Taking just a few minutes to ask yourself the following questions – and answer honestly – will help you to start the new half term focussed.
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Twitter is a fantastic resource for teachers and even just in its every day form can be a brilliant way to exchange ideas – but one time when it really comes into its own is during chat sessions such as #UKEdChat where hundreds of tweeters converge to share ideas on a common topic for an hour. It can, however be rather over-whelming. Lots of people have asked for advice on how to get the most out of chat sessions so I thought I’d share with you how to use TwitterFall a free and easy to use tool which has revolutionised
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Encouraging your pupils to collaborate and work as a group can be an excellent way to enhance their learning, keep them motivated and develop skills which are applicable far beyond the context of school. When well-prepared and effectively managed, group work can be very fulfilling for both teacher and learner. I’ve put together a list of tips to help maximise your chances of success when using group work at school. Please add your own ideas by commenting. Group work requires planning Like most things, group work will run a lot more smoothly if you’re fully prepared. Group work is
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Save the Children are currently running a very ambitious campaign to raise awareness of the number of children dying each year from preventable diseases. 1 in 5 children miss out worldwide miss out on the vaccines that we take for granted here in the UK. On June 13 the UK is hosting a half day global vaccination summit in London where world leaders and decision makers will decide how to get vaccines to the world’s poorest children. Save The Children have made suggestions as to how 4 million lives could be saved by 2015 if the following commitments are
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There is a large body of research asserting that emotional intelligence is critical to children’s academic and life success. This post outlines some practical ideas for developing emotional intelligence in your classroom
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Class blogging is becoming ever more popular as a fantastic way of encouraging young people to write with a purpose, for a real audience and receive genuine feedback. At its best it’s assessment for learning in action. So what’s not to love? Well, although it’s really simple to set up your class blog, sometimes it can be a bit hard to think what to get your class to blog about. Well look no further. Here are a few ideas to get you going and I hope you’ll contribute some of your own too: Diary Style Blogging Asking students
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Revision is vital if your students are going to maximise their performance. Here are a few ideas to help them on their way.
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Private schools are fighting for the right to remain charities and continue to claim £100m per year in tax relief. Do you think they should win?
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13-year-old Emily used her own experiences of bullying to set up an anti-bullying campaign. This post is all about the campaign and what she has learnt, in her own words.
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e-learning has the potential to be such a great tool, but are we investing the necessary time, effort and energy to make it as good as it could be?
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Independent learning is a great way of developing lifelong learners – but what role does the teacher have to play? I’ve looked at the crucial role of teacher as facilitator, mentor, coach and guide.
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Philip Black, Head Teacher at Bell Baxter High School in Fife might just go down in history as the coolest head teacher in the world after leading a flashmob dance in his school’s canteen and becoming an overnight web sensation. Many of you will have already seen the footage but I just had to share it for those of you who may have missed it: The dance was organised as a send off for senior pupils about to go on exam leave by Chloe Simpson, a student at the school. Dozens of teachers and students took part and the whole
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UK Ed Chat is widely received as a fantastic form or CPD – I’m a big fan – but it does have some downfalls and I thought it was time to discuss them…
Read more →We all have a personal learning network or PLN. Even if we’ve not reached the dizzy heights of Twitter and the like our PLN is all around us every day. It’s the people that we work with and exchange ideas with. Traditionally our PLN wouldn’t have reached very far beyond the staffroom, but these days in the blink of an eye you can be accessing information and answers from a PLN that spans the globe. But what’s the point? I know that a lot of people – generally the type who won’t be reading this blog, and certainly won’t be
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