creating engaging classrooms

  My first post-PGCE school used to gift books on education to teachers (a great policy, one I try to continue). One day, Matt Butler handed this to me. I read it cover to cover and in typical try-to-run-before-you-can-walk enthusiasm (yep, I was one of those NQTs) I tried to institute nearly everything in it. Of course that didn't work. However, some ideas did stick and distilled down to become a core part of my classroom practice. The importance of the plenary. How vital it is to show students WHY they need to learn what you want them to. The way personal relationship can be catalysts for (re)engaging students' interests and passions.  Every couple of years I would re-read it, photocopy chapters to give to student teachers or NQTs I was mentoring. Much of the advice and ideas are timeless and, even when they have become such an ordinary part of classroom teaching that they seem obvious, it was always refreshing (in every sense of the word) to explore again the rationale beh...

There is nothing worse than observing a lesson where the teacher is clearly apathetic about what they are teaching. They aren't engaged, and so funnily enough the students are not engaged.  So here is my plea to curriculum designers and heads of faculty everywhere: as far as possible, allow teachers to teach their passions. Not only is this empowering for teachers, the positive knock-on effects will translate into more engaged students and better outcomes. Hattie measures teacher credibility as having a 0.9 effect size on students progress, just outside the top ten. I would argue that allowing teachers to teach what they are passionate about, therefore probably more knowledgeable about, will increase teacher credibility with students.  I've been doubly lucky. Firstly, as a language teacher, any song, film, article, comic, play, poem or piece of writing is a potential stimulus text for teaching. I can, and do, pick whatever interests me (a recent lesson involved me having stud...

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...

 My PE colleagues are constantly griping at how student fitness is way down, especially since COVID, so here's a fun activity to help your students boost their cardio!  This is an old one (I got it from the legendary Gerard McLoughin at IH Barcelona) and it's great for waking your students up.  Put students into pairs (maybe threes, but big teams don't really work). Around the room (or at the end of the corridor, or outside) put up small pieces of key information you need the students to know. One partner runs to the first, memorises it, runs back, dictates it. Then they switch roles, like a relay. Spacing out the information avoids queues and crashes. Not only is this great for cardio, but you are helping students build their memorization and recall skills, both crucial for exam success (not that I'm a fan of exams as a form of assessment, but they are the reality of much of the educational landscape). More immediately, exercise creates endorphins, which is a massive m...

Back when I was a new teacher, I was having trouble motivating a class. My very wise mentor, Chris Campbell, told me to show them the success . I started doing this, and I noticed engagement go up, behaviour improve and students progressing. Now showing students their success can take many forms: displays of great work; cascading good practice through precise praise; messages home; feedback; peer reviews; and so on. I'll do blog posts about some of those at other times. What I want to write about here is showing them success over time .  You might call these progress passports, or assessment trackers, or success sheets . Whatever you call them, the essential part is it's a sheet that is easily accessible to students where they record their marks from assessments. Rather like this: For those classes using exercise books, I have them glue it in the inside front cover; for those using Chromebooks, I have them pin it onto their bookmark bar.  Over the course of the year, this beco...