Ideas, Practices & Personal Insights

How to identify and support students with dyslexia

Dyslexia is defined as a disability in the Equality Act 2010. Essentially, it affects reading, spelling, writing and numeracy, and students often process information slowly and have poor short term memory. As a teacher you work closely and directly with students, delivering lessons and making observations. If you have identified that a student in your class is dyslexic, you can easily adjust your teaching methods by using classroom aids to support ...

4 new ways to use Google Docs forms with students

An expert in using Google Docs for teaching, Susan Oxnevad demonstrates the versatility of Google Forms by showing us how to embed a YouTube video and an image, as well as create a self-grading quiz and an 'exit ticket'. These features are very useful for both student-led research and to test students' knowledge of a topic. The Google Docs form is an efficient tool for teaching and learning because it ...

How to create an exciting learning space

If you have a kid of your own who reads, where does he/she sit when reading at home? Everywhere and anywhere is the answer. They lay on the floor, they slouch on a sofa or sit upside down on a sofa hanging over the arm. They don’t of their own volition sit at a desk or table. Why? Because, duh, it’s not comfortable! If you want kids ...

Trust and respect is key to empowering students with BYOD

What is the most important change you can make to your BYOD programme? For Principal Eric Sheninger, it was doing away with writing out a user name and password for every student who wanted to gain access to the network. Together with good policies and infrastructure, he argues, trust and respect for students is vital for a successful BYOD strategy. My first ever post on the topic just provided a ...

The simple way for students to improve their memory of a topic - draw a diagram

Over the last couple of years, Deputy Head and Geography teacher Chris Woodcock has been trying to develop strategies to support and challenge the low ability students he teaches. Being a content heavy subject, these students struggle to recall the knowledge required to answer exam questions effectively, and as a result, they have been missing out on valuable marks. With this in mind, Chris wanted to develop a quick and ...

How to measure and manage a successful strategy for performance related pay

The performance management process is starting in most schools over the next few weeks. It’s a crucial time for senior leaders who are responsible for performance related pay (PRP) - they need to be ready to make it clear to their colleagues what targets they will be measured against, and what they need to do in order to achieve a pay award in autumn 2014. It sounds simple, but in ...

Why lesson observation should be aimed at learning and not teaching

Lesson observation takes place with varying degrees of regularity, robustness and clarity of process. The key question is: does it actually make any difference to the observed teacher's practice and subsequent impact on learners' progress? Evidently, this will depend on the quality of the observer, the observation and the nature of the 'feedback' shared. Nevertheless, we can make some general observations. The ups and downs to conventional lesson observation Straightforward ...

What is the best seating arrangement for my class?

Classroom layout plays a major role in the behaviour of students: how much they focus on the teaching, and whether they will work more individually or in groups. Teachers often begin the school year with a specific layout; however, during the year, changes are made to meet different learning objectives. There are numerous seating arrangement designs to choose from, so the common query is normally, 'Which layout would work best ...

Helping students take ownership of their learning through 'meta cognitive wrappers'

SOLO evangelist Lisa Ashes has a new method for students to observe their progress in lessons. Using her Year 12 English class as an example, she asks 3 questions to each pupil, who after reviewing their answers, appreciate how deeper methods of exploration help them acquire a different perspective and achieve a higher level of understanding. The way that I create a meta cognitive wrapper is by carefully creating three questions that ...

Tips for using a visualiser in Art, Crafts and Music lessons at all key stages

Whether you’re about to invest in visualisers for your classroom, or already have one and are looking for new ways to use it, here is the fourth article in our series looking at maximising the effectiveness of visualisers across different subjects. Here we are looking at music, arts, crafts and design classes. Below you will find practical tips on using visualisers to help pupils explore their creativity: Music lessons ...

Promoting music and team building by recording a school orchestra or choir performance

We often hear how music is not regarded as a core academic subject and as such will never be attributed as much importance as, for example, Maths and English. Despite being a music graduate myself, and subsequently a professional musician, I also agree that core subjects should certainly be given more priority in schools. So given that background, which is unlikely to change, I believe it’s important to find ...

What students think of questioning, feedback, independence and challenge

Durrington High School has a student-led CPD scheme where students take teachers for a tour around the school and identify aspects of the classroom environment which they think either aid or distract from learning. This week, students were asked their opinion on actual teaching practices - their honest responses are a rare insight for effective CPD. Earlier in the week I had met and briefed our Student Leadership Team on ...