Last year the school introduced a whole-school homework timetable – this meant that as a core subject we have to set homework every week. I’m not saying we didn’t set it regularly as that’s not the case – but I’m not convinced that setting homework for “homework’s sake” is the right way to go about … Read more
I’ve mentioned before here how I used internal analysis from a previous exam paper to get the students to work independently on topics identified for them personally. We will be doing the same for some of our target students who will be retaking their exam in November – this time we will be using our … Read more
Just like every teacher I start each new year with some personal objectives; this year I am determined to be more organised, be more rigid with homework and to make my feedback and marking more effective (still not sure what that actually means though!). How long it lasts is yet to be seen! Some years … Read more
I was reading a post today by the fab Colleen Young about learning names (here) and it got me thinking about the difference in the effort I made in learning students names last year compared to when I first joined the school. In my first year it wasn’t just the names of the new intake that … Read more
I’ve blogged before about the use of “Must, Should and Could” (here) and the use of these specific terms still doesn’t sit right with me – I still believe that all students should be able to achieve all the lesson objectives but to varying degrees. In practice this is difficult (read that as nigh on impossible) … Read more
If you are looking for some inspiration for your classroom check out our dropbox (email me mel@justmaths.co.uk for access if you haven’t already done so) @MrGibbsMaths has done a brilliant job of making a selection of posters – a few are shown below, but there are more!! – each poster has lots of variants so can be found in a variety of colour … Read more
Shortly after starting teaching I attended a training course for a model of teaching that our school was introducing (TEEP), from which we have now moved on and adapted for our school. At the time I was fresh from my PGCE and found it frustrating to be “introduced” to a whole range of strategies (and technically they … Read more
Seager recently presented at the Edexcel conference (Excellence in Maths) and in addition to talking about intervention at KS4 he also spoke about Numeracy across the curriculum and the things we are doing to not only improve the numeracy skills of our students (and dare I say it ….. teachers … too late! I’ve said … Read more
I was recently out with some friends and we were joking about the things students do that make use laugh – I ended up mentioning the fact that one of the frustrating things is being asked questions about a task immediately after giving very clear instructions. Picture the scene: Teacher is walking around the room … Read more
The end of the academic year always feels a bit like New Years Eve – I don’t mean in the sense of partying because its also the start of the holidays – but in the sense that it feels like the end of a chapter, and before moving on to the next one I like to digest … Read more
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