Developing language in maths
Whether or not you pay much attention to Bloom’s Taxonomy and the like, teaching children how to explain their thinking/working/methods etc in maths is key. Yes, we want them to be able to do stuff...
View ArticleSafer Internet Day 2017: a collection
Safer Internet Day is coming up on Tuesday 7th February and while it’s great to have a day to focus on this huge and important issue, any teacher who has anything to do with teaching digital...
View ArticleTime out: another point about teacher workload
Teacher workload. Right. Teachers have a lot to do and there’s a lot being written and talked about in terms of SLTs tackling unnecessary workload, targeting teacher wellbeing and what teachers...
View ArticleThe three types of mistake and how to use them in the classroom
When a child makes a mistake in my maths class, my typical response has usually been something along the lines of, “can you spot where you went wrong?” This was useful to a point – we all want to teach...
View ArticleReflection: The Learning Scientists podcast
Over the summer I got back into running [read: slow jogging] and also added walking into the mix. It turns out that when I run, I like a playlist and when I walk, I quite like a podcast. I won’t lie: I...
View ArticleTeaching abstraction in maths
When it comes to reasoning in maths, quite often (assuming they’ve got the arithmetic and calculations bit nailed) what the questions are testing is how good a child is at abstraction. What is...
View ArticleCreativity in the classroom: myths and strategies
Back in April, I was a mentor at London’s Google innovator Program where I ran a session on strategies to improve creative thinking. Then in May I turned this into a twilight for a staff at my school....
View ArticleImproving the readability of text
Before I became a teacher, I worked as a designer, mostly in publishing, after completing a four-year degree in typography and graphic communication – yes, there is such a thing and no, it’s not...
View ArticleTen years of teaching in 30 sentences
I have made rock hard, salty Tudor-style biscuits with a year 4 class that tasted utterly revolting. I have watched a child puke over another child’s head in year 2, while the second child sat still...
View Article#DailyWritingChallenge Day 66: Clarity
When everything is uncertain, everything that is important becomes clear. Towards the beginning of lockdown, I saw this quote doing the rounds. How odd that such unsettling times could potentially...
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