My interest in CPD doesn’t seem to be one that is likely to end any time soon. Knowing that so much time has been invested, with seemingly so little impact on what happens in the classroom, continues to buzz round my head like an annoying mosquito. I know that when professionals do get access to…
spend a lot of time thinking and writing about what effective professional development is. You might even say it has become something of an obsession after many frustrating years of struggling to make sense of the opportunities presented to me in INSET and Twilight sessions.
I can recall my early days of teaching vividly. Much as I loved my mentors, they were very much of the view I would either cut it or not as a teacher, and whilst I could go to them with specifics, there was little guidance in terms of the way I should do things. There…
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw Schools are places that depend on communication. We are constantly communicating complex information to the young people. Not only are we transmitting, but we are continually seeing what they are communicating back to us, to assess what they…
There is a lot of discussion which takes place around student behaviour at the moment. Debates around whether students should have phones, how we can alert them to the end of break times and whether they should sit up and smile in lessons are without a doubt hot topics which divide many on social media.…
My new book, Teach Like Nobody’s Watching, is due to be sent off to the printers any day now and should soon be winging its way out to teachers around the country. Sometimes people ask why some of us bother to write books about education; you make very little money from it and there isn’t…
In her second guest post, Director of Improvement and CPD, Zoe Enser, discusses how CPD can be used to let teachers take the power back. ‘When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar, and the lightnings blaze around us it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post. Martin Luther Working in a school which had faced a number of challenges made us vulnerable in a number of ways. Often we were buffeted by the…
As with most education buzz-words, wave one intervention burst forth fully formed. Striding out confidently from the mouths of deputy heads and consultants as Athena strode from the head of Zeus. No one ever came into the hall and said “Guess what guys! There is a new idea in town and we are all…
A recent blog by Tom H (@GeographyTom9) on Why Subject Knowledge Matters made me think about how we treat teacher subject knowledge in our profession. I’m not convinced we give it the attention it deserves. Tom points out that subject knowledge adds texture to a lesson – it gives the details. It varies hugely by…
‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Your grace.’ ‘I know that one,’ said Vimes. Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr Pessimal.’ ‘Ah, but who watches you, your grace?’ said the inspector, with a brief smile. ‘I do that too. All the time,’ said Vimes Terry Pratchett, Thud. An interesting report from the Wellcome Trust this week found that…
Teaching it Real 