Some of my regular follow may be wondering why they haven’t heard from me in over a year. The main reason is that I needed to devote my time to my year 11s and the completion of my masters. It was my first year as head of year 11 and I had to be sure […]
Read More Is Caffeine killing your career?Tomorrow I have my first lesson observation since becoming involved with twitter and blogging. The night before an observation I am usually a wreck. If I am not stressing about the activities I have planned, then I am worrying that I haven’t catered for the more able or the SEND students. Have I used my […]
Read More Has Twitter calmed my Observation Nerves…Since embracing Twitter as a CPD source I have made many adjustments to my teaching techniques. This post reflects on my first half term using 4 key techniques and what I plan to do next. SOLO – Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes I have been using SOLO as a way of structuring success criteria. Every […]
Read More Reflections on first half term using SOLO, #RAG123, DIRT & Takeaway HomeworkWhen I was appointed a science teacher at my current (and only) school I looked forward to meeting my new form on their first day back from the summer holidays and getting to know them. I was a little disappointed to be given a year 12 form. Colleagues thought I was strange as it was […]
Read More Reflections on Becoming a Head of Year.I never realised that doing group work could be such a controversial activity in teaching until I discovered Twitter! This post is not going to consider if you should use group work but how to do it effectively should you choose to use it as part of your teaching repertoire. As a science teacher, group […]
Read More Effective Group WorkThere are two areas of my practise that I have always struggled to tackle sufficiently, marking and homework. I have talked a little about my new approach to marking here. To sum up I am marking my books every day using Kevin Lister’s #RAG123 system. I am planning to blog about this in more detail […]
Read More A New Approach to HomeworkI began my journey as a Head of Year in 2010. I was fortunate that I got to start my role with a fresh intake of year 7’s. Four years on and I have just embarked on the final leg of this incredible journey. My year group are all grown up (mostly!) and are now […]
Read More Up from Underachievement – Intervention with Year 11Every year since becoming a teacher I have looked forward to the 6 weeks summer holiday. The only true holiday a teacher gets as the rest are taken up with marking and planning, filing and reorganising. The summer holiday is the only one where I truly get to relax and completely switch off from work. […]
Read More New Term, New Strategies, New Me!In this post I will outline my preliminary research findings from my investigation into using SOLO taxonomy as a framework for peer and self assessment. I will provide a brief overview of how the research was carried out before summarising the findings. In my school we start teaching the science GCSE course (21st century science) […]
Read More Preliminary SOLO Research FindingsOriginally posted on Ian McDaid:
I’ve updated the #5minprac page to include some guidance to go pith the plan, and some great video clips. One of the video clips is great for teaching pupils about variables !! The guidance will take you through all the steps (and pitfalls) for planning an ISA. Enjoy…
