Welcome to my blog! Here I will be posting my thoughts on teaching…
Most of these thoughts will be connected to the books that I read or initiatives that are happening in the wider world of education. Some of the posts might be in the form of poetry because…well, why not?
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FeaturedTHE JOY OF SCHOOL – #LOVEWHEREYOUTEACH
When you’ve been teaching for over 25 years, it’s very easy to lose your mojo when it comes to school life. I think it can happen anytime in your career but I was definitely struggling just before Covid struck and since then, there hasn’t been any sort of rebound. It’s never about the classroom though.… Read more
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FeaturedHOW TO GET ‘INTEREST’ IN YOUR SUBJECT TO BOOST LEARNING
In Michael Lewis’ latest book ‘The Premonition: A Pandemic Story’, one of the chief protagonists, Carter Mecher, points out that people don’t learn what is imposed upon them but rather what they freely seek, out of desire or need. For people to learn, they need to want to learn. He uses a really interesting example… Read more
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FeaturedWANT TO KNOW THE SECRET OF NATURAL TALENT? SHHHH…MUM’S THE WORD!
I’ve recently been reading Edith Kuiper’s book called ‘A Herstory of Economics’ and it has got me thinking…a lot. In particular I’ve been thinking about talent and where it comes from. Most of the time, when we think about talent, we describe it as being something quite natural. They are a natural at Economics or… Read more
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FeaturedIN DEFENCE OF EDUMYTHS
Over the past decade or so, we have seen a number of takedowns of particular ‘edumyths’ thanks to a rise in awareness of the evidence in education and how learning happens. As teachers, we can all reel off our favourite ‘edumyths’ – VAK and learning styles, ‘brain gym’, the learning pyramid, the right and left… Read more
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FeaturedHuman Development Index for Pupils – Reach for the STARS!
There is a continual discussion in education about the purpose of exams and how it will often under-value or over-value students in terms of their value to the world. For example, we probably know many students who are very good at passing exams but are incredibly rude and have very little empathy. On the other… Read more
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FeaturedHOW SUBTRACTING CAN ADD TO YOUR SCHOOL PERFORMANCE.
In a recent book called ‘Subtract – The Untapped Science of Less’, Leidy Klotz, a professor at the University of Virginia has looked at the ways that we often neglect thinking about subtracting as a way of solving problems. Normally when an issue arises, we often feel the need to add something, so in the… Read more
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FeaturedIT’S ALL ABOUT THE BASS.
Over the past year, I have found great solace in trying to improve my bass playing, mainly as a distraction from the stresses of education and as a way of stabilising my mental health. As the worst member of the greatest (cough) staff band around – The Lines – I have always tried to bring… Read more
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FeaturedBEWARE THE ZOMBIE TEACHER!
After the financial crisis of 2008, a phenomenon emerged in the business world that has continued to this day – the ‘zombie’ business. This is a business that staggers along, earning enough money to cover its debt but not enough to pay it off. It covers daily expenses but doesn’t make enough to invest in… Read more
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FeaturedUNDER PRESSURE – The legacy of CAGs.
‘Have a fun INSET day everyone. What are you doing?’ ‘Revising’ ‘Have a lovely weekend everyone. What are you all up to?’ ‘Revising’ ‘Anybody up to anything fun this evening?’ ‘Revising’ Revising, revising, revising. That’s what Y13 students tell me all the time now. It didn’t use to be like this. They’d tell me about… Read more
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FeaturedWHAT ARE YOU REBELLING AGAINST? WHAT HAVE YOU GOT?
If you look around at the moment, the world seems an angry place. There has been a fair bit of writing on it and many commentators think it explains why Brexit occurred and why Donald Trump was elected in America. If you spend any time on Twitter or Facebook (in public forums), you will see… Read more
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FeaturedBEFORE ROSENSHINE, LET’S TALK ROSENTHAL
In 1963, after 6 years of teaching History, Barak Rosenshine went off to pursue his Ph.D. in Education at Stanford University. That was the start of the journey that would eventually make Rosenshine a household name in the world of education, as he eventually developed what would be known as the ‘Principles of Instruction’. There… Read more
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FeaturedREBEL IDEAS IN EDUCATION
Recently I have been reading Matthew Syed’s ‘Rebel Ideas’ and his books are always rather thought provoking from an educational perspective. Previously he has written ‘Bounce’ that looked at Carol Dweck’s ‘growth mindset’ theory and ‘Black Box Thinking’ that leaned very hard on ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ by Atul Gawande, which inspired the book for schools… Read more
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FeaturedHUNTING BLACK SWANS
Educational debates on Twitter are always wild affairs. It’s interesting in this brand new world of evidence in education, a lot of debate still comes from lived experience. This seems fair enough because if you have seen something or dealt with something that has changed your perspective on an issue, you hold that to be… Read more
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WILD CARDS FOR SCHOOLS – Questions that get you thinking…
I love charity shopping and I’m always looking for the ‘diamond in the rough’. Normally I buy books or clothing but every now and then you find something that piques your interest. You wonder what it is doing in a charity shop and then snap it up to contemplate later. Recently I came across a… Read more
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FeaturedThe magic of teaching…
In my bedroom as a teenager, alongside pictures of pop stars like Wendy James and Whitney Houston, I used to have a postcard of William Blake’s ‘Ancient of Days’ on my wall. I think I picked it up at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on a school trip. I was slightly mesmerised by Blake’s artwork… Read more
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IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT SOCKS…
A point I’ve been making continually in my blogs is that there are huge structural issues that impact how well students do in school and I think the educational community should get more involved politically at trying to change them. This can be seen in the data related to poverty and how harmful it is… Read more
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WHO’S WASHING LINE IS IT ANYWAY?
I think teachers are quite a cynical bunch. Whenever there is a discussion about a new teaching approach, there are many quizzical looks, some discussion and then most carry on regardless. This is why I’m always surprised to hear that our whole profession was supposedly taken over at some point by ‘edutainment’ and that we… Read more
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FINDING THE BEST STICKING PLASTERS
In a blog about complexity in education, I quoted Elinor Ostrom, who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. It was therefore great to see this week that another woman has finally won the Nobel Prize again and her name is Esther Duflo. She won the award alongside her husband Abhijit… Read more
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Finding the Fun
Over the last year or so you may have watched a Katelyn Ohashi gymnastic floor display but if not, you should watch one. Do it now. Click the link. They are great! They are great for a number of reasons. Clearly when you watch one, you can see the incredible skills involved and the strength… Read more
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THE GREAT DIVIDE – Teaching and Complexity on National Poetry Day
Currently I’ve been reading books and articles on Elinor Ostrom for the podcast I do with my fellow teacher Pete – it’s called Economics In Ten, check it out! This first woman to win the Economics Nobel Prize (which isn’t actually an official Nobel Prize) is a fascinating economist. One of the reason she’s a… Read more
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GRAPHIC NOVELS – THEY’RE BIG AND THEY’RE CLEVER!
I’m a huge fan of graphic novels and when I read this twitter thread from @kmarch67 it made me incredibly sad and rather angry. I’ve already written about the difficulty of getting students reading for pleasure but when teachers are telling students they shouldn’t read graphic novels, then they are only making the situation worse.… Read more
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The GUILT of REMARKS and the QUESTION of INEQUALITY and SUBJECTIVITY
I have just had a student go up from a grade 6 to an 8 in Economics. I’m delighted for the student and would argue that the mark now reflects their skills as an economist. In fact, I have had 3 or 4 students go up grades across GCSE and A Level and expect more… Read more
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IN DEFENCE OF MOBILE PHONES
At the start of a new term, there has been renewed calls for schools to ban mobile phones. As we can see in this BBC news article, just under half of parents want mobile phones banned in schools, according to a survey carried out by uSwitch. Many schools have already implemented a ban and it… Read more
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SAY ‘NO’ TO HOMEWORK – The homework debate.
A couple of years ago, my colleague and I were asked to have a debate about homework to ‘get the conversation started’. I chose to argue against homework and here is what I said. I post it now as there seems to be some discussion about the future of homework due to Ofsted cutting homework… Read more
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Exam Results and Negative Data
In 2012, Ben Goldacre made a really interesting TED talk called ‘What doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe’ and you can watch it here. I used to show it to my students because I thought they should know about it. Ben has gone off the radar a bit but I’m aware that when… Read more
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Reading for Capitalist Pleasure
In Yanis Varoufakis’ excellent and very accessible economics book ‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy’ he states that the capitalist system has led to a situation where exchange values now triumph over experiential values. What does this mean? And why is that so problematic for teachers when encouraging students to read? Before I get… Read more
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PICKING WINNERS IS A MONKEY’S GAME – Predicted Grades
As a teacher of Economics, I try to encourage my students to get involved in the Student Investor Challenge. It’s a fun activity where teams of 4 have to invest virtual money on the London Stock Exchange and make as much money as possible through buying and selling at the right time. If they beat… Read more
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WHY EVERYONE INTERESTED IN EDUCATION SHOULD SUPPORT A UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
Over the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in the idea of a Universal Basic Income across the globe. On the 7th May, the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, attended the launch of a report by the RSA on how the Basic Income could become a UK reality and other countries have run… Read more
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Cognitive Load Is Not Just About The Classroom
In the past year or so there has been much discussion about the use of cognitive load theory and how teachers can best use it in the classroom. John Sweller is the godfather of cognitive load theory and here he is talking to the TES about this work. Reading the articles and watching the debates… Read more
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PASS THE PARCEL
Sometimes my students will ask me why I became a teacher. I tell them that I wanted to be an Economics teacher from the age of 15 because I really liked my Economics teachers. Not many comprehensive schools offered Economics at GCSE (and still don’t) but I was lucky enough that mine did and I… Read more
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Summertime Blues – closing the attainment gap
One of the most interesting things about the use of evidence in education is the selective way that we use evidence in education. A few years back I attended a Wellcome Trust event that was looking to fund research projects that would explore ways of boosting educational attainment. For example, there were people there who… Read more
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“Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.”
In the Secret Barrister’s book ‘Stories of the Law and How it is Broken’, he discusses how the justice system is becoming more focused on getting cases through court in the name of efficiency, rather that the quality of the judgement. This is no surprise given the free market model that has been imposed on… Read more
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The Joy of Podcasts – using podcasts to enrich learning!
With the rise in the listening of podcasts, educators may wish to consider curating their own content to enrich their students and help fellow teachers. This is what we have been doing with regards the teaching of Economics and we would recommend it for others as well. Every teacher is faced with a specification for… Read more
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Statement of Intent
Here is a link to Ofsted which discusses the busting of the ‘intent’ myth. https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/01/busting-the-intent-myth/
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On Teaching... 