I appreciate that the timing of this is a little off given the deadline for securing a new teaching post has passed. However, I get to this point each year and reflect on how few questions teachers ask when they interview for a new school. I know that the interview usually comes at the end … Continue reading Questions I would ask before taking a teaching job
Workload in three words
Learning Progress Feedback If you think learning is something you can observe then you can check it is happening in every lesson. You can ask teachers to check... regularly... say, at points throughout each lesson. If you think learning is something you can see and measure, you know if it is not happening. You … Continue reading Workload in three words
Why I like being single
First we were told to become an Academy. We were promised great riches and freedom from the clutches of the evil local authorities. Then we were told that on our own we were weak. The future was multi-academy trusts, with economies of scale and the ability to turn around failing schools. Since its ministerial inception … Continue reading Why I like being single
What can we infer from an observation?
This week, Ofsted published a paper describing their conclusions following a seminar in November 2017 in which they considered six models of lesson observation from around the world. The paper can be found here. The fact that Ofsted are attempting to learn from systems in use in other countries is positive, and I was pleased … Continue reading What can we infer from an observation?
The best form of feedback is more teaching
'Feedback' is used to describe the high-pitched whine that emanates from a speaker when the audio waves are picked up by a microphone, or other audio-input device, and amplified back through the speaker in a continuous, building, loop. It is piercing, irritating and unwelcome. This form of feedback is a useful metaphor for another meaning … Continue reading The best form of feedback is more teaching
Defective teaching
One of my university lecturers, a long time ago (in Brighton, so also in a galaxy far, far away), told a story which was probably apocryphal. None-the-less, it made the point. It went like this... In the 1980s, a British company decided to start buying in components from Japan. They were very specific in the … Continue reading Defective teaching
Zen and the Art of the Computing Curriculum
"The whole is other than the sum of its parts." Kurt Koffka There seems to have been a resurgence in debate about curriculum, at least amongst the blogging classes. This interest has perhaps been driven by the freedoms created through a slimmed down National Curriculum and removal of NC levels, and perhaps also by arguments in … Continue reading Zen and the Art of the Computing Curriculum
Confessions of an occasional IT teacher
Anyone can teach IT, can't they? That attitude may be changing now the subject has morphed into Computing (all that pesky programming and the like), but when I started teaching IT it was definitely the view. IT teachers themselves were conscripts from other subjects, usually D&T or Maths. As long as you were geeky and … Continue reading Confessions of an occasional IT teacher
Potential
Many moons ago my Dad bumped in to my old headteacher. He asked after my brother (a ‘good’ student). My Dad told him how he was getting on, then mentioned that his other son (me) was starting his teacher training. The head of my former school laughed. “He’ll never be a teacher”, he guffawed. He … Continue reading Potential
The Quest for Teacher Quality
There has been an increasing tendency in schools in England to hold teachers to account for the outcomes achieved by their classes. This has become the predominant means by which schools attempt to improve examination results. The thinking seems to be "We want to improve results. Results are dependent on the quality of teaching. We … Continue reading The Quest for Teacher Quality
Matthew Evans 