Periodically, someone is appointed to a role with some kind of authority, be it in the DfE, Ofsted, a panel, whatever. Every time this happens, EduTwitter goes berserk. 1/
When, for example, the Ofsted review panels on curriculum was announced, I was informed that I was not appropriate for the job. People who have never met me, interacted with me, seen my CV, were telling me I was the wrong fit. 2/
The same happened yesterday with the Teach First fellow. People who had never heard of him, never heard of the role, not seen the job description, not seen the CV, not been at interview...all 100% sure he was the wrong person. 3/
Common themes:
Ad hom: calling him "posh boy"
Guilt by association: "we hate Teach First so..."
Political issues: he's a tory, so no good. Sorry, are we surprised that Conservatives appoint Conservatives? They would be mad not to. 4/
Whataboutery: "we've got so many experts I can't believe they didn't appoint me or my mates or pick up the phone to me or my mates..."
5/
The arrogance here is off the charts. You haven't got a clue, so don't opine.
It doesn't even help your cause. Nobody is going to listen to whining from a position of ignorance, so what do you achieve short of virtue signalling? Not a lot, I imagine.
/end
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I spent over 3 hours with my trainee today. If you have a trainee, and you aren't spending this kind of time with them, you are setting them up to massively struggle.
The sheer amount of STUFF that someone new to the profession needs to get their head around is wild.
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First, culture. We have to discuss the simple ways that professionals in this organisation act and interact. These things need to be made explicit. From simple things like keeping a tidy desk to complex things like how to apologise if you make a mistake.
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I always set up a Trello board with every single person I am working with, that looks a bit like this. It's how we keep organised and prioritise. If you are new to the profession, how are you supposed to know all the things you need to do and in what order?
How do I start off with new classes? It's taken me a while, but this is now my routine 👇👇
First, make sure 1. A new exercise book is on everyone's seat 2. All chairs are down 3. Work is on the board 4. I have a seating plan
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I stand in the doorway, like I would a normal lesson. When the first few students turn up I say hello and introduce myself before letting them in. When the number hits 6ish, I let one student in. I stay in the doorway, and tell them to go stand here
I tell the next three students to go stand next to them in complete silence. I don't leave the doorway. Then another three etc, until they are all standing in complete silence along the back.
We know CPD doesn't work. Teachers don't enjoy it, and say they don't learn from it.
NO LONGER
...because CAROUSEL TEACHING is now officially here 🥳🥳
...bringing you CPD that works and helps you get better at teaching.
Read on 👇👇
What is it?
A comprehensive online suite of resources aimed at helping teachers get better at teaching.
It consists of different courses (e.g. Smashing Your Starter, Behaviour Basics, Advanced Questioning) which come with components like live modelled video explanations:
We have in-class footage exemplifying *all* of the strategies we discuss, along with detailed commentary:
If you could get a school to be as close to perfect, what would it look like?
Important question, complex answer. But it always starts with leadership.
They have to be everything, everywhere, all at once.
READ ON
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Senior leadership need to be on the gate in the morning. They need to do duty at break + lunch, and see the students out at the end. They need to be on the corridors and in and out of lessons. They need to teach regularly, and do cover. Like this:
Because you might not read to the end, just to be clear: this is a thread about The Totteridge Academy in North London, which is as close to perfect as a school gets and is HIRING HEADS OF DEPARTMENT IN MATHS, COMPUTER SCIENCE, D&T AND PRE
Love starting lessons like this. Spaced retrieval that isn't related to today's lesson, and chosen based on C-Scores, so targeted to areas of student weakness. We then crack out the MWBs to check knowledge that is prerequisite to today's lesson.
It's every lesson, so routines are fire. We go through the answers quickly, then at the end I put class scores back in using the sliders, which takes me 30s and means that problem questions will be revisited in homework or another starter.
If there's something they clearly don't get and requires a reteach, I'll take a note and revisit it soon once I've had time to prepare. I don't want to derail today's planned lesson for knowledge that isn't prerequisite. I'll do it later.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a strong advocate of mini-whiteboards (MWBs). Brief thread explaining the WHENWHYBY: when are they useful, why are they useful and how do you make them useful:
First, a CAVEAT
This is a thread. Not a full blown training session. It contains nuggets, no more. Towards the end of the thread I will signpost more content. If you are planning on delivering training from scratch based on this thread or building policy, please don't.
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Ok, so first the WHEN
There are lots of occasions throughout a lesson or teaching cycle where MWBs can be useful, but the real biggie is any time you are checking for understanding. There are two major phases when you do this:
Prerequisite knowledge check before you introduce new content.
Check for understanding (or my preferred term - check and consolidate) after you have introduced new content (or retaught old content).