Skip to main content

πŸ“ Weekly Report #6

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ« Teaching:

I had my first observation/coaching conversation of the year with the teaching and learning lead in our leadership team this week. She came and observed a year 11 lesson on solving quadratics. For this group it was the culmination of a number of lessons expanding brackets, graphing quadratics and factorising quadratics. Coaching is a fantastic way to continually improve and I find it great to have those conversations discussing how to improve. I find it more beneficial that we can talk about my specific classes and supporting those students rather than just generic ways of improving. I look forward to my next observation to continue getting better each lesson, each day. 

πŸ”Š Listen:

The Knowledge Project podcast by Shane Parrish speaking to Nir Eyal about mastering indistraction. Really interesting listen, Nir talks about how the more we get distracted the more we convince ourselves that it's ok and it becomes who we are, a distracted person. We need to stop this flow and be attracted to the work we need to complete. Have a listen to the rest here.

πŸ“š Read:

Almost finished Mastery by Robert Greene, one of the parts that resonated with me was regarding Mentors. Greene highlights the importance of mentors and picking the right one to accelerate your learning. He says "Mentors do not give you a shortcut but they streamline the process". Grab yourself a copy here


πŸ“Ί Watch:

I recently discovered the BecomingX channel on YouTube. Successful people from athletes to actors to magicians sit down and talk through the struggles and sacrifices they've had to make to become the person they are today. Really inspiring watches, I particularly enjoyed Roger Federers, check his out here.

Popular posts from this blog

Literacy in Maths

I'm a Maths teacher, I teach numbers. Why is Literacy so important for me? Well….here's why: "Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. Students who cannot read, write and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary school and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects." (Link 3)  Unfortunately there are a lot of Maths teachers who believe (wrongly) that literacy is a thing that the English department do. They see it as a tick box for observations. Rather than being an essential component of students being able to learn maths.  -  So what does it look like in Maths? Answer the question: Blindle 4x + 6 Are you able to do it?  This is the challenge a lot of students face in Mathematics. Subject specific vocabulary can seem really confusing to a lot of students. Understanding what a keyword is asking of students is often the hardest part of a question and can hold s...

England v Wales: Who teaches Maths better?

England V Wales: Who teaches Maths better? Times are changing in Wales, there is a new Curriculum focus and in Maths there are 5 proficiencies that the government want to see. Here's my take as a new HOD crossing the border from England. The Welsh government have overhauled the curriculum and not just in Maths. They have identified key statements of what matters and laid out principles for progressing in each subject.  Maths in every country is the same though surely.... Well yes... we still focus on Number, Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. But also no....in Wales it is mandatory to use their 5 proficiencies to progress students in Maths. This isn't an explicit thing in England. The 5 proficiencies are: conceptual understanding, fluency, logical thinking, strategic competence and communication with symbols Lots of big words. But if you dive deeper into the detail that the Welsh government provides on each of them it is no different to what the NCETM in England recommend with t...

Finish the day with an empty inbox

Most people use their email inbox incorrectly. It isn't a to do list, it isn't a calendar, it isn't a filing cabinet. Here's how I use my inbox and finish every day with 0 emails! Firstly we need to rethink how we send emails: 1. Ideally speak in person. No email sent, no email to reply to. 2. If you are sending a quick message or asking a small question, especially within your department/team you could make use of instant messaging e.g. Microsoft teams, WhatsApp, Google chats etc I think Adam Boxer uses this in his department. 3. If you have to send an email, make sure you only send it to those who need to see it, no whole school emails or CCing lots of people. 4. Include as much information as possible. Make it so that you shouldn't need to receive a reply or if you do it is only one email. Tell them what they need to do, by when and what finished looks like, be specific. If arranging meetings, give a range of times to meet up and have the other person decide what...