Practical Teaching Tips with Richard James Rogers

Starting your teaching career is an exciting adventure, but it can also feel overwhelming. When I first starting teaching high school science back in 2005, for example, I soon found myself struggling to succeed at (what I see today as) basic tasks, such as marking, lesson planning and managing behaviour. So many aspects of the job were completely new to me, despite the limited teaching experience I gained from the Army Cadet Force as a teenager. The reassuring news is that every teacher makes mistakes – it’s part of the learning process. To give you a head start, I will describe ten of the most common rookie blunders new high school teachers make (and, that I have made at some point on my journey!), along with some friendly advice on how to avoid them!

As educators, we’re always on the lookout for strategies that can enhance our students’ understanding and retention of information. One such strategy that has gained significant attention in recent years is dual coding. But what exactly is dual coding, and how can it be applied in our classrooms to make a tangible difference? Drawing from my own experiences since I started teaching Science and Maths in 2006, let’s dive into the concept and its practical application.

As teachers, we often form strong connections with our students as we guide them on their learning journeys. This can be incredibly rewarding for us – we gain much joy from helping our students to improve. However, it’s essential to maintain a professional distance to ensure that our relationships with students remain appropriate and conducive to learning. The ten guidelines explored in this episode have been adapted from research by Willing and Haney (1994). They provide a framework for maintaining this balance. Please note that William and Haney’s research was aimed at ABE (Adult Basic Education) teachers, so I have attempted to back-extrapolate the guidance to cover high-school teaching.

Demonstrating confidence in the classroom is the cornerstone of any effective lesson you will deliver. When we, as teachers, are confident, then that naturally builds a sense of confidence that the students will have in our abilities. Our lessons are also more engaging, more organized and more effective when we are confident. In today's episode I describe three ways in which we, as teachers, can boost our classroom confidence.

Is it acceptable for a teacher to have a dating profile? After all, recent statistics by the Pew Research Centre found that in 2023, 53% of singles who were actively seeking relationships had some kind of online dating profile. What is acceptable conduct when it comes to dating app usage by teachers? How can we, as teachers, protect ourselves from unwanted attention and complaints when using dating apps? I aim to answer these questions, and more, in this podcast episode.

Even as far back as 2020, during the height of the pandemic, research was being conducted on the effectiveness of video conferencing in education, and some such research concluded that online meetings would remain popular long-after the pandemic was over. My personal experiences have certainly mirrored these predictions – tutoring has moved mostly online, online meetings are still being used by many schools for parent-teacher conferences and schools still find that an online meeting is the most convenient way to bring everyone together efficiently, even if everyone is in the same building! Some schools are still using online meetings for assemblies too – an efficient approach as all of the students can remain in their classrooms and simply ‘enjoy the show’ on the classroom smart board or projector.

Anyone who is new to the teaching profession is bound to make mistakes. There’s so much to learn and so much is at stake: the future careers of young people are literally in your hands. The pressure can be overwhelming at times, and this can cause trainees to panic. Relax! This podcast episode was made for you!

Bullying continues to be an issue for so many schools. A simple Google search reveals daily news stories of student violence and incidents of extreme intimidation happening in countries all over the world. In today's podcast episode, I describe some simple and effective ways that schools can proactively tackle bullying, as well as prevent it from happening in the first place.

As a newly designated Certified ScrumMaster®, I thought it would be appropriate for me to share my newly acquired knowledge with my listeners - with a particular emphasis on how Scrum can be utilised in the high school classroom, and when managing teams of high school teachers. Scrum is a hugely popular Agile Project Management technique that is most commonly associated with boardrooms, not classrooms! Today I aim to explain why Scrum is an excellent framework for use with any school projects, and how the logistics of the system work.