Lead Practitioner whole school CPD | Sci teacher | Managing editor @CogSciSci @HoDSciSci| International CPD provider | Author of #MiddleLeadershipMastery.
Jan 20, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Quick thread on taking responsibility and difficult conversations.
I delivered a keynote to middle leaders last night and in one section we talked about accountability and difficult conversations.
One of the key things I mentioned was 'getting everyone over the line'
Being over the line means accepting responsibility for the issue that currently exists. This is often discussed as ways we can get the teacher to take responsibility. But this is not the only person that needs to get over the line. 2/5
Jan 3, 2024 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Today I have a 90 min inset on 'lifting the lid on classroom talk'.
It has probably taken me over 20 hours to put together and many drafts.
Here is a little thread on what I'm doing and why. 1/10
Firstly a huge thanks to @Mr_Raichura @ArkSoaneAcademy @ParadigmTrust @BenRogersEdu @Ruth_Ashbee
@adamboxer1
For either letting me see your schools practice, giving me advice and challenge or in the case of Ruth, publishing an amazing new book that's helped frame the session.
Dec 17, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I'm going to jump all over this brilliant thread and discuss some of the things I have learnt this year as I've been exploring the role participation plays in student motivation 1/7
Firstly none of these ideas are mine. I am hugely grateful to @Mr_Raichura and the brilliant @ArkSoaneAcademy who made me realise the important role participation plays in both establishing a strong culture and making the 'invisible students' more visible 2/7
Dec 11, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Quick thread for leaders:
The artifacts of September strategies.
This week is a good week to have a look around your department/KS/school for the artifacts of September strategies.
In September you would have had a number of new initiatives you introduced 1/8
Probably too many in all honesty.
Each will create some artifacts that can give you an idea of if they are embedding or not.
So take a wander and see what you can find. By artifacts I mean physical things that can be pointed at and are devoid of personal biases 2/8
Oct 30, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Looking forward to running my whole school CPD session in today's inset.
I've given it the pithy title:
TLAC: Teach Like an Attention Controlfreak
But it's more than just a brilliant bit of word play.
A quick thread on the main points and mechanisms. 👇1/14
Since September we have introduced checks for listening (CfL) and all hands cold call (AHCC) in year 7. This was on the back of a visit to Ark Soane academy and the wonderful work of @Mr_Raichura
How many teaching and learning priorities do you have right now?
Two?
Three?
Four?
In my experience any more than one is a mistake. Let me explain....
It is natural to want to work on more than one thing as a priority. So many things are important and time is short 1/8
There is also a range of abilities within your team of teachers so we can feel like having a singular focus is failing to develop our more advanced teachers.
However it's a mistake because it introduces too much variation into the model of what good teaching is. 2/8
Jun 26, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Another behaviour thread: Why tactically ignoring is often a bad idea.
Scenario: A student is committing a minor infraction in the lesson. Rocking on their chair, chewing gum etc..
Teachers are commonly recommended to tactically ignore small infractions like these..1/13
Especially with students who often end up committing larger infractions.
There is logic here as it prevents a nagging atmosphere and reduces teacher-lead disruption. This can reduce the learning of all students. After all the rest of the class are getting on with the work. 2/13
Jun 14, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Quick thread on exam analysis for HoDs
Often HoDs are asked to analyse the results in the summer and use this to inform their improvement plans.
Parking the idea that the timescale to do that for September is problematic, what should this analysis look like? 1/10
Schools sometimes want analysis of various grades for different groups (male: female, pp, SEND etc..) to identify the gaps and analyse trends over the years.
This was a huge strategy in the 2010s and somewhat persists now.
At a dept level it has a few problems 2/10
Jun 7, 2023 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
Behaviour thread: Maybe it is not all about relationships?
The two camps in behaviour are often simplified into 'relationship focused' and 'nothing to do with relationships'.
Apart from this being an unjust simplification I think it also makes a key mistake in terminology 1/17
A 'relationship' is not really what we are talking about when we discuss teacher- student interactions.
Think about the relationships you have with spouses, friends, colleagues for a second and the dynamics they have. 2/17
May 21, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Another behaviour thread:
So you've turned up to a class to remove a student who has disrupted to another room (whatever your system calls it)
You get them outside and they refuse to move.
Like all students they are protesting their innocence and someone else did X first 1/10
Firstly lets accept their are reasons the student might do this: 1. They might be right 2. They want to delay the inevitable 3. This strategy has worked before so its worth a shot 4. Their cognitive biases are making them feel like they are right. (2/10)
May 18, 2023 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
So you've got 40 mins of a dept meeting to deliver some training, what do you do?
How do you get the most out of the time for your whole team?
This is what I do: 1/14
1. Planning
Firstly you need to know two things:
What subject knowledge (SK) you want to improve in your team.
What pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) you want to improve in your team. This is the teaching of the SK and could be highly specific or a generic approach 2/14
May 15, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Another quick thing on behaviour: If you think dealing with students who are getting it wrong by providing a rational case for them to change their decision is a good idea then unfortunately you are wrong. Let me explain..1/9
I get that we as adults need to not get emotionally involved in a situation. We need to stay calm of course, but there is no place for rationality in the students argument. They are not rational. And in fact very few decisions anyone makes are truly rational. 2/9
May 9, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
A quick thread on delivering training to a department. Some do's and dont's.
Let's say you have been asked to deliver training to your department on a specific area of the curriculum. In science this could be a required practical or in English it could be about a text (1/7)
Don't: Rush right into the content.
Do: Establish prior knowledge and experience. Have they come across it before? What issues did they have? How do the students respond? (2/7)
Dec 28, 2021 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
I spent some of today building a cpd session on assessment. I'm bored so here is a quick thread on some thoughts about assessment. 1/14
Assessment is all about choices. Figure out what you want to know and then work backwards to build an assessment system that is more likely to tell you those things 2/14
