LEARNING

 

Independent education charity Sports Leaders UK have just launched I Can Lead, a practical leadership award that has been developed to minimise the administrative burden for teachers while increase leadership learning in secondary schools.

Scenario-based learning is a type of lesson planning methodology that I have used, developed and enhanced since my PGCE year. Its roots come from my childhood love for the Fighting Fantasy books that I was bought by my parents to try and encourage me to read in the mid to late 1980s. In these books you had to make decisions that moved you to different pages and ultimately trying to get to the end of the story. Don’t worry; I grew out of this phase and definitely never entered a Games Workshop.

These days, as often seen on Twitter, there seems to be examples of great CPD going on all over the place. Inset is delivered by teachers expressly for teachers, TeachMeets are organised and carried out by colleagues all over the country for other like-minded staff keen who go to learn from each other and take home great ideas.

 

Content and network management specialists Lightspeed Systems have been focusing on solving problems for schools and colleges around the world by enhancing technology and empowering teachers. Their latest solution, Teacher Dashboard, lets educators control devices and web access from a single dashboard to provide an easily-managed classroom experience. The resource is available on any device and with any Lightspeed Systems solution.

So here it goes. This is my first attempt at writing a blog entry and I am not sure how good it will be, however, I can probably guarantee that it will be better than the average person’s location knowledge of the UK. The number of times I have been speaking to someone living in London and they talk about the fact that they are going ‘down to Newcastle’ or vice versa is enough to drive a Geography teacher mad.

With the weather growing warmer and summer most definitely imminent, students everywhere are starting to gaze out of windows and wish they were somewhere other than a hot, stuffy classroom. And when you think about it, they might have a good point. Taking learning outside the classroom can carry some very significant benefits...

It has been suggested that in many cases student projects are little more than busy work, which fail to promote higher level thinking skills. Increasingly, however, new ways of thinking about project-based learning (PBL) are emerging. A great resource for PBL is the Buck Institute for Education (BIE). They suggest that there are eight essential elements for PBL, for example having open-ended projects that involve in-depth, real-world problems that are more meaningful and engaging for learners, and encouraging student voice and choice in which projects to do and how to approach them.

Whenever I am with my girlfriend and we are both hungry there is always a discussion as to what to eat. She will say she does not know what she wants to eat. I will say “whatever you want is fine”, as a generically good boyfriend should. Then we each throw out suggestions with one person having reasons to not go to the other person’s suggested restaurant. “This place is too loud”, “that place has nothing I like”, “this place is always busy and not worth the wait”, “we went to that place last time”. The list could go on and on. One place that we always agree on is called Blaze Pizza. If you are not familiar with this establishment: You are pulled into this majestic place by the very smell of the greatness that awaits in food form. As you step towards the counter, you see a grand array of assortments. Choosing your delectable dish will be no easy task. Will you order a signature pizza or will it be a build your own? Of course you want to build your own!

I am constantly fascinated to read new reports on how music is so good for us all! I love to read about how music helps all sorts of aspects of our lives – from improving our coordination to developing our memory, to helping us to relax and lower our blood pressure to encouraging our imagination and creativity, to help us focus and to improve our literacy and numeracy. Music is such a crucial, essential part of learning, not just for youngsters, but actually for us all.

In the not-so-distant past I found myself sitting sleepily in 9th grade Spanish class; my head on my hand, staring out the window wishing for a fire drill, a tornado or perhaps the zombie apocalypse - though a quick glance around the room might have confirmed that the latter had already come to pass.

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