Tips for Teachers

This special edition of the Tips for Teachers podcast comes live from Manchester Piccadilly station following MathsConf30. Jo Morgan and I discuss our takeaways from the workshops we saw, including:

Jo:

1. Assess pre-requisites

2. Use a variety of techniques for differentiation 

3. Plan a curriculum suitable for the group you’re teaching

4. Explore boundary examples to deepen understanding of a concept

5. Pay attention to how students write their answers (we need a reciprocal symbol!). 

Craig:

1. Make sure students are good at units

2. Don't forget the old classics

3. Adapt off-the-shelf resources 

4. Make use of the power of interweaving

5. Interweave out by using questions that all have the same underlying concept

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Maths teacher, Craig Latimir, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Explicitly teach the skills an expert in your domain uses (03:29)

2. Leave a legacy (23:21)

3. The principles of Cog Sci apply to humans (not just students) (39:24)

4. Learning doesn’t start in Year 7 (55:10)

5. The secret to a happy life (1:09:13)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Curriculum expert, Mary Myatt, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share her 5 tips:

1. We should all be focussing on doing fewer things and greater depth (04:06)

2. Focus on the concepts and the Big Ideas in our curriculum (13:03)

3. We know more and remember more when we've heard it in a story (23:54)

4. Provoke curiosity in our students (47:57)

5. Ask "who is this for?" (1:00:00)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Primary expert, Kieran Mackle, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Leave space between reading and implementation (04:04)

2. Treat the act of teacher development like teaching (10:09)

3. Be explicit when modelling for colleagues (19:36)

4. Some behaviours are more important than others (28:33)

5. Nobody really knows what they are doing (40:37)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Maths teacher, Femi Adeniran, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Teach behaviour lesson one by making ‘developing the right classroom culture’ your objective for the early lessons (02:56)

2. Focus on explanations not resources (14:17)

3. Teach in small chunks and fool kids into doing lots of work initially (23:17)

4. Have your coffee whilst sitting in the classrooms of effective teachers (31:28)

5. Provide answers so pupils can check their work in real-time (42:16)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Maths teacher and author, Michael Pershan, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Begin your explanations as a series of questions that everyone can answer (03:12)

2. The best feedback is a learning activity, and it’s much better than written feedback on the page (16:28)

3. Get used to asking “what if” after explaining something (31:02)

4. Use partner work as a chance to recruit quiet kids to share their thinking (42:05)

5. End every conversation with the student saying something smart (51:21)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Maths teacher and computer-whizz, Jake Gordon, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Share photos of students' work (04:11)

2. Reduce clutter from everything students see and hear (18:53)

3. Try teaching from anywhere in the room (29:37)

4. Modify your lessons as you go (39:07)

5. Give worked examples with retrieval starters (45:20)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

English Teacher, author and Director of Research, Mark Roberts joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips:

1. Use Post-it notes to find out what they don't understand (02:54)

2. Use non-verbal gestures for better behaviour management (08:06)

3. Don't give negative managerial feedback (14:14)

4. Stop talking about grades (23:34)

5. Rephrase to amaze (34:48)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Former English Teacher, and now author and head of education at No More Marking, Daisy Christodoulou, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share her 5 tips:

1. Review every lesson plan in terms of what the student is thinking about (02:58)

2. Ask a question at the end of every lesson that every student should be able to get right (11:22)

3. Don’t do written comments (17:36)

4. Use examples, not definitions, when teaching & assessing (29:24)

5. Get your pupils to spell their name backwards (45:20)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

Former headteacher and now Head of Education Improvement in Guernsey, Clare Sealy, joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share her 5 tips:

1. Every teacher should make the teaching of literacy a high priority (03:02)

2. Be super clear about what you want children to learn (14:13)

3. Always check for understanding (27:22)

4. No feedback, more teaching (35:56)

5. Have a robust culture of retrieval (46:30)

Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk