I’ve written passionately about blended learning and it’s possibilities for extending learning beyond the classroom. Reflection, for me, is probably one of, if not the most important, the quality needed for teaching. This week I’ve been reflecting on ‘home learning’ not just mine but home learning generally. 

Those who know me and follow me closely will have already read about my love of tech and its power to transform teaching and learning. However, I do think we have to be careful when thrusting something incredibly new and relatively untested in front of parents and children. 

With every aspect of home learning, there are two things I need to make clear from the outset. Context is incredibly important. Some schools can do lots and probably have been ahead of the curve for a long time. Additionally, the news, Twitter and social media present a micro view of an experience or opinion, so it’s always important to view through those with a particular lens. 

I love tech. I love pretty much all the home learning platforms for a multitude of reasons as they all offer huge opportunities and they're only as good as the developers that create them and how they've engaged with. 

I get a little uncomfortable however when we talk about live lessons. Now I want to refer back to a previous comment ‘context is incredibly important’ and these are my personal views and no one else’s. However, I am very open-minded and flexible in terms of my view. My opinion today could be the exact opposite tomorrow. I am a person who has and will continue to (I hope) try everything. I think though live lessons can set a dangerous precedent. 

I think all things aside, some incredible things are happening up and down the country. I would bet (as the EEF found here) there is no massive difference in quality between live or recorded provided its scaffolded, well planned and thoughtful feedback is given. This is because as teachers we are well trained and incredibly passionate. I like the idea of a live class assembly but doing 3 or 4 live lessons a day is unsustainable and will lead to burn out. From my short sessions with adults delivering CPD remote, it feels more exhausting than teaching normally… because I’m not a television presenter 😆. 

What’s my takeaway here then… Well, I just want to project my thoughts and hopefully provide some thinking space for others, before you plan to deliver a lesson live just think: Will they all engage? What if they don’t? Is it necessary and could I just record the teaching element? 

After all, how many of your actual teaching episodes are an hour long and how much is independent work with the occasional pause for feedback. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we MUST. I think back to a comment I had before, you can build an Anglo Saxon house but what is the learning? The important thing is what the children are learning.

That’s just my two cents for today and like I say I could think differently tomorrow based on something I see or read. 

Mr M

Poverty and inequality are potentially one of the more worrisome aspects of home learning. It will rhyme and it’s not intentional but ‘If you can do it for all, then you shouldn’t do it at all’. I know that’s a sweeping generalisation but I think a prerecorded teaching element is much more efficient for all involved unless that is if the child has no device at all. 

I also think nobody has touched on the fact that you are essentially inviting yourself (or being invited) into the homes of 30 children. Now before teaching a part of my job was to visit families and take children on day trips. I used to be invited in all of the time and found it uncomfortable and usually refrained unless necessary. I get that you’re literally not in their living room but if I were to see or hear something concerning then there’s the potential that other children/adults on live will do too.

I read or heard somewhere that either you should, or a school was insistent on two adults from school being on the live lesson. One to teach and the other as a safeguarding moderator. Which I think is good practice. I’m usually on board with most tech advancements but I do think we have to pause and reflect on what we are offering. Mr Finch put it brilliantly, teachers are their own worst enemy, myself included, we always strive to do better and be better which makes us sleepwalk into upping the game and sometimes becoming martyrs to the cause. 

A recent couple of posts led to quite few people asking me how I delivered animation prior to teaching. I thought about sharing the resources, however, I felt that it would be better to explain the process with a little more context. 

The Concept 

The idea was a fairly simple one, part of my role was to work with Pupil Premium children who had historically disconnected with the foundation curriculum. I would use my film and animation background to explore their topics using animation as an outcome. I’m not sure if the same role would exist today or Ofsted would agree. There wasn’t much by ‘measurable’ progress. 

I believed though that the idea of animation brought the topic to life, 😉 pardon the pun. It removed the concerns of spelling or handwriting and focussed their attention on the content. You and many may disagree but I felt it was incredibly beneficial for the children. More to the point though, it was fun. 

The Set Up

The first thing I would do is research the topic myself (bearing in mind I wasn’t a teacher at this point). I would focus on one area of the topic. So for in Egyptians it was their burial and afterlife. In The Romans we focussed on the specifics related to Newcastle. The takeaway is keep it simple.

We would then on whiteboards decide on a rough plan or script that we could storyboard in the next lesson. It was always better to keep it relatively simple. It can always be changed and it’s fun to explain how much this happens in traditional film. I do explain though that animation is very different, because of the complex and visual nature.

I would normally begin the storyboarding process around week 2. I would show the children this video…

The figurines need to be about the size of a standard action figure and thick enough to cope with the movement and stay in position when they are moved. I steered clear of moving mouths and eyes most of the time as time was never on our side. I had 1 afternoon a week for 6/7 weeks. Occasionally we would spill into an ad hoc lunch club to finish some pressing details.

For backgrounds and backdrops I stuck purely with green screen. It was simple and meant we could instantly change the backdrop. The important thing to remember is not to use any green or green hues in your characters or props. You can alter the colour to blue if using green characters, but best to steer clear.

FUN FACT: Green screens are green because people aren’t green, generally green is unlikely to be found in human skin. Green is more popular because digital camera sensors are better at picking up green and green is much easier to fully light than blue.

Animating

This is the bit that IF planned well can be slick and done well. I used a software called Dragon Frame which is a professional grade animation software. This was simply because I had a copy from my degree. 

However, now I use the Stop Motion Studio app on iOS. It literally is one of the best filmmaking apps created. It has all the functionality you want in a simple and easy to use interface. 

Some of the tools you will need to know are:

Onion Skin - it shows your current frame on top of your last, this is useful to know how much your figure has moved etc.

Frame Rate - this is how many pictures you need to take per second of film.

HD Quality - I would always take the pictures in HD quality as it means when viewed on a large screen the resolution will hold.

Today frame rate is 30 FPS (frames per second) which means 30 pictures taken for every second of animation. But I usually went with 12. The reason? It was quicker, but it also creates that really charming jerky look that you would get with shows like morph. It’s hard for the children to comprehend this so I would usually animate a simple scene beforehand to demonstrate. Something simple like a toy walking. 

In Stop Motion Studio you can then increase and decrease the frame rate to demonstrate why it’s important. Whatever frame rate you use, stick with it. 

To give you an example of frame rate and how much to move the character. If I was lifting a character's arm from their side to above their head I would do this in 12 FPS. You can see an example in the video below. 

One of the biggest things is lightening. Now yes I’m a nerd and perhaps because of my filming degree a bit of a perfectionist but I turn class lights out and use two LED lamps. It keeps the light and looks consistent.

The other is to ensure that your camera or iPad is stable. If you can get a tripod, I would. The one I use for my iPad is this one which is fairly inexpensive but if you have groups of children doing it then it’s just important that they keep the iPad still at ALL times… they will move it though, which is why onion skinning is a god send. 

I almost forgot an important note. I don’t record sound in the Stop Motion Studio app as it can make the whole file slow. Save that and the backgrounds for the editing process. I would film each ‘scene’ and export it separately to the camera roll to use in iMovie later.

The Editing

I used iMovie with the kids because it’s Got all the tools you would need to use. Transitions text and the ability to record sound directly to it. 

NOTE: If you are wanting to use green screen backgrounds I used DoInk green screen. I would add the videos to DoInk then add background. Then again export that back to camera roll.

Add your clips then think about transitions, text and sound here. You can select music or produce your own using GarageBand but again it all depends on your time.

I have seen some excellent ‘my teaching journey’ blog posts as of late. I had always planned to write one and don’t get me wrong I am planning that one, but I thought rather than starting at the beginning, I would focus purely on my PGCE year. Choosing to do it this way round was deliberate, purely because PGCE students will be embarking on their placements either now or soon. Many people had an absolute ball during their PGCE and others didn’t. Mine was very much like the ‘Irn Bru’ ride - now Revolution - at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I was fired out of my comfy university based lectures into this spiral of uncertainty and insecurity to land safely on the other side. Only then to be fired back again as I rode through another period of ‘will I pass’ level uncertainty before starting my next placement. This is that journey. 

It was the summer of 2016. My wife and I had just married and I had settled down to the fact that I wasn’t going to start my teacher training until the next year. I applied for School Direct and  unfortunately this particular year the places were allocated nationally, as opposed to regionally, so I missed out. However, I also applied and was provisionally accepted onto a PGCE, should they have spaces. Two weeks before the start of a new school term, I received a phone call to ask if I would like to join the PGCE. After a couple of phone calls with my headteacher, my wife and family, I decided I would be stupid not to take it. It was my dream job and I would start earlier than I thought.

University lectures aside, I felt incredibly ready for my placement, which I think was in part due to my experience working in a primary school before training. My role was to support vulnerable families and children. I would organise summer trips for individual children as well as coach trips for the families. I also used to lead lunchtime and after school provision as well as offering emotional and behaviour support throughout school. I always thought that my 3+ years experience counted for a lot and would be respected. I was wrong, or at least I think I was. Now, it's hard for me to be truly balanced as my first placement really was hard for me. Maybe I was subconsciously cocky; maybe I wasn’t really listening to guidance or as can often be the case I may have just switched off (not intentionally but due to mentor/mentee relationship breakdown). However, I felt that there was a certain expectation that in my first placement, I was unable to meet.

When our placements were released I was excited, the school looked great, they had a very active social media I thought, they were technically focused, which I was a huge fan of. I was raring to go. On our arrival, both my placement partner and I felt a little apprehensive. Maybe it was just first day jitters. The first few weeks were nothing more than us observing and supporting lessons, which I think was a part of the problem. There was so much time that my partner and I were passive and helpful but not doing enough. I was itching to get teaching but our mentor was fairly strict with the university guidelines, plus we had an intervention to run in the first few weeks. As we got deeper in, we started leading on morning tasks, starters and plenaries.

All seemed to be going well and we did have good days and bad days, as with any course. It wasn’t until we got closer to Christmas that things seemed to unravel. I remember quite vividly a lesson on multiplying by 8, I decided we were going to count spiders. I feel like there was a tenuous link to Halloween somewhere. I can't remember the specific feedback, but I remember there being no positive comments at all. Which, don't get me wrong may well have been the case, but I really don't feel like it was that bad. This seemed to be the ongoing theme of my placement.

The Change

Just before the Christmas break, about 2 weeks before, my placement partner decided to leave the course. She said she was finding the placement difficult and it wasn’t her impression of teaching. I think, with hindsight that if she and I had a different initial placement it may have been a different outcome, but we can never really know. For me, things seemed to really improve. I think my mentor definitely felt the load lifting as I can imagine having two trainees at the same time must really be tough. 

Those two weeks felt like the best of that whole placement. Maybe it was the festivities, maybe it was the fact my placement partner had left, either way it was good. I started to feel like things were looking up and as I married in the summer, our honeymoon was booked for just after new years. I was even allowed to take the class mascot all the way to New York with me, I felt privileged. My mentor and I even began to chat more, we had things in common, it was beginning to relax. 

My first big tutor observation was coming up, rough I know. I was teaching a lesson on creating Egyptian gods, I think. The children had to retrieve information from clips that I made of the Gods talking (a bit like creature comforts) to build the profile of a God. They then had to plan their own god using the key information of others. I thought the lesson started well, simple SPAG starter on tenses. Then it all went downhill, on reflection my creature comfort videos slowed the pace. There was a lot of the children listening to the videos and jotting ideas. The overarching theme was too much teacher talk, which to be fair, I really don't think I’ve changed. Maybe now my teacher talk is better, I have even been praised by our school improvement partner on this fact. I was pretty crushed, I had spent a huge amount of time on the lesson, the resources everything. 

Reflecting on it now, I can remember the pace of the lesson changing. But what I do all the time now is ask: 

What are they learning? 

How are they learning it?

It seems simple now but at the time this was hard. My mentor was also a huge fan of VAK learning styles and each lesson had to have pictures, videos, songs and some form of practical task. Each lesson! Thankfully, research has shed light on the unreliability of learning styles. After Christmas things took a serious nose dive and this will be where you find me in the next segment.

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of discussion around children’s behaviour. I don’t consider myself an expert, however, the first 3 years of my career I worked closely with children and families to support them through their child’s challenging behaviour. I have developed a number of strategies and philosophies that are in no way NEW but I think it’s important for you, as a teacher, educator or whatever to be aware.

Children who misbehave are challenging. That is the simple fact, plus you as an adult are allowed to be annoyed and bothered when they misbehave. There is a lot of negativity about teachers venting or off loading to colleagues about certain children and challenging behaviour. It is never, ever helpful to say “Really, well they were great with me.” All this stands to do is undermine the colleague you’re talking to and it implies that you feel you are better; or have/had a better relationship (which may well be the case). It’s about being supportive.

One of my most challenging days supporting a child’s behaviour was when they literally could not see: a) how their behaviour was disruptive and b) the effect of their actions were having on others. I should clarify that I’m talking about primary children. It was a low point and I really couldn’t figure out how to help them, this was when I realised that it was far greater than just a naughty child. The child was diagnosed later with severe Attachment and Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) you can read a little more about them below. Those who will know, know this is rare to be diagnosed.

Attachment Disorder

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Out of my frustration I asked to go on a number of courses, I won’t summarise the CPD but there were several takeaways which I will share. As I have said earlier, my ‘Behaviour Philosophy’ was formed by these. I imagine my behaviour philosophy to look like a pantheon, as you’re looking at it. The arch, pillars and foundation being the idea of my approach.

All behaviour good and bad, is Communication… the big thing here is, what are they trying to tell you? Is it I don’t understand, I’m tired or even that ‘your aftershave has triggered a subconscious feeling that I am too immature to communicate or deal with’. It’s important for you to ensure that the children have the space and capacity to communicate in the way you expect. Practitioners from SEN settings are fantastic at this because they are often working with children who have profound communication problems. But imagine a child whose reading and writing age is 4 years below their actual age, do you think they are capable of understanding that feeling or even that they have caused harm?

Caring and listening do not mean excusing… people may disagree but I firmly believe that every child needs to be taught boundaries and consequences. Just because you understand and appreciate how difficult that child’s circumstances are does not mean that should excuse behaviour. My circumstances weren’t great, but I never tried to use this as an excuse. It only serves to explain why they behave in such a way. We have to remember that these children will grow up and operate in society; in society there are harsher consequences. So I believe that it is always important for children to face up to the consequences of their actions in an appropriate way… I am a huge fan of a letter of apology (if they are capable), just FYI.

Lastly, you should seek to restore not to punish… again it’s not a popular opinion but I am a big supporter of a restorative approach to behaviour management rather than punitive. Again children need to understand that their actions directly affect someone else and they should speak directly to the harmed party in an attempt to solve the issue. I used to lead and still do, restorative circles using restorative questioning if there has been an issue. In my opinion it always proves more successful, plus there is research that points to its success.

These are my ‘Three Pillars’ philosophy. I would say that there are two things that complete this. The foundation of behaviour management is relationships. If you aren’t able to build a strong relationship with the child then it will be hard to not only teach them but to support their behaviour in the first place.

My final thought is family. Often the family are aware and face more difficult challenges that you would as a teacher, there is that old saying that children tend to behave better for school than at home. With this in mind, engage with the family and work together. This is not about strategies because I think with the best intents and purposes we all have them, but for me you need these before any strategy works, after all your classroom is unique to you.

What NOT to do as a student teacher

Embarking on my PGCE, no one told me what to ‘really’ expect or how I should behave. With this in mind, I thought it would be prudent to advise this cohort of enthusiastic future educators over the next few weeks. More importantly to tell you what NOT to do in your teaching practice. So grab a cuppa’ have a sit and read intently the sum of my experience.

Now let me start by saying that my experience as a student teacher ranged from excellent to disastrous. This was due to a number of different reasons, mostly due to my expectations as opposed to the reality.

However, my upcoming advice is based on a combination of my personal experience; observations of other students and third hand anecdotes people have sent me.

Friend Zone

Do not become overly familiar. This is something that I have seen and sadly I have been guilty of at points. It appears to happen more with School Direct/SCITT pathways opposed to PGCE, probably as you spend a longer time in your host school, but nevertheless you must always remain professionally distant. 

One such example I have heard a lot more than you would think is when students make inappropriate jokes, especially in staff meetings. Dont! You don’t really know the wider staff and in particular their values. So the last thing you want to do is permanently offend staff. Worse still that could be your first impression which can be hard to claw back in drawn out placements. 

Purchasing gifts for your placement mentor is kind and thoughtful and after all they are giving up a lot of time to support your development, so they are still very welcome. However, do not ensure they are appropriate, I will allow your imagination to fill in the blanks here. This again comes back to familiarity.

When you are teaching, do not tell your mentor that they are too ‘distracting’. It may not be a formal observation but your mentor has more experience in this field. They are in the room for several reasons. Firstly, they are there to support you. Secondly, they are there to safeguard you and the children as they are the qualified teachers and you are not. So try to relax and imagine they aren’t there, they are ultimately there to support you not to judge you.

Every Days a School Day

You may not think it, your mentor may also tell you otherwise, but you are always being observed. Whether it’s how you behave in the staff room or how you are with lunchtime supervisors. There are several things that I think student teachers don’t immediately get about observations. So here are a few things I think you should definitely NOT do.

When you are observed for the first time it will be nerve racking and you will not be able to remember every aspect of the lesson. However, I wasn’t always able to see whether it went well or not. You will often get the analogy that it’s like learning to drive a car. As there is so much to think about separately, but you will get better. Part of this though is being more aware. So when asked ‘how do you think it went?’ Don’t say, amazing! 

Don’t argue. It’s really important that you appreciate that, although you have life experience and have an opinion; or an idea of what your teaching style will be. Your teacher mentor has had more experience as a teacher. They are the working professional and you are the student. So whether you completely disagree, do not ignore their feedback or advice. That’s not to say you have to be someone you're not, but if they are suggesting something, try it. If it doesn’t work, fine. It’s an entirely new learning experience and that can be hard to adjust to so give it time. The classroom is one place you're very formally on show, but you are being assessed against the ‘Teaching Standards’ and ‘Standard 8’ is about your wider professionalism; which brings me to my next point.

Remember, that your placement school will likely have had students regularly. Not only this, teachers or head teachers will most likely have presented at your university. That means that you are entering into a very, very small pool where everyone knows everyone. So my advice here is, like my previous post, always remain respectful, professional and open. So don’t say you can’t help out at the Christmas fair because it's been a long day or you can’t do staff meetings because of the long drive home. That being said, know your limits, don't over do it, it's about finding a work life blend, know when you should stay and know when to leave earlier. It can be helpful to set these expectations with your mentor at the very start though.

In my first placement I didn’t attend staff meetings. This wasn’t my decision, however, I should have been much more forward in asking to attend. When I reflected, my placement school was used to having SCITT students and I think they had the impression that PGCE students were less mature. So sadly, I had a lot of experience to gather in my next placement, which I managed to do but I missed out on so much in my first. So my advice is do NOT expect people to offer you the opportunities you need to gain experience, you have to be forward, respectively of course. Ask to go on trips, ask to help at the fair and go to staff meetings, they are free and valuable CPD.

Don’t Assume It’s In The (School) Bag… Terrible Pun

Towards your second placement you will almost certainly be thinking about jobs. This is also the time of year when teachers start to move on and up, so there will likely be opportunities in your placement school or your previous placement school. Additionally, your placement school may not have any jobs coming up but they will know other schools that do and will definitely tell eachother about successful or less successful students. 

So do not assume that you have a job at the end of your placement. You may be the best student they have ever had, you may have a five star gold plated reference from your placement mentor. But you will almost always have to interview as normal. This puts you at a unique advantage, as you know the school better than some. However, this can also be a disadvantage because if you fail to ‘get’ the school you may not be so successful. It literally comes down to how applicants perform on the day, as well as other applicants. 

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply, quite the contrary. However, if you aren't successful do not post a scathing rant on social media. I shouldn’t have to say it but it’s a public platform, people screenshot and it’s a quick way to make yourself unhirable. Do not tell your placement mentor how rubbish the other applicants were. Remain professional and gracious because you never know what's around the corner, one of the applicants could be a friend of theirs or become an NQT in another school you work with, teachers talk.

I didn’t get my job at the interview phase of my school but a maternity cover opportunity came up. A friend of mine didn’t get his job in an interview but the preferred applicant got offered a job elsewhere. Remember the opportunity to interview is just as important to understand how to apply and interview. Additionally, a maternity cover can and usually does become more, so don’t dismiss it as a few months. It’s a foot under the door.

Without Reflection, We Go Blindly on Our Way

You are told from the get go to reflect. Some people are naturally reflective, others find it difficult. For some, it can’t be learned. It’s important to become reflective and to show humility. This is true of your day to day classroom practice, to be a role model to the children but also to admit to and own your mistakes.

My first placement was not a success. This was for a number of reasons, but mainly due to my lack of confidence and because I was continually comparing it to the school I had just left to train. Upon reflection though, I knew what mistakes I made and I was able to put measures in place to improve on my next placement. So I know first hand that this isn’t going to be easy.

One thing I wish I had done though was have more confidence in myself and my style. You often learn this the hard way but no two teachers are the same. Sure you’ll go and observe other teachers at the school but you won't really be thinking about what makes them unique. I 100% guarantee you’ll be watching classroom management techniques. So be confident, if you don't necessarily agree, dont argue, but try to challenge respectfully. Teaching is a profession so therefore you should be allowed to have a respectful professional dialogue about how you teach.

I constantly and continually reflect on every single thing I do as a teacher. After a lesson I will know how I’m going to start next time. During a lesson, I will immediately think about a better way to model a concept or I will stop the class and go again. I even reflect on my professional conversations with my colleagues. So trust me it is incredibly important to reflect. I have been reflecting throughout the process of writing this blog series, what should I say, what shouldn’t I write.

Take it from me teaching is hard, it has its challenges but honestly they are vastly outweighed by the positives. I LOVE my job. I have certainly made mistakes, but I reflect and these mistakes are what make me a better teacher. So as you embark on your year of learning remember these few tips. They are only one piece in a large puzzle of advice. Most importantly, remember that at the end of it all you’ll be entering one of the most rewarding professions there is. Good luck and if you need some tips or advice you know where to find me.

You're no doubt well rested, excited and raring to go... or is it more like sleepless nights, nervous and anxious about september. Either way your NQT year is an important year, it can for some make or break your career. I have heard of bad NQT years and there are also great ones. This is up to you and your school, however, there are ways in which you can take responsibility and try to make every second of your NQT year count.

It is incredibly important to note that you are by definition, still learning. My first NQT mentor told me that this is the time you really learn, your PGCE is just about getting to the finish line, your NQT year is the start of your ongoing and continued professional development. My hope is that this post can be of use to you as you set off on your journey this year. There will be ups and downs but by the end of it you will have find it hard to realise how far you have come.

Rose Tinted Glasses

The start of NQT year, was filled with positivity and I was raring to go. I had created a Smartnotebook slide with a Batman gif, I had my super hero vocab on the walls. This was completely my classroom, nobody could take that away and I was allowed to be me and it felt great. As a student, I often felt like I was standing in someone elses shoes teaching in a way that didn't fit me, my final placement mentor changed this and I was ready for what this year was going to bring.

Firstly, every NQT needs to accept that at some piont you will teach a lesson that feels like the walls are fallen down around you. Sadly, unlike your PGCE year there is no one who can parachute in should things go terribly awry. This is when the rose tinted glasses shatter. So my advice, stop read for a bit, then come back to it. You will have time to make this up and it really isn't the end of the world. Once you have that out of the way, you can set your expectations for the year, realistically. I called it the realisation. The moment when you think that perhaps you have been looking at this job through 'rose tinted glasses'. Don't give up, keep going and try again.

Induction

I loved my induction meeting, we were in a nice hotel and with other NQT's from across the city and it was a really comforting experience. Meeting and chatting with other NQT's was just what we needed and we still have that network to this day. The first activity we did was to sit and talk to our mentor. This was hugely important because it helped us both, set out what we expect from each other.

I wasn't the type of person that wanted weekly meetings, I found them pointless as a student. I felt I was constantly having to find something to report. We both decided that I would be honest and come when I felt like I needed to and my mentor agreed. Aside from the usual observations and check ins.

I would strongly suggest setting this expecation with your mentor, no one wants to feel micro-managed if they aren't up to it and equally, if you feel your not getting the support you need its important to know from the outset what you both expect from one and other. Your mentor is there for you, so use that person. 

Observations

There is the temptation here to try to teach 'in the bag lessons' but I urge you seriously don't. Naturally your mentor and school will be looking for quality and that you are implementing CPD and improving your practise. However, I made it clear that in the first term I wanted my mentor to observe me in my core subjects so that I could quality control my subject knowledge and pedagogy. They weren't bells and whistles observations but they were solid lessons with some areas to improve.

When I left my PGCE a lecturer gave me some advice. When setting targets, you should give yourself no more than three: one should be a target in which you are close to or have already achieved; the second, a target that you are confident you can meet and finally a target which you really don't want to address but know you need to.

So for me, my mathematics teaching was an area that I have always struggled with as a teacher. I decided that this would be a big foucs at least for the first term. I honestly felt like it was going to be incredibly painful but I managed then to get myself onto some incredible CPD because I was really up front about this in the beginning AND I can say now I feel maths is definitely one of my strongest areas.

I then focussed on my English teaching as I never felt that my English lessons were spectacular. Its important to know what you want to focus on. Dont expect to be told, your school will want you to be proactive and reflective. So ensure that you always come to the table with something, never be passive and expect things to be handed to you.

For me, the most important thing is that you get out, view colleagues, view lessons and go to other schools. There is always the temptation to sit and catch up on marking or answer emails, which don't get me wrong you will find you need, but DON'T. You need this time. It's important and your school will want to see that you are using it well.

So to all those new NQT's out there. Get ready and be proactive. It may be tough but it will be an incredible year and you really can make it the most successful NQT year. Good Luck and as BTO said - Take Care of Business!!

@MRMICT :)

It was the combination of me discovering Andrew Jenning's blog and attending CPD with Alan Peat, two years ago that made me experiment with vocabulary activities and teaching. So with the help of ‘Vocabulary Ninja’ and the ‘Word of the Day Blog’ I decided to start by introducing a word of the day and dedicate time to it each morning.

Sadly, I think I was too ambitious. I couldn’t manage doing it once a day, which clearly meant I needed to strip it back, otherwise it wasn’t going to be meaningful. So I made sure that I did it at least twice a week. This was manageable for me, others may find it works best in other ways for them. 

Often, I would look through the word of the day blog and pick 2 words that I found would either be useful long term for the children or would be relevant to our writing. Both the children and I loved the ‘WOD’ sessions, they would constantly ask for new words. I would display the word and use the template below to encourage discussion on their tables. The children had to try and be ‘Word Detectives’ and work out the different sections. No dictionaries allowed, as it was very much a discussion session, I often say there was no wrong answer provided they could justify their reasons.

The discussion started slow and children were reluctant to contribute. After all, a lot of the children have never come across some of the words before. There were various reasons for this, but primarily I believe that discussion of word meaning is the key. How many times have you, an adult,  read something in a book or paper and you understand the sentence because of the context, yet, there was a word you didn’t understand. Well that happens more often than you think to children.

The first 3 weeks I really felt like it wasn’t working. That was until I started seeing the words being used in the children’s work, casually, effectively and even words within that particular word family, safe to say I was very excited.

Enthused, I decided to keep going and this is when the children got right into it. I had children coming to me with words they discovered. Better yet they were using the same technique as in class to identify its definition. I found the children had started to really develop the ability to choose more accurate synonyms, especially when trying to up level their work. It was the ‘word curiosity’ that I loved the most. Children would actually listen when I went off on a tangent about the history of a particular word. 

Now I did nothing particularly special, other than put my love of vocabulary front and centre. I would ask the children regularly what a word meant and often I was truly stunned at how little they knew. But really the moment I was most shocked was when the children didn’t know the word ‘vivid’ in context. They sort of, kind of could tell that it meant something to do with seeing, but even then I’m talking about 2 or 3 children. 

So I continued to use Andrews blog! This and along with the session I had with Alan Peat (also fantastic) which pushed me to do more. So I decided that before each english lesson I would try to do some sort of vocabulary exercise. Like the word staircase, anyword crossword or the prefix suffix game all pictured below.

Along with Andrew’s incredible blog, the Vocabulary Ninja book is a must have with fantastic activities and resources, which you can get here. I also bought a copy of Alan Peats - Word Games which is also filled with great activities and games for vocabulary acquisition, although published as part of the National Literacy Strategy it’s still great.

Now this was just my first year. I then refined it a little more and as I was moving into year 6 I was more determined to keep this going. Often you will hear year 6 teachers exclaim that certain things need to be dropped, I disagree. This was firmly part of my day to day practice. 

I purchased the plush toy, which would act as a reward and incentive. So the table with the most displaying the best ‘word curiosity’ that week would have the Ninja the following week. The children LOVED it! The competition would often get intense with the children arguing which was a more interesting verb, scuttle or scurry? You can’t force that enthusiasm, it’s an investment. 

I changed my display slightly to add a ‘Word of the Week’ also. This was for words we discovered either in their reading or ours as a class. We would discuss, unpick it, make note then vote on the best at the end of the week.

I also began using Google’s etymology feature and etymonline.com to discuss the origins of words. This really helped the children really see why things like prefixes and suffixes are so important. We looked at ‘transport’ and when children were able to see how the word has changed over time and what each of its parts meant, it really clicked.

Now this may sound like the ramblings of a word nerd or excited teacher. I cannot express enough how important it is to put vocabulary at the forefront of all your lessons. If you think about the depth of vocabulary needed just to be successful in maths with words like: quotient, dividend, congruent or translation. Words that seem to only make sense in that context, that is until you unlock them. For example, congruent has the prefix ‘con-‘ which means ‘to be together’. So congruent shapes are shapes that are the same size… together in likeness, essentially. Look then to ‘concentrate’ (in the context of a geography lesson) this means - gather (people or things) together in a common location. 

So if children can really get a word in one context this really can unlock so many more in a variety of contexts. Even now I am using this same type of word consciousness to help me define a word. I’ll check it in the dictionary and realise I wasn’t far off. So use words, talk about them and go on a ‘Vocabulary Voyage’ together.

Getting Vocabing... @MRMICT

Recently I became much more active on twitter and it has been fantastic for bitesized CPD, resources and connecting with other educators. I have 'so far' found it to be an incredibly positive place. However, there is always a dark side to social media. I think that most people unintentionally escalate conversations and this is cearly through passionate debate. 

I have seen a large amount of negativity directed towards this years cohort of NQT's. This has either been as a result of their interrupted training year or becuase of their unbridled and excited enthusiasm. This sense of excitement got me thinking. I had seen a lot of post saying which books should I read or which online CPD should I do for september.

This then brings me to my main point. There are thousands of NQT's or PGCE's on twitter who are incedibly keen and positive. I honestly wish I could bottle that passion for those days when I've not slept and I'm 16 coffees deep while preparing for parents evening. Speaking directly to those NQT's and PGCE students here... You are more than a teacher! 

It is fantatsic that you want to get book recommendations or that you have ordered tonnes of Tolsby frames at Ikea. But you deserve a summer holiday too. The autumn term quickly drags you along without warning. Let me reaffirm that I'm not being negative and I'm not saying dont do these things, but it took me to have two young children to allow my job to take a backseat sometimes (he says while writing an education blog in the holidays).

I simply want to stress to students or NQT's that although you are keen and want to keep the momentum going it is incredibly important to remember that you are more than a teacher. I think what I am trying to say (as I tried with a previous blog post) is, if you're like me and really enjoy teaching, teaching theory and talking teaching. Then find the balance, read your copy of Dula Coding then once you've finished baance it with some INSERT NOVEL NAME HERE or if you're also like me binge watch crime drama on Netflix. Especially given that this september is going to be very different to any year thats come before.

I would be remiss if I didn't say something, being a PGCE student is hard work and as an NQT you will get release time to develop your practices (there will be the temptaion to mark and catch up here, but try to use you NQT time to develop). You really deserve to enjoy your 6/7 weeks of the summer. So try not to go into your class every week to set up. Try not to spend the evenings laminating word wheels at home with your personal laminator and try not to read every book published about behvaiour management or pedagogical approaches to teaching Science. Your sanity will thank you. 

Enjoy your summer, and if you want to talk teaching or StarWars you can find me @MRMICT. :)

In response to my lost post, in which I discussed helpful tips for NQT's I thought I would put together a small and brief list of apps that I use weekly that really help me work smarter. To be clear, I have no top ten. My top ten is more like a sliding scale theres never a number one. So it is literally just a list.

Here we go.

This is another app I use almost daily, however, there is a slight caveat. I use this app with a stylus. No, not an apple pencil, but I really recommend getting a good stylus (ask your computing lead to buy you one) especially if you have a personal iPad. You can find the one I got here for £16.99...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07X34JW8M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

How many of you have uttered the words... "Come up to the board and show us how you worked this out"? Well no more. No more will you watch painfully as the child tries to remember, stumbles then freezes. I use this a lot in maths. It is essentially, at its most basic a digital whiteboard. However, I have also used it to record and narrate calcualtion methods like multiplication or long division, that I can share with the children for their reference for homework or for me to work with a group (it means they can rewatch the video instead of me re-explaining at the front). But with your iPad in your hand and mirroring onto the board you can make your whiteboard portable, then literally hand it to children to demonstrate their method. It immediatley saves the flow to your lessons. 

We have also used it as a class to present research or knowledge in a more animated format. Below is a short video that got me excited when I first started using the app. 

SIDE NOTE - given the shift to home/blended learning this app really is a god send. You can do the vast majority of your instruction in terms of mathematical instruction using this app and save it as a video, this would allow the children to watch nad pause when needed.

So as an ambassador and just a huge fan I cannot recommend this app enough. It is our go to digital learning journal and we have just signed up to a whole school licence. Within the app there is now some great features like multiple page documents. I use it a lot just to hear my children read aloud. Now I know I'm not the only teacher that struggles to get round 30 children and hear them read aloud reading their books. So during reading time once every two weeks or so I will get them to record themselves read.

We have recently took advantage of its home learning feature as this is what the children were used to. Now its not without its quirks but If you are looking for a way to supplement work in books and to keep videos or digital work then this is the app for you. It is also a great tool to introduce appropriate online behaviour like commenting and liking posts.

It works well with a huge selection of apps, documents and if you already use Gsuite then you can sign in and link google logins. You can find some more information below...

I know this is cheating somewhat, as this is an entire suite of apps, but I really, really couldn't pick just one. I tried I promise. However, after being such a huge advocate of apple products and software, which I still am, I am now a complete confort for google software. 

What I love the most is their ability to allow collaboration. The fact that the entire class can use, edit and view the same document at the same time in real time is revoloutionary to me. It mean that I can give an entire class access to one slide on Slides and they can brainstorm, come up with vocabulary or jsut add pictures and more. It really does add a level of collaboration I have yet to find. Now I'm still experimenting but my total fav is Jamboard.

A few of the things I have used, Google forms for assesments. Whats useful is that it puts all the answers into a spreadsheet and even turns results into a graph. So you no longer need to get the children to come up with assesment scores or for you to input spelling scores. I have seen it used for weekly spellings also. 

I have only recently used Jamboard, but in that one lesson it spawned a million ideas. I have added the example I recently used below as well as one planned for september. I suggest you download and experiment immediately!

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1NdTOz8aLFd1Bgx1tdYiXaSGuqUXwzGLL3vBmBGrBUO0/edit?usp=sharing 

Now there are a huge array of features which I could list in terms of working smarter. I feel though Gsuite deserves its own post entirely, so look out for that in the future.

So as I said that is a whistle stop tour of apps that I use daily to help me work smarter. If you would like more tips or examples of how I use these then send me a DM or tweet me @MRMICT. Good luck and 'appy testing.

Ignore the title. I like to play on acronyms. Now these views are based on my experience ONLY. Everyones will be different. Being an NQT can be a pretty daunting experience. Now add a global pandemic, peppered with just a touch of insecurity and you've got a the makings of a worrisome year.

But fear not! It really isn't all doom and gloom. Firstly, lets get the obvious out of the way. Yes a huge number of trainee teachers, who did not finish or even get their final placement are now either searching for, or have been offered jobs. Personally I think that it's incredible. So many NQT's have secured jobs. Schools and headteachers will not (despite what some would like you to think) just hire anyone. You've beaten possibly 50, 100 or 150 people in application then another 10 to 20 in interview. That deserves a huge pat on the back. 

However, It will not be an easy year. It will be incredibly challenging at times, but it will be immensly rewarding and fun. I was only an NQT 3 years ago and I'm heading into my 4th year of teaching. I rememeber standing in the middle of my class pondering intently on how it was going to look. I spent 2 weeks of the holidays going in laminating, printing and constantly moving tables. Whatever people tell you, no matter how much advice you are given, just enjoy that time. Because you will never enjoy it like that again. 

Now there are some who like setting up the class and some that dont. I'm in the middle. I am a fan of tidiness and having a place for things, but the days of me spending 2 weeks of the holidays sorting are gone. This has a lot to do with the two young children I have at home since qualifying. So below I thought I would itemise a little advice:

1. Displays - So it is pretty divisive, but there are some schools that have 'display policies' others that don't. I would check first of course before you laminate you growth mindset display. Everything aside, I would genuinely think about what you are actually going to use. Growth mindset displays look nice, but will you use them? I like to think I've embedded a 'growth mindset' in my class environment but I don't have a display. Equally I used to have a maths 'working wall' which really didn't work much. Now I have a white board that I actually teach from daily. This then stays up and becomes my working wall... that works! ;) 

Now if you don't have a white board don't fret. You can get rolls of this stuff from Home Bargains. Or you can just use A3 paper laminated. I did this in my NQT year (still do at times) and it worked really well.

I think the takeaway here is if its just wall paper (which can be fine and serves a purpose) try to do something that doesnt need changed regularly, because trust me when you get into the flow of your first term you wont have time to change it. 

2. Behaviour - Now this is a big one and I'm not professing to be an expert. However, I have a personal philosphy about behaviour. I believe it's down to relationships. It can be hard, but I feel it's improtant to focus on building that relationship. Before I was a teacher I worked with harder to reach children to help them access the wider curriculum through art and animation. While doing this I went on a number of courses and tried a variety of strategies. But there are two things that still stick with me:

To give you an example, I usually get into work around 7.30. Now staying until 6 (when our building closes) then taking work home is not sustainable. Sometimes I will, we may have a twilight or I will find I'm more productuve in school than at home. However, I wouldn't do that every night, with the exception of a few, you set your own workload and deadlines. You're a professional, so treat yourself like one.

You work smarter not harder, as a team if we are doing a big write in English we'll try and make sure the rest of the week is light on recording or marking. Some SLT (like mine) are incredibly supportive of this. Others may not appear to be and with a very small minority, I firmly believe that management want their staff to be happy and productive.

4. Advice - people will want to offer advice. Sometimes you wont like it, sometimesit mihgt seem useless BUT everyone experiences teaching in a different way and whether someone has been teaching 2 weeks or 2 years, their experience will have something to offer. I have learned so much from every teacher in our school. If you dont likeit be gracious and accept it. 

But also ask for advice. I remember my first week teaching a maths lesson that was horrendous. I felt like the only teacher in the world that couldn't teach it, then I checked with others in my year group and they were the same. Every teacher has bad lessons and bad days.

Some NQT's already have a strong sense of what their class will look like, how they will teach. Others won't. The important thing to remember is that every teacher has been there, every teacher has a different jounrey and every teacher has been a student and an NQT.

5. Beware the dementors, fun sponges or energy vampires - Every school has them, some can't help but be like that. However, don't let someone suck the energy from you. You are enthusiastic and that can't be bottled but it is infectious. I've worked with teachers who love to work with NQT's because of their ideas and energy. You will bring a sense of enthusiasm and new life to a school/year group. So be careful not to get into the trap of lunchtime or after school moanathons. Yes some decisions leadership make will be hard for you to see the sense or justify. Sometimes though there is a reason and others it is policy or ideologically driven. But don't moan. Try your best and do what you can. If you personally believe its not purposeful or you are unsure why. Go to your SLT and ask politely and professionally. But beware the dementors...

So my final thoughts are this, you are capable, you will be a great teacher and everything is going to be fine. Teaching is an incredible profession, dont get me wrong it cn be tough, but it's one of very few professions where each week, each half term and each year you can start fresh. So enjoy it, dont linger over the bad times and relish in the good. Finally, have treats in the cupboard, it wont fix things but having a dairy milk with your coffee, during Wednesday staff meeting after a long week is a little win.

Good Luck

@MRMICT