The Professional Teacher
Support for teaching professionals in the classroom and beyond
Professor Louise Richardson on Desert Island Discs
A seasonal hat tip to Caroline Creaby for flagging up a wonderful edition of Desert Island Discs featuring the political scientist and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University Professor Louise Richardson.
In the Zone 2017
It sounds like the teaching staff at Sandringham School had a blast at their two-day start of term CPD event In the Zone!
Teacher Talk Videos
I am really looking forward to watching a new series of Teacher Talk videos produced by the staff at Durrington High School in Worthing.
Teach Like a Champion - Review from an Economics Teacher
My erstwhile colleague Roger Loxley has produced a superb blog reflecting on his Xmas reading of Doug Lemov's Teach like a Champion. This is highly recommended as a pot boiler for the new term.
Rebooting Behaviour in the Classroom
Tom Bennett offers some sage advice here on the advantages of reinforcing our expectations of student behaviour in the schoolroom as a new year comes into focus.
Twenty-one Goals Every Educator Should Make in 2017
A hat tip to Russell Earnshaw for suggesting this blog from Kelly Crow, the Wired Educator. He suggests 21 ways to enhance and enrich your work as a teacher over the coming year. There is a...
Improving Mental Health in Our Schools
John Tomsett, Headmaster at Huntingdon School in York has a new book out early in the New Year.
Effective Revision Activities - The Saboteur
A huge thank you to all who attended our webinar on the resource called 'The Saboteur'.
Effective Revision Activities - Cowboy Shootout
A huge thank you to all who attended of our webinar on the resource called 'Cowboy Shootout'. If you missed the session, we introduced the activity and showed the attendees how to use the...
Does our education system destroy creativity?
Many teachers will have read the work of Sir Ken Robinson on education and creativity; discussion of that topic has been in the news headlines again over the half term break, with a widely shared...
Tom Sherrington on 10 Teaching Pitfalls
Here is a little half term reading! Tom Sherrington offers some sage advice for teachers of all experiences with a well-judged blog on 10 Teaching Pitfalls. Even after nearly 30 years at the...
Assessing the EPQ literature review
Here's a short, one-sided student-friendly assessment grid to help Level 3 Extended Project students assess the quality of their literature review. All they need to do is simply circle a mark from...
How will the A* grade boundary be set in reformed A levels?
I've received lots of queries from the tutor2u teacher community in recent weeks in relation to how exam boards intend to award the A* grade for the new, reformed A level, given the demise of the...
Setting up self-marking multi-choice question tests
Following my webinar earlier this week on preparing students for synoptic/linear exams, I've received lots of questions from teachers about software they could use to set up their own self-marking...
First week of being an NQT (The Rite of Passage)
Initial reaction: Omg this looks like so much planning! There aren’t enough hours in the day I love / hate my classes What’s the protocol for tea/coffee/fridge? I can’t believe the future of these...
Developing wider skills - cryptic crosswords
It might sound completely barmy planning to do cryptic crosswords with your students - but I remember one of my teachers at secondary school doing just that, and we LOVED it! Why? They give a great...
Developing wider skills - getting to know your community
Many teenagers are engaged in online communities through social media, and we certainly hear mutterings in the press about lack of social engagement from young people. Engaging with the community...
Developing wider skills - cultural capital
After last week's successful blog series on getting to know your students, I've decided that this week's mini-series will focus on teaching strategies that can help to develop transferable / wider...
Getting to know your students - what's in a name?
This is the final post in the mini-series of blog posts on getting to know your students, and is all about their name! Ideally you ask students to complete the research part of this task as part of...
Getting to know your students - web spinning
I saw this technique being used in a counselling group and it definitely pinged my teacher-radar. All you need is a group of students and a ball of wool/string.