All the SLOP you need

All the resources below are published absolutely free of charge. If you want to say thank you or support me in some other way, click here.  Chemistry *and* physics booklets I have finally finished updating my booklets. The page where...

Useful bits and pieces for evidence informed teaching

Below is a list of things I have read and found interesting and have helped me develop as a teacher. I've been collecting them over the last year or so and tried desperately to keep them in order. This is...

The power of “by”

Quick heads-up: this blog uses a lot of technical jargon that you may be unfamiliar with. The jargon springs from the work of Doug Lemov and Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, and if you wish to know more, there is a great summary...

Inside my “classroom” part deux

A little while back I published a blog where I had collected some of the videos I made for Oak during the first Lockdown. Those videos are no longer available, but people seemed to enjoy the post and I got...

The magical lesson rolodex

We did a lot of "reflecting" while I was training to teach. This was often an individual activity - reflecting on a lesson or a training session or whatever - but we also had group reflections, where all the PGCE...

Cutting workload – a couple of ideas

There isn't a huge amount of slack in your average teacher's day. There's always a lot to do in a job that generally seems to be moving too fast. Teachers work long hours, and though things have improved over the...

Sir! I know this! Sir! Sir!

The scene is familiar. The student, frankly hopping out of their seat, arm stretched aloft and flapping like a leaf caught in a cobweb during a coastal storm. A tortured simile, but you probably get the point – it’s familiar,...

Multiple Choice vs. Short Answers: who wins?

I wrote a blog for Carousel about multiple choice questions and short answer questions that I think regular readers will potentially find interesting even if they aren't using Carousel for their retrieval practice. Do read, and remember that feedback is...

Front-loading

Scene: it is 3.02pm and 8Sc2 have been working well throughout the double lesson. The bell goes at 3.05pm Teacher: ok year 8, well done today. In a minute we are going to pack up and stand behind our chairs,...

What knowledge matters? Being realistic about gaps and recovery

I delivered some CPD tonight on recovery curriculums that I thought I'd post here. I'm flat out of energy so my annotations here are limp at best. Sorry in advance. Still, might be helpful. In advance of the session I...

Hello Trello: Supercharge your school organisation

I'm not a particularly organised person. I forget things, misplace things and often take on more things than I can actually reasonably handle. I'm not exceptional in that regard, in fact I think I'm fairly typical, and until I went...