educators

"Anyone who's actively been trying to collect feedback on something knows what a struggle it is. You put down the work, figure out questions, deciding appropriate scales, thinking through how to phrase the questions, rephrase them 3 times more, and then, finally, input everything into your favourite survey tool and press send."

"As a headteacher, I had become quite used to doing things in my own way. Over a number of years I had developed my own style, grown comfortable and confident about my personal convictions and educational philosophy and had found, I thought, an effective way to deliver my kind of leadership and make my school my kind of school."

""Reduce teacher workload!" can be heard up and down the country, in staffrooms and online. The truth is it's one of the simplest things that schools can do to help retain staff and maintain their wellbeing. That being said, however, some schools aren't doing all they can to remove unnecessary burdens. Those who have done so, enjoy rave reviews on Twitter and elsewhere, which of course doesn't do them any harm when it comes to recruiting and retaining excellent staff. The best staff know their worth and will inevitably leave the school earlier than they would've done if they feel that another school would trust them and let them just get on with the real job of teaching. Even the Department for Education has begun to take note of the issue, identifying some key areas where schools can reduce teacher workload."

"Ten tips to beat exam stress"

"Students from some of England's worst-performing secondary schools who enrol on medical degrees with lower A Level grades, on average, do at least as well as their peers from top performing schools, a new study has revealed. The research also found that students from poorly performing schools who match the top A-Level grades achieved by pupils from the best performing schools, go on to do better during a medical degree."

"Parents who restrict their children's use of new media technologies may be acting counterproductively in the long run, particularly if they invoke afterschool homework time as the reason. Their children's scholastic achievements at college lag behind the academic performance of same-age peers, a University of Zurich study shows."

"Ask a group of teachers why they entered the profession and I guarantee you'll get responses like "I had a teacher who was inspirational to me" and "to make a difference to young people". Certainly, I went into the profession with a desire to help and support others and that hasn't changed. In my experience, this is pretty typical of most people who work in education- their motivation is usually based around a selfless and giving attitude and sense of purpose."

"A fascinating discussion which looked at how it is possible to achieve personalised learning within classrooms at all levels. It was evident that the term 'Personalised Learning' had a different meaning to different people from different settings. Although 'official' definitions were offered, the ambiguity still remains. Is it really possible to personalise the curriculum for 30 individuals within a classroom envirnoment? Even more of a challenge to secondary colleagues who are faced with cohorts from different year groups within the same day - being faced with over 100 individual pupils within any day?"

"Playtime, or break, periods can offer physical, cognitive, social and emotional benefits to primary school children, but those benefits are tied closely to the quality of the playground experience. Playground safety, access to play equipment, peer conflict resolution and quality engagement between adults and students are among the factors that contribute to a quality recess experience, new research from Oregon State University (USA) shows."

"Here are five very simple things to help make the life of a SEND teacher (or primary teacher) a little bit easier"

Free and open access magazine for teachers with a special focus this month on independent learning.

"We are social creatures. In most respects humans are an unremarkable species without many amazing abilities, such as great strength, big teeth or flying. But we have each other, and as a result we have prospered. The same is true in the classroom. We can do great things went we work together, but that is only true went we can work independly first. Independent learning doesn't necessararily mean that you must hide away in your hermitage without the aid of the outside world, but instead means that you decide your own path and what resources you need to travel sucessfully along it."

"A lot of schools have jumped on buzz words such as metacognition, mindfulness, mindset etc. There is obviously great merit in all these strategies, however as Carol Dweck has emphasised, in a lot of cases these methods are not always understood by school leaders leading to them not being integrated effectively and sustained. These theories are not fads but in many schools, they don't give these methods the planning, time and evaluation that is required for success of any strategies that will benefit learning. Schools are looking for a quick fix and so latch on to 'new, exciting and popular theories'."

"The events in this article are based on actual occurrences. The names and, in some instances, the genders of individuals have been changed to protect the individuals' privacy. The aroma of coffee did little to awake the senses. For a sleepy NQT who was in his first week back at school after the Easter vacation, the old routines were a sharp shock to the system."

Free and open online teacher magazine from UKEdChat