a lot of films and TV dramas documenting the lives of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I with some being far more credible or interesting than others. It’s easy to understand why the lives of Mary & Elizabeth are often brought to the screen due to the intense drama, suspense, relationships and conflict of the period … everything a good script requires! What is likely to attract audiences to this film are the popular actresses Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, playing Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth in addition to those fascinated by two of the most well-known female monarchs in British history. Read more

CPD, EDUCATORS, LEARNING, TEACHING, TRAVEL

AISC 2018 & my adventures in Hong Kong …

Last month, December 2018, I was very fortunate to visit Hong Kong. This trip was a combination of work and leisure. I was presenting at the Asia-Pacific International Schools Conference (known as AISC) and the timing of the conference was perfect as it was at the end of the winter term at my school here in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. Therefore after the conference, I was able to spend a week exploring Hong Kong – it was my first time visiting Hong Kong. I absolutely loved it, both the conference and the sightseeing. I wanted to share and reflect on my trip. Read more

TEACHING

My book! #LoveToTeach

I didn’t blog much in 2018 because I was so busy writing my book Love To Teach: Research and Resources for every classroom, which is available to buy now. You can order my book on Amazon here or from the John Catt Education website here.

I have been absolutely delighted with the feedback so far about my book as I know educators from the UK, UAE, USA, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Hong Kong that have read my book so far! Read more

BOOK REVIEW, HISTORY, TRAVEL

A discussion of The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

I regularly review educational books on my site and whilst this post was originally intended to be another review I have decided to go beyond the story in The tattooist of Auschwitz to discuss the historical context of the novel in addition to the central story. The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is based on the true story of Holocaust survivors Lale and Gita Sokolov. The story is about how they met and fell in love in a concentration camp. It has become one of the bestselling and most talked about novels of 2018. Read more

BOOK REVIEW, CPD, EDUCATORS, TEACHING

My Top Ten Favourite Edu Books

I’ve recently just completed writing my first book! It has been a long and at times challenging process but also very enjoyable and exciting. Love To Teach: Research and Resources for Every Classroom is due to be published next month with John Catt Education – you can pre-order it on Amazon here. Anyway, this blog post is about reading not writing but a large part of the process of writing my book involved reading and engaging with educational research. Even before I decided to write a book I was reading a lot of books about education, linked to my subject specialism, pedagogy, leadership, literacy and much more. I read a very interesting article in The Guardian by teacher and author Carl Hendrick suggesting ten educational books that he believes all teachers should read. I started to make my way through the list suggested by Carl Hendrick (I have yet to read Daisy Christodoulou 7 Myths and Trivium 21C despite their popularity!). Inspired by this list I have created my own list with my favourite books linked to education. I am very aware there is a lack of diversity amongst the books I have selected. There are many wonderful female authors that I can highly recommend such as Mary Myatt, Jill Berry, Debra Kidd, Sarah Findlater and Nina Jackson. This list was based purely on my favourite books linked to education but I am aware the majority of the books below are written by men. This is the list of my favourite books and I believe every book deserves its place in my top spot list. Read more