Objective setting is one of those areas where official advice changes with head-spinning rapidity. And don’t get me started on learning outcomes v learning objectives. The strictly positive teacher wants students to know when they come in the room what they are going to learn, and to know that they have learned it when they […]
In our classes we are still dealing, effectively, with puppies. Puppies need to be exercised regularly or they will vent their frustration in a less positive way.
As teachers, although it may be counter-intuitive, we have to be positively aware that when every time we change position – standing, sitting, leaning, crouching, facing, beside or behind a student – we send out complex messages and influence the way our students behave. Our choice of position will depend on a number of factors: […]
So you’ve kept Joe, or Leah, or Sam back after a lesson where they pushed you to the point where you had to issue a detention. You didn’t engage in discussion about it in the lesson, but now is the time. This is the point at which you have an opportunity a) to confirm that […]
Fear is of no avail in education…
Students don’t arrive at your door bright-eyed and bushy tailed, eager for the spark of learning to be ignited into a flame. They get there hot and sweaty from PE, redolent of Lynx to mask the smell, or angry because they’ve been excluded from a discussion about a party which will be happening this weekend, […]
‘Hands up’ means that all the keen, able, confident kids in the room put their hands up and their names go up on the smiley side of the board and accumulate lots of ticks against them. They get loads of praise, and their sense of self-worth is reinforced. Then the others, who realise that they will probably not […]
I’ve talked quite a lot about the benefits of Positive Behaviour Management and about its effectiveness in the classroom, but I haven’t yet gone into details about the nuts and bolts of how it works. It is essentially simple, but there are many strands which work together; I’ll go through all of them in the […]
“It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.” Albus Dumbledore, as quoted […]
Imagine the scene. It’s Thursday afternoon, and you’ve skipped lunch because you had to go to one of those life-sapping meetings, the meaningful content of which could have been conveyed in a one-line email with the subject line “Something we have to be seen to do for Ofsted if they ever turn up”. Your stomach […]
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