Just had a frank exchange of words with a gentleman on a plane who seemed to think that the small child crying behind him was doing it on purpose. I was sitting next to the child’s mother who was already stressed and upset and his complaining made her feel ten times worse.
No
I've been teaching secondary English for 15 years and it's only since my daughter started school that I realise there is nothing which compares to the explosive, exponential rate of learning which happens in the first 4 years of Primary as she learns to read. It's life defining.
This clip of Barak Rosenshine talking about 'higher order thinking skills' is one of the single most important things for teachers to know about learning.
Julia Donaldson has sold over 25 million books. I love the fact that yesterday she decided to celebrate the Gruffalo's 25th anniversary by going to a primary school with her husband and singing to some kids 👏
Sometimes people ask what the point of poetry is and claim that schools should teach kids how to pay bills or other 'useful' stuff.
@TheAmandaGorman
's performance today reminds us why poetry matters and why students should be encouraged to revere it.
Head teachers need their staff to be right behind them this week. Once again they're having to make tumultuous decisions based on conflicting and often inconsistent advice. Many heads have not had any real break since March and this term could be the toughest yet. Support them.
There's a massive divide right now between those with small children at home and those with older kids or none at all. Some teachers are looking after their kids all day then planning/marking/recording lessons after 7pm. Not sustainable long-term.
Keats's personal copy of Paradise Lost. There are copious notes on every page. In the Romantic era marginalia were seen as a form of literary expression.
Teaching my 3 year old daughter to read and I'm just blown away by the whole process. With every new letter/sound/word/meaning she is become more and more empowered in the world. It might be the most important thing I ever do for her.
Whatever your views on masks in the classroom, don't call it child abuse. It just isn't and it's hugely offensive to people who have suffered or dealt with actual child abuse.
Spoke to a teacher this week who said they are expected to show evidence of 8 'competencies' within a lesson such as resilience/collaboration etc. This is pedagogical novichok. No wonder teachers are leaving the profession.
Big fan of headteachers who still teach. Makes staff feel that not only do they have a true appreciation of what’s going on in their school but that they’re right there in the trenches alongside them.
Trump is that pupil who has to be removed from a lesson but refuses to do so when the deputy head arrives resulting in the whole class having to move to another classroom in order to continue what's left of the lesson.
Direct or explicit instruction seems to be widely misunderstood. It's often characterised as boring lectures with little interaction and not catering to the needs of all students. Nothing could be further from the truth. A short thread 🧵⬇️
Songwriting is a form of alchemy. This clip of Paul McCartney coming up with 'Get Back' within 5 minutes in front of a very hungover George and Ringo is just incredible.
A great example of why creativity is based on knowledge. Without a deep understanding of classical, gospel and blues music Paul Simon couldn't have written “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Great songwriters have a vast mental library of music to draw upon.
Today my 5 yo daughter finished her reception year. I read through all her work this year and I'm blown away by her progress. In 10 months she's basically learned to read and write. Is there any other period in life where you learn so much in so short a space of time?
No sign of the Prime Minister again by the way. He's like the absentee headteacher who only every turns up for assemblies and doesn't know any of the kids' names.
Just read this to my daughter and my voice cracked as I got to the end of the paragraph. It’s probably 40 years since this same passage was read to me.
3 year old in the car on the way to nursery today: "Daddy I want you to be a little boy again so we can be best friends forever and ever." I don't deserve this kid.
THREAD: there is a growing body of evidence to show that mobile phone use is linked with lower academic achievement, a decrease in wellbeing and can often facilitate bullying in schools. Here's some of the available evidence.
It's not just the work, it's the joyless and solitary nature of it. Teaching is a relational enterprise where so much of it depends on the electricity of a classroom and hundreds of small interactions between people. I value my colleagues and students more than I ever have.
What a tremendous effort we have seen from head teachers this week. It's lonely at the top at the best of times and no leadership course or amount of experience in the job could have prepared them for this. Well done. 👏
Study confirms what many teachers instinctively know: Allowing kids time and space to become absorbed in books makes them better readers. Stop interrupting them with 'activities' and just let them read.
How good is ChatGPT at writing English essays? As an English teacher of 15 years I've been playing about with it and I think we need to pay attention to this. ⬇️ 🧵
Over many years of reading academic research I've learned that the more obtuse and obscure the language, the more likely it is to be self-indulgent guff. Voicing complex ideas with clarity, economy and precision should be a central aim of all academic writing.
What I really can't stomach today is people who haven't worked in a classroom in 20 years (or ever) telling A-level teachers and students that everything is fine and this is the way it has to be.
He sounded hopeful but something was off. Looking back now I can see he was saying goodbye. I just didn't spot it. If you think someone is struggling with mental health, speak up. Don't have regrets. Say something before it's too late. 3/3
"If a teacher is marking everything your child does, it’s bad teaching. It is using time in a way that does not have the greatest benefit for students."
Sweden replacing all tablets with textbooks ➡️Another edtech experiment ends with millions wasted and worse outcomes for students. (The percentage of ten-year-olds with reading difficulties has risen from 12 to 19 percent in five years.)
Three main things to focus on for student learning: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 you teach (curriculum) 𝗛𝗼𝘄 it’s taught (instruction) and 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 they’ve learned it (assessment).
You can focus on tangential things like generic skills, growth mindset, grit, metacognition, engagement, SEL,
Just found out an old friend of mine took his own life. We shared an apartment for a time in our 20s and went through a lot together for a few years. We hadn't spoken for a long time when he contacted me out of the blue two weeks ago and we talked for a few hours. 1/3
Living with 3 small kids in the holidays is like being a waiter in a busy restaurant with the worst customers in the world who then come to your house at night and wake you up every two hours to complain about the service.
I feel these are three things every teacher and school leader should know:
1. We are more similar than dissimilar in how we learn.
2. This has major implications for designing curriculum, instruction and assessment.
3. Expecting teachers to differentiate their teaching for 30
Seeing some teachers saying they’re doing 3 or 4 hours planning/marking every Sunday. Any school policy that results in that needs to be seriously looked at.
One of the most important things educators need to know about learning is that human memory is not like a tape recorder or a computer. It has what Bjork and Bjork call “important peculiarities”, four of which are really important to know when planning teaching ⬇️🧵
The first week of December is often the time when teachers crash and burn, particularly newly qualified ones. Important to support your colleagues at this time.
This is so important. Englemann on why you should maximise every second of every lesson and why wasting time with ineffective teaching methods has real consequences for at-risk and disadvantaged kids.
Really important that heads tell staff not to send any work related emails during half term unless absolutely urgent. Taking staff wellbeing and mental health seriously means more than a cupcake.
Here’s a press conference with Sarunas Jasikevicius in the Lietuvos Krepsinio Lyga (at the time). One of his players left at halftime of a semi-final game to be there for the birth of his child. This is what he had to say about it:
"Self-directed learning" is a privilege confined to very few students who have a specific set of knowledge, skills and expertise. In that sense it's about as far away from an "inclusive" education as you can get.
One thing evident from the
#PISA
data is that allowing phones in the classroom is not good for student learning. Two things stand out:
1.Almost a third of students report being distracted by phones in class: “around 30% of students, on average across OECD countries, reported
Gavin Williamson has the air of a manager who has taken over a big club but after a disastrous set of results, they've become embroiled in a relegation battle. He's lost the dressing room, the fans want him out but inexplicably he still has the backing of the board.
In a shop with my daughter when sees a book and goes "oooh!" and just plops herself down on the floor and starts reading it. I hope she never loses this sense of wonder.
The biggest misconception about educators interested in cognitive science is that they advocate explicit instruction all the time. They also want independent, self-directed learners but know that clear explanations, modelling & worked examples are the best way to get there.