Mike talks to Katie Stickley of DidTeach about the many options available to teachers outside of school and even outside of education. If you are considering a move - for whatever reason - find out here why your classroom skills are in demand, and always will be.

Mike and Katie create a 'Manifesto for the Teacher' in real time - a list of the skills and dispositions that teaching provides and needs. How many of them do you already have?

We're at that significant 42nd episode milestone and a competition and review are in order. Win a set of Thinking Assessment Cubes or a Thinking Stories book. 4 prizes, 4 winners. Closing date for entries is 11th July 2023 6pm. Judge's decision is final. Mike is the judge BTW. Listen to the episode to find out how to enter.

In episode 42, Mike reviews the last 20 episodes with clips and highlights and also hints at where episodes 1 to 21 can be found. He also reveals a bit about why he does it and how you can get started with your own podcast - purpose and tech.

This is actually an ideal starter episode to get you tuned into the Thinking Classroom Podcast ethos.

Finally, Pete does a poem about a sheep that has nothing to do with anything. But, after all, he is free to exercise his creative freedom through the autonomy and agency granted by a £0 contract.

A summary of the 4Ls conference, 23rd June 2023 in Bracknell. In 6 words. With appropriate pedagogical stingers from Pete.

Get a practical flavour of what all 6 speakers said and did; find out which one of them went from rule-breaker to rule maker; and discover if Mike sold any books from his stall.

Conference highlights and soundbites from:

The conference followed an original narrative design structure which can help enrich lessons, meetings, and larger educational gatherings. Find out what it is and how to use it.

Get in touch if you'd like to know more about how we designed the event and what we have planned for another time.....

A single word has immense power. But who decides which word is used to describe, to summarise, to evaluate, to judge? Mike looks at this in several ways: through the much loved Parking Eye organisation; through a short story about cognitive enhancement; with the Your One Word activity; (Oxford semi-colon) and by describing a hypothetical scenario where single words don't really make sense. In this episode Pete reveals his 'one word' and Mike uses the profanity bleep-out sound effect. Twice.

A quick guide to pedagogy - what it is, how to say it and what 20 adults and 5 children think. Mike summarises Rosenshine's 10 principles into 100, 20 and 5 words and does Marzano's 9 strategies as audio bullet points. Does it work or is it cognitive overload? You decide. (plus a new educational poem from Pete)

There are at least three kinds of happiness - are you chasing after the right one? Mike talks about school dogs, LinkedIn, cheesecake and US record producer Teddy Riley in an attempt to explore wellbeing and happiness. He also presents the PERMAH wellbeing survey which you and your teams can use to audit and improve individual and organisational wellbeing. Also, new stingers from Pete and an accelerated summary of three books on happiness. The explicit box is ticked because Mike says 'sex'. Twice. Really? Best be safe. There might be school dogs listening.

The best known thinking hierarchy and an easy way to infuse all kinds of thinking into any subject. But this is only a third of Benjamin Bloom's work from the mid 20th century. Find out about the other two thirds; see what happens when we remove the Taxonomy from Bloom's Taxonomy; try out a simple technique for bringing it to life in class; and hear some new podcast stingers that Mike's trying out.

Thinking needs stuff to work on, so we'll think about Avatar, Talking Heads and the Jackson 5 to illustrate how Bloom's Thinking works.

Does your school culture 'feel right'? Does it express who you are and what you want for your pupils? I talk to Dr Tom Hoerr, Emeritus Principal of the world famous New City School in St Louis and Scholar in Residence, UMSL about the six facets of organisational culture - vision, values, people, place, practices and narrative.

We look at empathy, gratitude, parent relations and how to make those values you display in the reception area actually mean something. Tom shares wisdom from his books and from 37 years as a school principal.

More about Tom

https://thomasrhoerr.com/

Tom's books at Amazon

https://amzn.to/3HTdRUC