creating engaging classrooms

For many teachers, some teaching tools are so ingrained or instinctive we just take them for granted. This is one such case, which I only realised wasn't completely obvious when observing a new teacher the other day... Picture the scene: the class is working to find evidence in a text or working through a series of Maths/MFL exercises (this could be any subject at this point). Many are working diligently, but others aren't. There's some off topic chat, nothing major, nothing really disruptive, but these students are not engaged in the task. They aren't learning. To me, which getting on for 20 years of experience in education, there's a simple fix, yet the teacher remained seated and tried to manage this by tackling those who are off topic.  Ok, that might work. But maybe they are disengaged because they don't know how to approach the task or what's in it for them. So, rather than go with stick, provide a carrot. Get up. Immediately that will refocus some stu...

 I am a big fan of cold calling, probably due to my training. However, I genuinely believe that cold calling when questioning (as opposed to taking hands up or letting students shout out) is the way to go for several reasons: a. it ensures a plurality of voices in the class (not just the Hermione Grangers); b. done well, in ensures all students think of an answer to each question, aware that they could be called upon, thus increasing student engagement; c. it cements the teacher's authority in the classroom; d.it allows the teacher to differentiate by directing specific questions to specific pupils, based on their current targets and prior performance.  It's particularly useful when paired with other questioning strategies such as "pose, pause, pounce, bounce" and " agree, challenge, extend ". However, recently I read this excellent blog post about research done on cold calling in Germany and it got me thinking: what does it look like when cold calling is ...