Most of us teach material that will be assessed in an examination of some form or another, but upcoming changes to GCSEs mean that for all of us the focus on teaching exam technique will become more and more important. One of the major issues that I’ve found to be holding learners back from excelling…
Category: Classroom Practice
#TMNSL Workshop Summary: Stop Getting IT Wrong!
Stop Getting IT Wrong! Workshop Summary Digital learning is not something to be scared of or to be worried about. It’s just learning. No one called it ‘Pen based learning’ when we moved away from slate tablets, but I’m sure there were a few people reluctant to change their ways, or that didn’t quite ‘get’…
Second Generation Custom Exercise Books
I’m sure that some of you remember my post from last year: Print on demand for better Learning, where I explained the thinking behind my efforts to produce custom exercise books for my post-16 Computing students. Well, after a year of use and some very interesting impacts on teaching and learning we decided that it would be…
The Best Thirty Quid I’ve Ever Spent (for Teaching and Learning) #TMCotham
At #TMCotham last night I delivered a very well received 5-minute presentation, all about the best investment I ever made into the teaching and learning in my department. So what was it that I spent that fateful £30 on that really changed things for us? Amazon link to buy the glasses What Was I Looking…
Interview on BBC Radio Bristol about Coding in Schools
I was lucky enough to be asked to discuss the topic of Coding in Schools with John Darvall on BBC Radio Bristol today, I think it nicely explains the importance of coding whilst contextualising it in the continuum of learning. If you’d like to listen you can either go to the BBC iPlayer (within 7 days)…
How to Write an Email like an Adult
This week I’ve been inundated with messages from colleagues who see the standard of emails being poor. Not from students, no – from other staff! You may have picked up on the passive aggressive undertones to previous articles on email behaviour from me; that this is one of my biggest pet peeves, I get so…
Sustainable Use of Tech in the Classroom
It’s another week of sarcastic top-tips to improve your teaching and learning through technology. Innovation through technology, you could say. That’d make a great motto for a car company… This week is a very practical, but almost simplistic way to add more technology to your lessons. You don’t need every student to be sat there with…
Stop Low-Level Plagiarism!
Welcome to the fourth in the weekly series of top-IT-tips, officially the world’s most sarcastic effort to get everyone using technology to enhance teaching and learning. This week I’m tackling something deep seated in our culture. Stop Low-Level Plagiarism! It’s a common problem today that students genuinely think that ‘doing some research’ involves a quick…
Classroom Management for Computers
Welcome to the third in the weekly series of top-IT-tips, filled to the brim with sarcasm galore, in an effort to get everyone using technology to enhance teaching and learning. A big hello to Mr. Wilson this week, who used last week’s tips with some of his students, and he promises me that their PowerPoints…
You Suck at PowerPoint (and how to get better)
Welcome to the second in a weekly series of top-IT-tips, topped with copious sarcasm, in an effort to get everyone using technology to enhance teaching and learning. This week, my second biggest concern. You Suck at PowerPoint (and how to get better) Yes. Yes you do. Me too. This isn’t because of your technical skills,…