Earlier, I posted about a padlet I've made to share some great resources that can help families.
Another thing that many teachers are doing at the moment is making videos for their classes. Now, the first thing to say is there are LOTS of great videos and tutorials out there already (Khan Academy is one noteable example). Teachers and leaders should think carefully about the choices they are making and whether new videos are needed. I've created a number of tutorials based on what I've learnt to help teachers who may be making videos for the first time. Working from home and trying to connect with our pupils, and help them learn, is a new experience for many of us so wherever we can help each other out, I think we should. These videos are all one-take so are a little rough around the edges but I hope others find them useful and save themselves some time! Take a look at the playlist here. I'll be adding videos as I find other useful top tips. If there's something you don't know how to do that might help with remote learning then please get in touch. If I do know then I'll create a 'how to' video, and if I don't I'll try and work it out!
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It's a whole new world out there. (Or in here, I suppose, since most of us are confined to the inside of our own homes).
Anyway, for most schools this whole 'remote learning' or 'distance learning' malarkey is a whole new ball game. Many schools are using Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Seesaw and other online platforms to set work, teach lessons and keep in contact with pupils. There are lots of generous people out there running online classes and posting resources to help children and parents in these unprecedented and uncertain times. I have started to compile these resources into one central bank for families to access. If you know someone who may benefit from this padlet, please share it! Here's the link: https://padlet.com/rholmesKSA/HLR. Anyone is able to add a resource (I just need to approve it so that every post is appropriate) so if you know of something worthwhile for families to access at home then please add it too. The more people that add to this padlet and share it with their colleagues as well as families they know and work with, the more useful this resource becomes. I've also created a short video explaining how the Padlet works for our pupils. It's not perfect but is a quick one-take explanation to support access at home. Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVi-sJ-35c
In my final few weeks at my last school, I had a conversation with one of the parents who suggested that people stay in their companies for two reasons:
Our conversation turned to Dan Pink's Drive (where he suggests that people are motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose) and Simon Sinek. Sinek is someone who is frequently referenced in leadership theory, especially his famous Ted Talk 'Start with the Why'. Until now though, I hadn't been introduced to his Top 10 Rules for Success. These seemed to chime well with Pink's ideas and I think are worth sharing with others in the education community too, hence this brief blog. (I've written more about the importance of Pink's 3 principles of motivation in the context of improving teaching here). Our conversation soon moved on to what motivated me. This parent, who I'll call John for the sake of this blog post, asked me: "What are you passionate about? What do you want to do in your life?" My answer was that I enjoy helping other people succeed. This is one of the reasons I love being a teacher. John's immediate response was that this was not exclusive to teaching: this was leadership. Leaders shape the culture of an organisation, school or otherwise. Our conversation took many twists and turns but there were a few things that John said that stuck with me:
So, why do people stay in their companies or, in our case, their school? They feel like they're making a difference or they like the people they work with...hopefully both! Leaders can do a lot to shape this environment: staff should feel like they are part of a team, that they are striving towards a shared goal; they should feel like they are improving and that their is purpose to their work, that they are supported without being micromanaged. Schools can learn a lot from other organisations and companies, and many of the best do. So I ask you: what is your school doing to value and develop your staff? Do they feel like they are making a difference? Do you feel like a real team?
I recently began working at a new school and have come to a conclusion: starting at a new school is difficult.
Regardless of how much experience you have or how good a teacher you are, you are starting again. Many aspects of your new school may appear similar to previous places you've worked but there are inevitably subtle differences. Relationships need to be built from scratch and there are a million and one routines, norms and expectations that seem to differ from your last school. There's a lot to take in and a lot to learn. My first teaching role came through Teach First. I'd gone through the six weeks of Summer Institute and knew what to expect, namely that I wouldn't really know what I was doing most of the time. It took awhile for me to feel comfortable in my job but that was hardly surprising as it was my first teaching role. My next role was teaching abroad. As one might expect, this came with it's own set of unique challenges. Moving my life around the world meant setting up new bank accounts, working out social security, health & tax differences and a local driving licence, not to mention setting up a new place to live. Suffice to say it was a busy time before we even start to talk about teaching and learning (but an experience I would have no doubt in recommending to anyone if the right role comes up for you!). I tell you all this to illustrate why I am writing this post now. Perhaps I was naive before but I never quite realised how difficult starting in a new school can be, even when you remove factors like a lack of experience or living in a new country on a new continent. There's a lot to adapt to in any new role or new school. Relationships Once you've been in a school for 2 or 3 years, let alone 10 or 20, you become a known quantity to pupils and parents in the community. It might be that pupils know you because you always teach Year 6 or perhaps you taught their older sibling in their GCSEs. In some cases, perhaps you taught their parents or, whisper it quietly, maybe even their grandparents. Before pupils even take one step into your classroom, they know something about you and your expectations. Your reputation has preceded you. Of course, this can be a positive or a negative...or perhaps a little of both. When you first start in a new school, pupils won't know you from Adam. In schools with a high staff turnover, many won't expect you to still be there after Christmas. Some won't expect you to stick around for more than a year. They don't know that you care about them and they don't know that they can trust you. That'll take time. You may have built up a solid reputation with pupils in your last school but here, right now as a new member of staff, you're back at the beginning. It's a fresh start. Then we have everyone's names to learn, and not just the pupils' names. I'm talking about the staff. When we meet our new colleagues, we inevitably introduce ourselves by first name - of course we would, it's natural and normal. But having spent two or three days of staff INSET struggling to remember new names and faces, it's time to up the game and learn surnames too (or my favourite child-inspired version of the question: "What's your teacher name?"). And that's before we even get to learning pupil names. Once you've cleared these little hurdles, there's the small matter of getting to know the pupils' themselves. Okay, so I know that every new class presents this challenge but once you've been in a school for awhile you'd probably know some of the families, perhaps because of older siblings. When you start in a new school, the likelihood is you'll know nobody. You'll need to learn about behavioral and motivational tendencies, medical needs & subject preferences. Are there specific safeguarding concerns you need to be aware of? Is attendance an issue? What do they like and dislike? All of this before getting into the nitty-gritty of teaching and learning. Where are they compared to where they should be? Where do they need to be? What gaps do they have? Where do their strengths lie? Systems & routines Relationships are central to success in any school, no, any workplace. But before we even get to building these there are a few practicalities that need addressing. The first challenge is finding your way around the school during INSET or new staff training. Which rooms am I teaching in? Where are the bathrooms? What about the stationery cupboard? Next up you've got IT...how do I log on to my PC? What's my printer code? What's the staff network password? What does my timetable look like? Then there's HR: checking they have the right details for your pension, the right tax code, copies of your certificates and DBS. All very important when you're starting a new school. Once these practicalities are on track, we can start to think about the day to day. What do transitions between lessons look like in your new school? You'll need to learn the specifics of the behaviour policy so that you're putting the right foot forward on the first day with pupils. Consistency is key and it all seems so logical during INSET and orientation but in the heat of the moment can you remember the exact consequence for that repeated behaviour? Did you record it accurately and in the right place on the school system? Do you have a log in for that particular system? Oh, and what's the phone number for On Call, again...? Soon you'll be able to ask a few other questions...Are there any specific expectations about displays? How about planning? Is there a set lesson structure? Have you seen the MTP yet? Do we even have an MTP or do I need to make one myself? What about the marking policy here? I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the idea. One of the things that surprised me most in my new school is the level of specificity on little things like call and response routines in lessons and the rhythm in which we clap for quiet and to bring the pupils back together. Pupils know what to expect in different lessons and between different staff so there are definite advantages to this level of specificity. These are all things that a few months down the line don't seem like a lot but in those first few days and weeks there was a lot to take in which an established member of staff will already know. Fresh start and lots of support Fortunately, I have had great support starting in my new role. My colleagues have been fantastic in helping me to adapt to a new set of systems and I've had regular feedback in my teaching to help me improve my practice (I plan to write a blog on the benefits of regular coaching micro-steps soon). I'm still developing relationships with pupils in my class and across the year group and this will never be something we can tick off as 'done' but it will take time. Starting a new school will always be challenging but a supportive school culture can make it much easier for everyone involved.
*I originally started planning this post for Staffrm over two years ago but never published it. Since restarting my blogging habit here I’ve gone back and forth with this one and, if I’m honest, I’m still not happy with it. In the end, I decided that I wanted to put it out there and see what happened. I know that engagement is a dividing term so let's hear your thoughts!*
Engagement. A word that draws passionate responses in the microcosm that is the Twitter-verse. If Tweeters are to be believed, engagement is one of two things: it is either vital for learning and those who do not engage children will not help children learn to love learning OR it is a dirty word that is used to make excuses for bad behaviour and make teachers do things that do not help promote learning. Ok, so that’s a over generalisation of the spectrum of opinion you’ll really find but it is representative of the tribalistic nature that social media at times. In 2013, Professor Rob Coe wrote about poor proxies for learning. Students being busy and students being engaged are the first two on this list. Just because pupils are engaged, it doesn’t mean they are learning (nor does it mean that they aren’t, just that we can’t assume that learning is happening because these conditions are met). What does that look like in a classroom? I believe that engagement is necessary but not sufficient. Pupils must be engaged with their work to learn from it; however, this is not the same as pupils being on the edge of their seat constantly, waiting for the next bang and whistle. Pupils can be engaged in quiet, reflective, challenging deliberate practice. Pupils can be engaged in improving their footwork to beat an opposition player one on one. Or pupils can be engaged in making a Roman shield. The question becomes: what do you want your pupils to learn? What are they practicing? What aspects of their footwork do they need to improve? What is it about the Romans that you want your pupils to learn? What is it that you want them to remember? And here lies the problem. A carefully designed opportunity for deliberate practice, combined with well thought out explanations and modelled examples will help pupils to understand, apply and recall an idea. It can help pupils practice the things that they need to store in long term memory. But, if the activity encourages pupils to think about something other than what you want them to remember, they may be engaged but they won’t be learning effectively. Pupils will remember what they are thinking about so if they are mostly thinking about the pattern on their Roman shield then that is what they’ll remember. If they are mainly thinking about the ways in which they can attach the handle to their shield then that is what they will remember most (Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School articulates this much more effectively than I could hope to. If you haven’t already, I thoroughly recommend you read this book). Now that is not to say that what they are thinking about MIGHT have a valuable place in their learning but it is not necessarily what you want them to learn. As we said earlier, engagement is necessary but not sufficient. Clare Sealy wrote a great blog about teaching for memory, distinguishing between episodic and semantic memory. I recommend it as a great resource for understanding why ‘fun’ experiences don’t necessarily lead to great academic learning but we ‘remember’ them so fondly. Now I'm not saying that lessons shouldn't be fun or engaging. Having fun in lessons is a happy bi-product: it should not be the actual goal of teaching. Yes, pupils will learn more in a happy environment but it does not follow that we should engage in edu-tainment.
Outstanding?
A quick visit to teaching groups on Facebook will reveal regular requests from teachers asking for ideas for an outstanding lesson, normally because they have a lesson observation approaching. Many teachers, I believe fall into this trap, especially in the early stages of their career. I know I did (ok, not by asking on social media but by preparing more for lesson observations). To an extent, this is human nature; we want to do particularly well when someone is watching. It is also a symptom of the high stakes observation culture which was prevalent until recently (and still is in places. Personally, I’m much more in favour of low stakes regular coaching to support staff). OFSTED have moved away from the idea of grading individual lessons due to the lack of reliability in judgements between observers. With this said, teachers are still looking for outstanding lessons and I think a big problem with this is that the individual period is not an effective unit of time for learning (I think I first heard phrasing like this from Kris Boulton on the Mr Barton Maths podcast but I’m not honestly sure…if anyone knows an accurate source I would love to make this more accurate). Learning takes place over time but generally teachers think about individual lessons rather than a sequence of lessons. When we think of learning in terms of individual lessons (especially when we know we are going to be observed), we are more likely to think about how we are going to engage our pupils, except engagement can often be confused for entertainment. For me outstanding teaching is great teaching, where pupils learn lots and have the opportunity to practice and apply what they know, over a period of time. An ongoing conversation Following recent developments on edu-twitter, spats and arguments about traditional vs progressive (the old chestnut that doesn't seem to go away) and Sean Harford leaving the platform, I've seen lots of tweets about the need to avoid a two-camps approach. This got me thinking about the term 'engagement' again. It still evokes strong feelings, emotions and opinions. Although this blog is far from perfect, although I keep wanting to tweak, change and rewrite it, I keep coming back to the one line: engagement is necessary but not sufficient.
Free resources
This said, I've still tried to use KOs in my practice, particularly over the last four years. These are a work in progress and link to the curriculum I was teaching at the time I created each of these. They may not fit perfectly for your school and your context; however, it seemed a waste for these resources to sit on my computer after they were no longer being used in my classroom so here they are. You will find links to all the Knowledge Organisers I have made thus far on the resources page of this website. They are all available (many of them including retrieval quizzes too) for FREE via my TES page. If you find them useful, please let me know...and if you don't, well then let me know how you think they could be improved. Please share them with any colleagues as you can - I want these to remain helpful to others. Remember, sharing is caring! Why must we always reinvent the wheel? If you'd like to know more about why Knowledge Organisers can so powerful and how they are best used (if at all), I'd recommend starting with the following blogs from Joe Kirby, Jon Hutchinson, Michael Tidd & Jon Hutchinson (this time for Teach Wire). If you don't have the time to read these blogs now, here are a couple of key takeaways:
Final tangents As I've been writing this blog post, I've found myself going off on a few tangents that really aren't specific to KOs but are definitely worth looking into. I'm not ready to write a post on each of these right now and others have already written eloquently about them elsewhere but I didn't want to completely delete them either so here are the highlights:
As a profession, we teachers seem to love reinventing the wheel and, particularly as I was training and in my NQT year, this frustrated me. Even more experienced teachers of 10, 20 years in the profession, who can pull out an old resource or plan from their files, seemed to be constantly needing to resource their lessons from scratch. To make matters worse, several schools I've come across seem to be anti-text book and/or anti-worksheet meaning teachers can feel like they need to create all their questions from scratch even for pupils to practice basic skills. I know this was certainly my experience.
Surely there were great resources out there that were tried and tested? Indeed there are but (I'm going to let you in on a big secret here, are you ready?) the internet is a very big place and finding quality resources can take time, especially when you're new. Which is why when Joe Kirby wrote about renewable resources a few years ago it was an idea that immediately gripped me. So, when a colleague of mind brought back a maths basic skills worksheet from a trip to Shanghai, it sparked an idea. The aim of these sheets was to ensure quick and automated basic skills using the four operations, comparison and representation. I knew straight away that several pupils in my class would benefit from this sort of regular, low stakes practice but I didn't want to have to create a new sheet every time I wanted them to practice these skills: if they had the same sheet too often then they could just learn the pattern of answers and it was going to be too time consuming to create a new sheet every time. I had a dilemma and needed a renewable solution. Step forward Microsoft Excel. I worked with a colleague, Anna Daubney, to create several sheets which would enable this sort of practice and generate new questions at the press of a button so that the same pattern and style of questions appeared every time but with new questions to answer. Hey-presto, we had our first renewable resource. We went on to create similar sheets for Fraction, Decimal and Percentage equivalence and for Times Tables. Over the years, we've tweaked the different sheets and I still use them when my pupils need them. If you think you may find them useful too, you can find a link to all of these on the resources tab of this site. Why reinvent the wheel? Sharing is caring!
A short while ago, a friend of mine asked me for a list of my favourite primary blogs. She’s a secondary teacher but has recently become a primary school governor and wants to learn more about data in a primary specific setting. I struggled to come up with data specific blogs at first but luckily James Pembroke came to my rescue with this blog and then I found Becky Allen's three part series on grading (albeit not primary specific). *As I was about to publish this post, I also came across a recent Teacher Tapp post on KS2 value added from Education Datalab which may be of use.*
But this whole search for data based blogs got my thinking. There are some INCREDIBLE edu-tweeters and bloggers out there but which ones do I find myself going back to time and time again? Which ones are specific to Primary education?
The 'big' exams and qualifications happen when Primary education is a distant(ish) memory for most students when they're taking their GCSEs, A-Levels or other important qualifications. But it is called *Primary* because it comes first (ok, so EYFS is actually first but just go with me on this). In *Primary*, we help secure the central building blocks in any pupil's education. It is called *Primary* because it is of primary importance to a child's education. It's called *Primary* for a reason and it's important we get it right so it's important we highlight Primary specific topics in the big wide world that is edu-twitter/blogosphere. So, without any further ado, the following are my go-to primary specific guides (whilst still touching on things that are applicable across the phases). They’re definitely not restricted to data but at one point or another, either on twitter or on their blogs, but I’m sure with a little searching you can find data specific blogs. People with a great overview and/or high level ideas to inspire:
Finally, I want to shout out a few other blogs from people whose resources and/or ideas I seem to steal on an increasingly frequent basis. Check them out!
What Primary focused blogs would you recommend?
Teacher reflection: why filming your practice is essential (Guest Post on IRIS Connect's Blog)25/3/2019
I recently wrote a guest blog post for IRIS Connect's blog on the importance of teacher reflection and the power of filming your lessons. Much of what I wrote was inspired by my own experiences and another blog I wrote entitled Why You Should Film Yourself Teaching which you can read here.
You can read this blog in its original form here on IRIS Connect's website but otherwise read on...
Have you ever filmed yourself teaching? It can be pretty nerve wracking before you do it for the first time. It can also be one of the most powerful experiences you can have in the quest to improve your teaching.
Put your ego aside and see the benefits Let’s be honest, many people out there will be apprehensive about the idea of filming their lessons… “I don’t like hearing my own voice”… “I’m sure I’ll look awkward on camera”… “The children will act differently and it will disrupt my lesson”…or… “I just haven’t got the time”. These are just some of the excuses I have heard for not filming one’s lessons; I’ve used some of them myself. But the simple fact is that watching your own lessons back is a means of stepping back from the hustle and bustle of daily classroom life. It is a way of taking a more objective look at what you are actually doing in your teaching and how your pupils are acting and reacting (even when you’re back is turned!). Once I got over seeing and hearing myself on camera – and that honestly only took about 5 minutes once I put my ego aside – I started to notice things in my classroom that I hadn’t managed to pick up in the thick of it all, or even reflecting on my lessons afterwards. I noticed verbal crutches that I was using, stock phrases that didn’t really mean much but had the potential to confuse or over complicate my instructions. I noticed that I favoured one side of the classroom over another. I noticed that my explanations were not as clear as they seemed in my own head. I noticed a lot that I had missed previously and now that I knew these things, I could do something about them! Pupils soon forgot about the cameras and the logistical extras of setting up the cameras proved more than worth the time and effort. Look to the research The UK teachers’ standards state that teachers should ‘reflect systematically on the effectiveness of lessons and approaches to teaching.’ Several academic researchers back this up, with Killeavy (2006: 168) arguing that ‘improvement of self and others is a fundamental expectation’ of effective teaching and learning in schools, whilst Lofthouse & Birmingham (2010:3) state that ‘a fundamental objective of student teachers’ professional learning is development of their ability to analyse and evaluate their own pedagogic practice’. Similarly, Runhaar & Sanders (2017) point out that it is important for teachers to actively pursue their continuing development and learning throughout their careers, whilst it is the responsibility of school leaders to help facilitate this. The question is, how do we do this? Now, if you’re reading this, the likelihood is that you are someone who values their own professional development and does reflect regularly on their lessons. In fact, I’d wager you’d all agree that it is impossible to be an effective teacher without doing this. I remember when I was first introduced to the teacher standards during my PGCE year and I kept coming back to one word: systematically. What did this look like in practice? What distinguishes ‘systematic’ reflections? For many trainees, this involves annotating lessons plans whilst for others (and not just trainee teachers) this may happen partly through a regular coaching schedule. Whilst these both may be useful means of reflection (and I am especially in favour of coaching), both are reliant on you as a teacher thinking about your lesson from your own perspective. Videoing oneself allows for the potential to view one’s own lesson ‘in the third person’, as an observer (still not impartial but much more separate). Beat the five year plateau According to Clotfelter, Ladd and Vigdor (2006), teachers improve and hone their craft up to the first five years of their career, at which point many plateau. What is less clear is the cause of this plateau. How can teachers avoid this? Harrison et al. (2005) suggest that teachers might consider adopting a reflective scaffold for their reflections, much in the same way that an experienced colleague or tutor may use a template to guide their feedback for trainee teachers. Teaching can be an all-consuming activity. Throughout lessons, teachers will be spinning many plates: explaining concepts, modelling skills, scaffolding tasks, promoting positive behaviour, supporting individuals, questioning to check for understanding and so much more. They will often be leading classes with 30+ students who all have a broad range of prior attainment. Personally, I find it useful to focus on individual aspects of my teaching when I am watching my lessons back, perhaps my questioning, quality of my explanations, positive behaviour management, or routines. In the middle of the whirlwind of a teacher’s day, finding the opportunity to take a step back and reflect is not easy. I have found filming my lessons a valuable opportunity that provides me with the space I need to more objectively look back at my lessons, away from the hustle and bustle of the lesson itself. It is an opportunity to identify strengths and areas of improvement. I could improve individual lessons, my approach to specific pupils and consider my wider pedagogy. I believe that the habits and attitudes that one develops in the early stages of one’s career need to be sustainable if they are to be continued as the realities of life kick in, especially in light of workload pressures. (I try to film at least one lesson every term. I haven’t always stuck to this but have always tried to catch up by filming in later terms when I’ve caught myself falling into this trap. Not ideal but better than nothing. I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I’m always working on improving.) Ask yourself 'why not?' As I wrote earlier, one objection I often hear to the idea of filming my own lessons is that it can be daunting. Many people don’t like to hear recordings of their own voice, let alone see themselves on screen, and yes, at first it can be a little uncomfortable. Trying anything for the first time can often be. However, once I got over this fear I began to realise how useful this tool could be. I was lucky. I was required to film a lesson, watch it back alone and then watch it again with my PGCE tutor during my first year in the classroom. I didn’t have a choice: I was lucky. Not every teacher is that lucky. Not every teacher will have to film a lesson during their training years but what is holding us all back from taking ownership of this? Rather than ask why film yourself teaching, instead ask why not? Get over your apprehension and give it a go…and if you filmed a lesson earlier in your career and haven’t tried it in a while, why not give it a go again? See how far your teaching has come, see what you can learn about yourself, and maybe, if you’re feeling brave and kind, see what you could share with colleagues. While videoing one’s own performance is common place in other graduate professions, including medicine, it is still relatively uncommon in teaching. The reasons for this are not clear: perhaps it is a result of historic fears centering on observation culture or perhaps it is because of the financial pressures on schools (Buck, Tomlinson and Toop, 2015) which do not allow sufficient time for professional development or the purchase of the necessary camera equipment. However, it has never been easier to see inside another teacher’s classroom and observe fantastic practice, for example using Teach Like a Champion clips. As a profession, I would suggest that we need to embrace this move towards videoing our lessons: at first for ourselves but also for the good of our schools and colleagues. Autonomy, mastery and purpose In his book Drive, Dan Pink (2009) argues that motivation is determined by three factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Filming one’s own lessons has the potential to tick all of these boxes. In a world where teacher retention never seems to leave the education headlines, this seems to me to be too important to ignore. Teachers can be empowered to make change and have power over their own improvement; they have the opportunity to work towards being the best teacher possible; and their improvements should lead to better outcomes for pupils. Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Check. You can follow me on Twitter at: @educatingholmes and read my full blog on Why You Should Film Yourself Teaching here. I would also recommend taking a look at IRIS Connect’s own guide to enabling effective teacher reflection.
In early 2015, I separated my personal and school Twitter accounts. I had just started reading more education blogs and decided that my friends from school and university wouldn’t be as interested in my thoughts on curriculum and assessments as much as they were my rants about the England rugby team (who am I kidding, is anyone really interested in that either!?). I wanted to join the conversations on Twitter about effective education. Ok, so it can be a little tribalistic at times, people’s views can be a rather entrenched and there are times when we’re all pulling our collective hair out, but it’s a great platform for finding out about different ideas: practical suggestions for Teaching and Learning, leadership and culture, information about research and cognitive psychology, and overarching educational philosophies.
More recently, I’ve started to get an increasingly wide selection of blog suggestions from Teacher Tapp. If you’re a teacher and you’re not on Teacher Tapp yet…WHY NOT!? In their own words: "At 3:30pm each day, thousands of phones across the country buzz and our community of teachers spend a minute answering our questions about their work and learning from the short articles we give them. They do this so that we can all learn about teachers daily lives, views and the schools they work in. Join us to help give teachers a voice!" I’ve written before about Pocket, an amazing app that helps save posts on websites so that you can read them even when you’re offline and stores them in one central place. One of the other great features of Pocket is that it saves old articles in an archive and you can bookmark favourites. (The biggest drawback is that I save more than I actually have time to read!). The list below is a compilation of the posts I find myself going back to most; these are the posts that have been most influential in shaping my thinking. I have used my Pocket favourites to help me generate this list but there are no guarantees this list is comprehensive. There are certainly other posts that have been important in influencing me, not to mention books, conferences and tweets: you can find a list of some more these on the Recommendations page of this site. So, without any further ado , here are some of the most important blog posts I’ve read to date: (note, the formatting of this page works better on a computer rather than a phone).
This is by no means an exhaustive list and I'm regularly adding to it. Please tweet me or leave suggestions in the comments for other posts I should add to this list!
Whether you’ve been teaching for twenty years or just repeating that same year twenty times makes a big difference to your development as a teacher. If you’ve continued to learn and develop each year for 5 years then you will be a better teacher than someone who has replicated that same year of teaching twenty times. As Dylan Wiliam said, ‘every teacher needs to improve, not because they’re not good enough but because they can be even better’. This is a maxim I strive to live by throughout my teaching and in leading others.
Since I stepped into the classroom, I have found filming my lessons a valuable opportunity to identify strengths and areas of improvement, if a little daunting at first. I could improve individual lessons, my approach to specific pupils and consider my wider pedagogy. I believe that the habits and attitudes that one develops in the early stages of one’s career need to be sustainable if they are to be continued as the realities of life kick in, especially in light of workload pressures (I try to film at least one lesson every term). This blog post is an attempt to highlight some relevant literature and summarise why I think videoing one’s own lessons can be an effective means of professional development.
Improving teaching through filming and reflecting on your lessons is hardly a new idea (Rodgers, 1987; Bennett, 2010). However, there is relatively little specific literature other than that commissioned by companies who sell video hardware and software themselves (such as IRIS Connect). Traditional models of teacher development which take place in blocks (such as INSET sessions once or twice a year) have limited evidence supporting their effectiveness (Hodkinson 2006). Using film, on the other hand, allows for the possibility of CPD being spread out with greater ease.
It is important for teachers to actively pursue their continuing development and learning throughout their careers whilst it is the responsibility of school leaders to help facilitate this. One ‘easy’ and effective means of doing this is through reflections on daily practice (Runhaar & Sanders 2017). According to Clotfelter, Ladd and Vigdor (2006) teachers improve and hone their craft up to the first five years of their career, at which point many plateau. What is less clear is the cause of this plateau. When considering how useful videoing your own lessons can be, the issue of feedback is key. To what extent can individuals evaluate their own instructional leadership and to what extent is there a need for external feedback? For me, the answer to these questions comes in two forms.
Killeavy argues that ‘improvement of self and others is a fundamental expectation’ of effective teaching and learning in schools (2006: 168); however, as we have seen, reflections on one’s own teaching can be limited by prior knowledge. If we don’t know what good teaching looks like, then how can we identify areas for improvement? To what extent can they effectively critique and improve their own performance? Are they sufficiently objective? To what extent does it depend on an individual’s self-awareness? It is well established that collaboration with colleagues is important to teacher development (Butler et al. 2004). It is also well established that teachers must be reflective practitioners if they are to be effective (Sammons et al. 2014). “A fundamental objective of student teachers’ professional learning is development of their ability to analyse and evaluate their own pedagogic practice” (Lofthouse & Birmingham 2010: 3). This would suggest that it might be better for teachers to work better, at least in the early stages, as they reflect on videos of their own teaching. Alternatively, Harrison et al. (2005) suggest that teachers might consider adopting a reflective practice scaffold for their reflections, much in the same way that an experienced colleague or tutor may use a template to guide their feedback for trainee teachers. This could help to guide their reflections and ensure a more useful reflective critique. In Practice Perfect, Lemov, Woolway & Yezi (2012) outline a series of rules that individuals should follow in order to isolate skills and systematically improve them through deliberate practice. Whilst many of these rules focus on deliberate practice with others and collaboratively improving performance, the principles remain sound for an individual reflecting on their own practice. Lemov et al. describe how video can be used by teachers to identify things that are going well in their performance and ‘invest in their own development’ (2012: 179). It is acknowledged that this is partly a strategy in place because senior leaders and managers cannot always be in lessons; they also point out that over time it normalises a culture of identifying and correcting errors, rather than hiding them away because there is no one else in the classroom. They describe a culture in which teachers set their own goals, with some guidance from managers, to focus on specific targets and hold themselves accountable. This is only possible because they have normalised such a culture of using video to improve performance. I would recommend every teacher read Practice Perfect in full, but there are a few rules outlined by the authors which I think are notable to highlight. They are:
While videoing one’s own performance is common place in other graduate professions, including medicine it is still relatively uncommon in teaching. The reasons for this are not clear: perhaps it is a result of historic fears centering on observation culture or perhaps it is because of the financial pressures on schools (Buck, Tomlinson and Toop, 2015) which do not allow sufficient time for professional development or the purchase of the necessary camera equipment. Since videoing one’s own lessons is still relatively rare, I would also suggest that many teachers are skeptical or would feel nervous about filming their own lessons (although this is more anecdotal than anything!).
In medicine, the use of video is increasingly used to train trainee doctors on procedures and help them review their performance (Spence et al., 2016). They use defined structures to help scaffold their reflections and research by Hawkins et al., (2012) suggests that this has improved performance and doctors’ self-awareness. One such structure was the introduction of benchmark performance indicators which helped students to more accurately assess their own performance and brought them in line with the assessments of their tutors. Whilst providing objective performance indicators, free from ideology, might prove problematic in education, this would be an avenue worthy of further exploration if video analysis and self-reflection were to be used systematically to improve instructional leadership. We require our medical professionals to review their performance to set targets to improve, yet the teaching profession largely lags behind. One of the central functions of leadership is to improve teaching and learning; however, leaders must make choices: it is not financially possible in most schools to pursue every avenue of potential improvement, therefore strategic decisions must be made as to which possibilities are pursued. Teachers’ time is financially valuable, whilst the capital investment in camera equipment is also a factor. If equipment is to be used, it must be available when staff need it, which then also raises the question of how much equipment to buy and what other purchases might not be possible if there is substantial expenditure in this area. Perhaps the greatest cost of filming lessons is time. Many schools will already have some equipment available with which to film lessons – iPads, cameras, even the webcam on a laptop – although there is also bespoke camera hardware and software available which will track a teacher as they move around the classroom and other solutions which provide more flexibility (personally, I’ve used IRIS Connect in the past but other companies such as Swivl appear to offer similar solutions). Whether schools buy in ready-made solutions or use existing technology already in school it is possible to develop a culture of reflection through video which can be a cost-effective addition to the teacher development armoury. In his book Drive, Dan Pink (2009) argues that motivation is determined by three factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Filming one’s own lessons has the potential to tick all of these boxes. Teachers can be empowered to make change and have power over their own improvement; they have the opportunity to work towards being the best teacher possible; and their improvements should lead to better outcomes for pupils. Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Check. On a whole school level, filming lessons presents opportunities for sharing good practice, regular coaching conversations, and systematic development of staff throughout the year. Video is not limited to the traditional INSET training or one off course that many traditional development opportunities provide but instead can provide a drip feed approach to working with staff on a group and/or individual level throughout the year. Furthermore, for the individual teacher, there is the opportunity to take ownership of one’s own targets and develop one’s self-awareness in the classroom. Perhaps the biggest challenge, for both the individual and for school level implementation is finding the time to watch footage back. How much footage would be manageable? How much would be useful? Is there a tipping point after which one might over analyse one’s performance? The answer to such questions is likely to differ between individual schools depending on their context and circumstances. So what are the challenges and why should we try filming our lessons anyway?
References
*I originally created these posts for the micro-blogging education site Staffrm, which shut down mid-2017. I wanted to re-share these early forays into the blogging world but have not edited any of these posts from their original form. *
I’m a 2014 Teach First Ambassador and this year I will be stepping down from my role as Action Network chair in the East Midlands after two years. “What’s Action Network?” I hear you ask. Well, there is an Action Network within each of the regions in which TF works consisting of participants (still on the 2 year programme) and ambassadors (those who have completed it). The work of Action Network’s fall into 4 key areas:
Now, ‘community’ comes up a lot within Teach First and indeed it comes up a lot within education more widely. In this case, we consider ‘community’ in a wide sense, encompassing participants, ambassadors, mentors, tutors, staff, pupils, parents and schools (I’ve probably missed some out there!). During my two year tenure, we have focussed on two things: improving our means of gathering feedback and running events to improve wellbeing. In both of these cases we have centered our efforts on TF Participants but are increasingly working with Ambassadors too. We would love to work in even broader areas but as full time teachers who do this work on a voluntary basis, we are still growing our capacity to do this effectively so have focussed on the areas we can have the biggest impact in so far. In addition to this, representatives from ANs meet four times a year at the National Action Network to discuss and feedback on ideas within TF, plan projects and make suggestions for improvements. So what does the East Midlands Action Network (EMAN) do? Over the past two years we have been instrumental in setting up a zoning system to help with expenses for travelling to CPD, have held two teach meets, two weekends away to promote teacher well being, facilitated a buddying system for new teachers and fundraised to help address the NEET problem - one of the most prevalent in the East Mids. Coming out of EMAN, two of our reps have also set up The Broader View, which although I don’t have the space to discuss much here, I thoroughly recommend you check out. We’ve got lots more in the pipeline, including another weekend away and a policy event - exciting times. As Chair of EMAN, I have enjoyed taking a wider view of education policy. EMAN has enabled me to stay in touch and take part in discussions around how to improve TF and what can be done to tackle educational disadvantage, including the Challenge the Impossible campaign. Especially in the first couple of years of teaching, it can be easy to have tunnel vision. The classroom is all consuming and it can, frankly, become easy to be disillusioned with the state of education when the vigour and enthusiasm of Summer Institute seem distant on those dark December evenings. For me AN provides an outlet and allowed me to reconnect with why I joined TF, a reminder of what can be achieved. *I originally created these posts for the micro-blogging education site Staffrm, which shut down mid-2017. I wanted to re-share these early forays into the blogging world but have not edited any of these posts from their original form. *
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the second Debating Michaela event. Hosted in City Hall, with the breathtaking backdrop of Tower Bridge and the London skyline, a few hundred teachers gathered to debate some of education's most divisive issues (trending on Twitter in the process). Recently, I’ve found myself reading lots of blog posts from Michaela staff and the debates were a brilliant extension of this. It seems that Michaela divides opinion in the education world; unfortunately I haven’t the opportunity to visit myself yet. But one thing is obvious without having to see the school for myself - I can’t help but be impressed by the conviction of the staff. The whole team seem to sing from the same hymn sheet and are willing to engage in debate about the ideals which are most important to their school. I find myself agreeing with much of what Michaela espouse, but also appreciate that they welcomed having their views challenged in such a public forum. The team at Michaela are almost evangelical about about what their ideals (the term cult was mentioned on Twitter, and not just when Teach First was brought up), but are open to debate and discussion, even if this means more people disagree with them at the end of the day than did at the start - although I’m pretty certain this wasn’t the case! I for one enjoyed having my own preconceptions, views and values challenged. I’m certainly not evangelical about what I believe at the moment and am still shaping my own opinions. I think it is important that in an educated society we are able and willing to change our minds and admit when our views change - something I was pleased Jonathan Simons did in the last debate! Unfortunately, Staffrm's word limit doesn't allow me to go into any in further reflections in individual debates, but maybe they can be the inspiration behind future posts? For those who couldn't attend, the debates were:
I look forward to future Debating Michaela events and more opportunities to discuss these ideas, which are so important to shaping the future of the educational landscape. For those of you who want to read some more about the Debating Michaela event, here are a few links you might find interesting. Please feel free to post other links to blogs about the event in the comments.
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