Monthly Review: March 2011

March seemed to last forever! I've been trying to cram so much in before the baby arrives.

ICT Course

At the beginning of the month I attended a course that introduced a new Cheshire ICT scheme. It was really interesting and very worthwhile attending. I still need to gather my thoughts about it and introduce the changes in September.

Not drinking

Not that I'm a big drinker, but I've avoided all alcohol this month in case the baby arrives and I need to drive my wife to the hospital. However, the baby still isn't here!

Leadership course

I enjoyed a course on leadership styles.

Visited Liverpool World Museum

We took our Year Threes to the museum to learn about Ancient Egypt. We watched a show about Egyptian artefacts and were given a presentation on the natural history of Ancient Egypt. The artefacts were fantastic and I loved seeing the children's enthusiasm and interest in our topic develop during the visit.

Performance Management
It was good to be given some training on performance management. One of the outcomes from the training is that we are reviewing the job descriptions of all staff in the school.

eCaph
It was good to see Teachmeet style training being promoted to senior leaders at an event at Cranage Hall.

Parents' evenings

We are very lucky to have supportive parents in school and it was, as always, a pleasure to meet with them this month.

Using 2DIY

My class and I have fallen in love with this amazing programme from 2Simple during March. We have made a few different games, and I love how it gives a real opportunity to make ICT really cross-curricular. I need to share some examples of the children's work...

eCAPH

Each year in school we have a fancy dress day to celebrate our book fair. And each year I try to arrange a course for that day so that I don't have to dress up! This year I managed to arrange one for the afternoon meaning that I still had to dress up as James and the Giant Peach in the morning and then get changed to drive to Cranage Hall for an ICT event.


eCAPH was a mini-Teachmeet intended to raise the profile of this form of CPD to headteachers and senior leaders in East Cheshire. There was also the opportunity to hear about Uniservity's learning platform upgrade and Microsoft's new software licensing plan.


Here are some of the ideas from the afternoon:


Google lit trips
This site brings books to life by using Google maps to direct you to the places where each part of the story takes place.

Prezi was recommended - it's a tool for creating online presentations, as an alternative to PowerPoint.

Jingproject.com - great for recording screencasts.

The Uniservity learning platform is due to receive a massive overhaul in September. The new version, called Life, looks so much easier to use, especially for non-techy teachers and will make it much easier to embed things like YouTube in the platform.. A migration plan will be rolled out soon with a view to beginning upgrades from September.

Songsmith is available for free from Microsoft's Partners In Learning website. This interesting piece of software generates a backing track in the key that the person sings in.

Leadership Styles

At a recent leadership development course I enjoyed learning about leadership styles. Kurt Lewin (1939) identified three major leadership styles:

• Authoritarian or autocratic
• Participative or democratic
• Delegative or Free Reign

As a school leader, I think that all three styles need to be used at particular times. A good leader need to learn when to use them for maximum impact for achieving results and maintaining good morale.

Authoritarian:

"I want you to..."

As a school leader this is the style that would perhaps have to be used when a change has to happen. When a new government or local government policy or initiative is introduced, a leader needs to use this style of leadership to instigate a change. This style would be used in discipline cases.

Participative:

"Let's work together to solve this"

A school leader would be part of the leadership team where decisions could be made together. But involving all staff in decision making processes is a really powerful way to bring a team together.

Delegative:

"You take care of the problem.."

A school leader can empower employees to make decisions. Although the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made, they cannot do everything. Employees can be empowered can can gain confidence when you demonstrate trust and confidence in them. 

Seth Godin aludes to these leadership styles in his blog post:

"A friend sent me a copy of a new book about basketball coach Don Meyer. Don was one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time, apparently. It's quite a sad book—sad because of his tragic accident, but also sad because it's a vivid story about a misguided management technique. 

Meyer's belief was that he could become an external compass and taskmaster to his players. By yelling louder, pushing harder and relentlessly riding his players, his plan was to generate excellence by bullying them. The hope was that over time, people would start pushing themselves, incorporating Don's voice inside their head, but in fact, this often turns out to be untrue. People can be pushed, but the minute you stop, they stop. If the habit you've taught is to achieve in order to avoid getting chewed out, once the chewing out stops, so does the achievement. 

It might win basketball games, but it doesn't scale and it doesn't last. When Don left the room (or the players graduated), the team stopped winning. 

A second way to manage people is to create competition. Pit people against one another and many of them will respond. Post all the grades on a test, with names, and watch people try to outdo each other next time. Promise a group of six managers that one of them will get promoted in six months and watch the energy level rise. Want to see little league players raise their game? Just let them know the playoffs are in two weeks and they're one game out of contention. 

Again, there's human nature at work here, and this can work in the short run. The problem, of course, is that in every competition most competitors lose. Some people use that losing to try harder next time, but others merely give up. Worse, it's hard to create the cooperative environment that fosters creativity when everyone in the room knows that someone else is out to defeat them. 

Both the first message (the bully with the heart of gold) and the second (creating scarce prizes) are based on a factory model, one of scarcity. It's my factory, my basketball, my gallery and I'm going to manipulate whatever I need to do to get the results I need. If there's only room for one winner, it seems these approaches make sense. 

The third method, the one that I prefer, is to open the door. Give people a platform, not a ceiling. Set expectations, not to manipulate but to encourage. And then get out of the way, helping when asked but not yelling from the back of the bus. 

When people learn to embrace achievement, they get hooked on it. Take a look at the incredible achievements the alumni of some organizations achieve after they move on. When adults (and kids) see the power of self-direction and realize the benefits of mutual support, they tend to seek it out over and over again. 

In a non-factory mindset, one where many people have the opportunity to use the platform (I count the web and most of the arts in this category), there are always achievers eager to take the opportunity. No, most people can't manage themselves well enough to excel in the way you need them to, certainly not immediately. But those that can (or those that can learn to) are able to produce amazing results, far better than we ever could have bullied them into. They turn into linchpins, solving problems you didn't even realize you had. A new generation of leaders is created... 

And it lasts a lifetime."

Just Do It +

I enjoyed a leadership development day today, learning strategies about how to develop our leadership skills.


One of my favourite messages from the day was "Just Do It +".


How many times have we asked a colleague to do a job and then let them get on with it without clarifying exactly what is meant?


Just Do It + means to agree a shared understanding. What exactly did we mean when we asked them to do it? It means that expectations are clear and both parties understand what is involved. Just Do It + means that deadlines can be agreed. It means that problems can be pre-empted before they surface.

Liverpool World Museum

As part of our Ancient Egypt topic we took the children to World Museum Liverpool.


The day was very busy but we crammed in such a lot. The children had a fabulous time learning all about life in Ancient Egypt and they also had chance to explore other parts of the museum.


We took part in these activities:


Natural History of Ancient Egypt


This was a museum-led presentation and the children really enjoyed learning all about the animals and natural resources in Egypt. 

"It introduces their rich ancient world by looking specifically at habitats, animals, plants and rocks. It uses images and real museum specimens and begins by looking at how Egyptian civilization and life was shaped by the environment of the desert and the River Nile. It then looks at the Egyptians’ relationship to the natural world not only in terms of their gods and myths, but also in terms of their practical use of natural resources, farming, fishing and hunting. Some of the specimens used in the session include snake skin, crocodile skull, peregrine falcon, scorpions, and scarab beetles.
Students then look at some of the plants that were important in the life of the Ancient Egyptians, including wheat, barley, papyrus and flax. The session ends by looking at some of the geological materials used: for example, granite in sarcophagi, limestone in the pyramids, and gold in jewellery."

We tried an Ancient Egypt trail around the vast collection of artefacts from the period.

"Lead your class round the Egypt gallery with our free activity trail leaflet looking at themes such as everyday life, jewellery, writing and mummification."

Finally we watched a theatre show called 'Death on the Nile' which explained to the children the value of historical artefacts and it gave them chance to learn more about mummification.

"An interactive presentation in the Treasure House Theatre - looking at life, death and mummification in ancient Egypt."

All of the museum-led activities were free meaning that the cost of the visit was kept relatively low. The staff at the museum were incredibly friendly and were always helpful.


You can learn more about the education provision at the museum here. 


Quotes taken from http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/learning/groups/

Facts

I've been thinking - with his obsession with facts, does Michael Gove want our schools to prepare our children to be pub quiz champions?


I appreciate what he means about learning facts, but surely the importance of developing the skills to learn and understand these facts is critical.

Monthly Review: February 2011

Another busy month has seen me do various things at home and in school. Here are some highlights:

Antenatal Classes

Our classes were nothing like the ones you see on TV. The midwife who delivered the courses was lovely and it certainly helped to put some of my worries at ease (and hopefully my wife's too!)

Working with a new student teacher

I love working with trainee teachers and over the last six years I've worked with around 15 of them in one capacity or another. Of course, I'm doing my best to work closely with my new trainee, but I don't feel that I'm supporting her as well as I could. That said, she has made a fabulous start to her placement and is doing very well. My role is so busy at the moment that I think it's best that this is my last trainee for a year or two. 

Horrible Histories

We took our Year Threes to watch Awful Egyptians at the Regent Theatre in Stoke. If you teach about Ancient Egypt and you get the chance to go to see the Horrible Histories then do it - the children will love it!

Missing a visit to France

I was gutted to miss the Year Sixes' visit to France. This was the first time I've not been able to go. It was amazing though to see that the use of the blog and Twitter that I started a few years ago was used to massive effect to communicate with parents back home. It was great to actually be in school to see the reaction from parents! Positive is not the word - they loved it!

French course
This month I finished a French Language and Methodology course. We began the course back in October, and it's without a doubt, one of the best CPD courses I have ever attended. My enthusiasm for a subject I do not find easy to teach has been renewed and my confidence is high. I've got so many things I want to try to put in place in my classroom that I think I'll continue to enjoy teaching French forever.

Visiting friends
Not that having a baby will mean the end of catching up with friends, we wanted to make a point of catching up with a few people at half-term before the baby arrives.

Sorting out my office

My office at home is now looking fantastic and I've cleared the hundreds of jobs that had stacked up on my desk. It was a very productive half-term!

Youblisher

I wanted to recommend a tool which offers a great way to share online documents. Youblisher is allows you to upload your pdf document which it then turns it into something like an 'online book'. You can turn the pages and zoom in and out. You can embed the book into a website or blog too.


The site says that "Your website visitors will love it! Make your pdf documents flippable and quickly loading. It is like touching a real document." They're not far wrong!


The first document I have added is a book of myths that the children in my English class wrote over a couple of days before half-term. You can read it here.

What's important to me

I recently wrote about my learning from Doug Belshaw's book #uppingyourgame: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity. In the book he encourages you to write a list of the things that are important to you, both at work and at home. These are the things a productive system needs to maximise time for.


Here's my list:


What's important to me at home:

• My family - my wife and little girl (soon to be with us!) and also my parents, brothers and niece and nephew.
• My god children - I want to be a positive influence.
• My friends
• Music - I couldn't live without music.
• My house
• Managing finances
• Watching good TV and films - I'm very particular about what I watch, and most of it is on Sky+ or on DVD - I watch very little live TV any more.

What's important to me at school:

• Being a good teacher - I want to help my class meet their potential and enjoy learning and I want to do this to the best of my ability
• Being a good listener and a positive influence on colleagues and pupils
• Promoting the use of technology and innovation as much as I can through my work as ICT Co-ordinator
• Showing support to people and ideas I believe in
• Listening to (and acting on) the student voice
• Leading my team to effectively work within the head's vision and school improvement plan
• CPD - I want to acquire new skills and knowledge to improve the way I work and the effect my work has on others
• Being involved in whole school initiatives

I guess this must be my 'current' list as I'm sure if I'd done this a few years ago it would be very different, and I expect it to be different in a few years time. But for the time being, these are the things I need to focus my time upon.

Writing ideas for Ancient Egypt

During the half-term I had a bit of 'teacher's block' - trying to plan a unit of work but your brain just grinds to a halt. In the old days this would mean a few hours staring at a screen trying to come up with something that might just spark some inspiration. These days colleagues on Twitter kindly offer some inspiration and the process is much quicker!


Whilst trying to find some ideas for planning a unit of work for writing based on Ancient Egypt I asked if anyone had any ideas. 


Here is what people said:
@NickiA10: Used to do a Howard Carter [newspaper] report on artefacts and a fantasy type story based on the pyramids.
@NickiA10: Yes it was children interviewed each other and did lots of role play & hot seating in diff characters, i.e. gods points of view.
@theotheralig: Instructions, Narrative based on Israelites flight , tie in with Passover.
@NickiA10: Boys loved the adventure/mystery story. Based it on a story start on teachers tv going through a portal.
@NickiA10: Instructions on making canopic jars. Also did writing on journey of the dead.
@NickiA10: Got some of best writing from them. Was lucky as had a big classroom so set up a role play area as a museum with artefacts in.
@NickiA10: Created a pyramid style using a white sheet with stone painted on it. Was fab. And don't have a pic of it. Grrr...
@theotheralig: Terry Deary has also written some Egyptian stories for starters - he always hits the spot with language and accurate detail
@mooshtang: A local school made this animation through creative partnerships. Might be able to use it in some way? http://bit.ly/h9NqtX
@NickiA10: Think it was Julia Jarman, Time Travelling Cat but not sure. Also did lots of artwork with it too.
@theotheralig: I also encased pennies in sawdust/clay mix for excavating in archeological manner after Carter - and had deep sand for digging
@KonfluxTheatre: see our 'Cleo's Egypt' play in a day for a lovely intro or way to round off the topic - www.konfluxtheatre.com
@Cloudlilly: or instructions for mummification! Gross but great fun!
@NickiA10: Also forgot we got someone in 2 take chn through mummification process & covered older child in modroc!


Fabulous - I feel that I can now plan English for the rest of the term on the basis of half-an-hour's chat on Twitter!

Teaching with a family

I'm about the begin the most exciting adventure I could ever imagine. Very soon I will become a dad for the first time. It is the most wonderful thing and I simply cannot wait to be a father and meet all of the wonderful challenges this will bring my wife and I.


I can't deny that I am very nervous about this life change. For almost ten years my work has been a massive priority in my life. My work-life balance has been poor. But all of this needs to change - my family is the most important thing in my life and I want to improve my family time.


I have read a few books which give real practice ideas for how to be more productive (meaning having a better quality of life) but I need to work really hard to apply these to my own lifestyle.


Does anyone have any advice?

More on motivation

Back in October I had the pleasure of hearing John Bell speak at a conference. He was inspiring! I have just found my notes and thought I'd share them.


He explains that motivating yourself and others is all about getting into the HABIT:


How can we do this better? If something isn't going well, ask how it can be done better.
Admit your weaknesses.
Behaviour breeds behaviour - it's not the words you use, it's the way you use them. To be enthusiastic you must act enthusiastically.
Imagination - use your subconscious. It does as it is told, it cannot rationalise, but it can be programmed. How do you affect subconscious?

• Build rapport - give treats, use humour, share personal news
• Confidence
• Repetition - Keep saying that you can do it
• Be happy - have a laugh.

Take action - Decide exactly what you want to achieve. Then break it down into achievable steps

#uppingyourgame: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity

This is a blog post I've been planning for a while but it got lost in the system. It's particularly ironic because it's about Doug Belshaw's excellent book, '#uppingyourgame: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity'. 


I've read a few books on productivity before, but I've never read a book which gives such honest, practical and realistic advice for how to be productive. I just wanted to reflect on my main learning from the books.


I loved the way he tried to formulate a definition of what productivity means to him:

"Productivity is as much about being creative and enjoying what you do as it is about churning through laborious tasks... Productivity is the development of a personal system that: empowers you to make decisions; enables to enjoy life; encourages you to get stuff done."

The way that he explains that productivity is a personal system spoke to me immediately. The books I have read were fine, but this book, more than any other, makes it very clear that you need to find what works for you.


Through his book Doug encouraged me to consider the things that my productive system needs to maximise time for. I will be adding these to a blog post later. He writes about different types of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), a concept which hadn't occurred to me before. It makes me wonder what I do because I love or do because I have to.


He writes about three things that will motivate:

• Controlling your time

Well this is something that will be crucial for me to do over the next few years after our baby is born. Since reading the book I have redesigned my office and classroom to make me try to work more efficiently. I am beginning to value me time more highly, considering what is manageable.

• Choose something to get better at

I have a board in my office which is devoted to targets and time scales. This has made me more focused. I guess working in a school means that what I planned to do in my non-contact time isn't always achieved, I believe I have a clearer idea about the things I need to achieve.

• Write your obituary

As mentioned earlier, my life really is 'evolving' at the moment and I have to adjust to the responsibilities and opportunities that becoming a dad involves, and so writing an obituary about the things I believe in and the things I stand for is something that will change.


Motivation and exercise
Well, I've never had anyone explain why exercising makes you more motivated. I always thought those people out jogging whilst I am driving to work were just crackers. But Doug explains how exercise makes you more motivated. But this is one area of the book that I must really work on, and quickly. I love the quote he gives from Plato:

"In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but the two together, With these two means, man can attain perfection."

Productivity killers:

• Unhealthy food
• Lack of exercise
• Too much alcohol
• Tinkering (perfectionism)
• Lack of discipline

Oh dear, I'm guilty of partaking in all of these activities! One of my new year's resolutions was to introduce more discipline into my life and I have and it is working. He also suggests that creating routines helps to increase productivity, and this is something I have tried to do this year.


Doug offers advice for helping to remain disciplined, many of which I am trying to do now:

• Exercise at the right time - I am playing football more regularly now, and trying to do a little more walking.
• Set aside time to read - over the last three months I've read more than I have in the last three years!
• Under-promise and over-deliver
• Write lists - I seem to have tonnes of lists at the moment!
• Don't multitask

His list of ideas for practical ideas for increasing productivity will also help to make people happier. I won't publish his list here though - read the book!

#uppingyourgame: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity is well worth a read, and I would highly recommend it. You can purchase the book here, and it is available in a variety of formats.

Lunch and Learn

Inspired by Bianca Hewes and Tekkie Brekkie I have organised four Lunch and Learns in school.

The idea behind Lunch and Learn is that I wanted to offer training, ideas, advice and an opportunity to try in an informal situation to the staff in school. I didn't want people to feel pressured to attend, but at the same time I wanted to be able to say that I at least tried to introduce technology and ideas into lessons.

Its success has been limited to only a small number of colleagues so far but I've been really pleased with the effect it's had on them.

I began Lunch and Learn before Christmas and there have been four so far, with many ideas for more.

The four workshops have been:

1. An introduction to Dropbox.
2. Adding pictures to the school website.
3. Using a data logger.
4. Using a flip camera.

Despite a small attendance I've thoroughly enjoyed delivering the 'training'.

My ideas for further Lunch and Learns are:

·         Bee-Bots

·         Computerised-microscope

·         Adding information to your year group page

·         Using Word/Publisher/PowerPoint

·         Adding blogs to your website

·         Setting up an online quiz

·         Using Robolab to control robots

·         Programming with Logo

·         What are computer simulations? How can they be used in the classroom?

·         Text messaging

·         New websites that we have found

Instruction manual

A powerful quote from this fantastic book which is very relevant to the way I am feeling about becoming a dad:

"The toaster comes with health warnings and instructions in twelve languages when actually it's dead simple. Yet the most complex piece of kit on earth, a human life, comes with no instruction booklet. We literally make it up as we go along."

I just hope I learn what to do very quickly!

Teachmeet Cheshire

After having read about Teachmeets on Twitter for the last few years I was excited to find that one would be held just around the corner from school. It meant that for the first time I would be able to see first hand what teachers get so excited about, and I'm so glad I did - it was fantastic!

It was organised by Jan Webb who described a Teachmeet as 'CPD on speed' which I thought summed up the idea very well. There were a number of brave volunteers who offered to share their classroom experiences and around 60 people who came along to learn from each other.

I made notes on my iPhone using an app called Catch.

The Teachmeet was organised using the wiki and Twitter using the hashtag #tmchesh.
Here is a record of the ideas that inspired me most:

Kevin Rendall shared Voicethread:
I had dabbled with Voicethread around a year ago and seeing the way that Kevin had used it to collaborate with pupils in a local primary school has inspired me to use it again. Over the next few weeks I am planning to use it for assessment in French and possibly for a piece of English homework too.


Bev Evans talked 'virtually' about Learning Logs
I was really pleased that not everything shared was technology based. Bev Evans shared her schools way of inspiring children through an exciting homework project where any media can be used to create a mini-project for a given topic. It looked fantastic. Our homework system seems to be working at the moment, but this would be the way I would go if we get the chance to change.
Jan shared various online resources during the evening including:

• Ukedchat.wikispaces.com - a place to get involved in the #ukedchat conversations on Twitter
• Apps4class.wikispaces.com - lots of web 2.0 tools with user guides!
• myebook.com - an easy way to make your own e-books!

Helen Morgan described how she used PowerPoint with her students to create movies. They were certainly amazing, but I think this could be a bit advanced for my Year Threes (at the moment!!)
Jan shared a few great-looking PowerPoint plug-ins:

• PowerPoint Plex which gives you the power to zoom in and out of slide sections and move directly between slides that are not sequential in your presentation. PowerPoints could be far more interesting if we used this! You can also embed documents.
• I noticed that the computer used on the evening had a Community Clips plug-in - this looks handy for recording screencasts.
• Mouse Mischief is a plug-in which allows several mice to be used to work on the same PowerPoint at the same time! Fun!

Zoe Ross shared Photosynth. This is a tool that I have heard about, but Zoe made it look so easy to use. This could be great for creating an online tour of the school. You take loads of pictures of the same thing from different views, and Photosynth matches them up so that you can zoom in and out and explore the picture. She also showed some new tools in Google Earth, including the sky view, which would be interesting for our Year Fives to use.
I will also be sharing the random name picker with our staff. This was used throughout the evening to pick the speakers.


David Rogers shared (virually) the Place Creators project which saw the school council heavily involved in the re-design of an area of the school. I really want to steer our school council into being involved in this.
It was great to meet 'blogging evangelist' David Mitchell, albeit briefly, as I've enjoyed reading his tweets over the last year or so. He talked about the staggering effects that blogging has had on the standard of writing in his Year Six classes, particularly in boys. This is definitely something that we are going to encourage in our school. At the moment we have class blogs, but sharing writing this way is not something we have tried. One of his pupils also have a virtual presentation, but I can't find the YouTube link anywhere, but sharing his thoughts on how it has affected him would inspire any teacher! I also spotted. I also spotted David using 3x3 links - something which looks really useful!

In her second presentation, Helen Morgan shared linoit.com which could be used as an alternative to Wallwisher. It has real potential! She gave a great line which I will use to justify using technology in class: "Just because ICT sometimes goes down is not an excuse to not use it. Sometimes my chalk breaks, but I still use it." Very true!


In the final virtual presentation of the evening, Kevin McLaughlin shared some great tools for making music. This is something that I will be looking into over the next few months, so I look forward to using some of the links he has added to http://sqworl.com/ajt841.


I believe that plans are already afoot for the next #tmchesh and I hope to attend and be inspired once again!

Monthly Review: January 2011

It's been a chaotic start to 2011 but I've been pleased with what I've managed to do. I've managed to get my school office looking straight which has been a major weight off my mind. Over the last few weeks before Christmas I wasn't able to take care of it at all!


Here are some other highlights:


Finishing school early
For years I've left school at 6pm at the earliest. In preparation for the baby I've been leaving school earlier. I'm trying to leave five minutes earlier each week to try to train myself up, and now I'm leaving at 5.30pm. It means I have to manage my time differently, but it must be done!

Project 365
I've managed to keep my Project 365 up-to-date every day in January. I'm also keeping a record a a tune that stands out from each day and I've done this each day so far. In addition I'm still keeping a sort of diary of events using memiary, and a record of films that I've watched using an iPhone app called My Lists.
Posterous
Tumblr
Memiary
My Lists
Creating a nursery
We've created the nursery for our baby girl, ready for when she's ready to use it. I normally hate decorating, but  this time I didn't mind so much! We just need curtains and a couple of decorations and then it's finished!

French course
This month I finished a French Language and Methodology course. We began the course back in October, and it's without a doubt, one of the best CPD courses I have ever attended. My enthusiasm for a subject I do not find easy to teach has been renewed and my confidence is high. I've got so many things I want to try to put in place in my classroom that I think I'll continue to enjoy teaching French forever.

Getting older
It was my birthday in January. We enjoyed a great meal in Knutsford.

Keeping my to do list up-to-date
So far I've managed to keep my job list up-to-date. I hope I can manage this in February.
Attending my first Teachmeet
I thoroughly enjoyed my first Teachmeet and I believe that this style of sharing and training is the future of CPD.

Observing lessons

I recently read this interesting book from the Pocketbook series. It gave some interesting ideas for observing lessons and for being observed.


Here are some of the points that I will take with me after reading the book:

• Why observe lessons? The book shares lots of purposes for observing lessons and it really makes it clear that observing lessons can be a two-way process - the observer could be there to learn (like a trainee teacher) and also to support the class teacher.
• To demonstrate a skill
• To share a success
• To diagnose a problem
• To explore alternative ways of delivering a topic
• To assess performance
• To support a colleague
• To learn
• To coach
• To work out a solution to a problem
• To monitor progress
• To help with discipline
• As an observer there could be many things that you can be looking for in a lesson, but it is important that the focus for the observation is made very clear. When observing, always consider:
• What did the pupils know when they entered the lesson (prior learning)?
• Was this developed or used (reinforcement/development)?
• What did pupils leave with (new knowledge or skills)?
• Observers can look at an aspect of your teaching to help your professional development. Ideas could be:
• Lesson pace and structure
• Transition between tasks
• Behaviour management
• Use of prior data such as key stage results and Fischer Family Trust
• Teaching the less able/students with special needs
• Managing group work
• Use of praise and reward
• Assessment
• Key skills delivery
• Use of support staff
• ICT use
• Effective starting tasks
• How you round off the lesson
• Pupil progress during the lesson
• Body language
• Questioning techniques
• Implementing specific school policies
• Use of VAK
• Differentiation
• The book describes how schools should agree fair and effective feedback protocols, and has great ideas for how a school can formulate its own criteria for judging lessons.

The book is worth a read if your school has a copy, and, although I think many of the ideas are more suited to high schools, much of the guidance can be applied to primary schools.