The return to teaching

So here I am, after only returning to teaching from maternity leave for a few weeks before schools closed for COVID, I have found myself mindlessly scrolling on my phone for more hours than I am willing to accept in the last few months. With the reality of returning to the classroom approaching I began to think I could be using this time more productively!

During (my now toddler's) nap times and evenings, I’ve been reading our School's ‘touchstone texts’; Teach like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov and Teaching Walkthru’s by Tom Sherrington & Oliver Caviglioli; or completing CPD webinars with The National College but I wanted to make my ‘mindless scrolling’ a useful learning time too!

As a Lead Practitioner in Teaching in Learning I want/need to make sure I’m ready for the return to the classroom (Twitter: @teachingreturn) so I thought a blog might be a useful way for me to reflect on my practise and hope I can help others along the way. So here’s to making that mindless scrolling a little more mindful and sharing Teaching and Learning ideas for the 'new normal'...

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Lessons learnt from a cyber-attack

No one quite knew what to expect for our first week back in the classroom, but we certainly did not plan for a cyber attack! All use of technology was blocked and it has left us with very little resources... but as with everything there are lessons to be learnt! Thankfully I was organised for the first few weeks with seating plans and all resources printed ready to go. Staff rallied round and shared what resources we had and at the end of the week many staff felt quite invigorated by teaching without technology. Many admitted they had become reliant on the same old resources and it forced them to re-plan around student led activities. Some teachers felt devastated that years of resources have been lost (we are still waiting confirmation on this and are hoping some can be recovered from the cloud somewhere - I am hopeful the Care Bears are looking after them...) and when a teacher was in tears 'but I can't teach without my resources' another teacher said 'of course you c...

Lessons Learnt from questioning a toddler

This morning I came downstairs to my Husband and toddler getting increasingly frustrated with each other over breakfast. Husband: 'Do you want something else?' Toddler: 'Yeah' Husband: 'So you want a croissant?' Toddler: 'No, no, no' Husband: 'But you want something else?' Toddler: 'Yeah, yeah' Husband: 'Well do you want some toast?' Toddler: 'No, NO, NO', eeeelse' Me: 'He wants 'else' because you are asking a 20 month old toddler an open question when he thinks it is a closed question and that 'else' is something for him to have. So he wants 'else'.' Communicating with a toddler has taught me things about the use of language in a way that I have never considered before and has made me think about the my use of questioning in all aspects of life. I recently attended a webinar with Tom Sherrington about Questioning (I know I feel like his number one fan girl right now!) and whilst it fo...

PD Day Lessons

After our two P.D. days back at school, I have two lessons to reflect on. My first lesson; our year group bubble system means that our students won’t be socially distancing from one another, but that staff are required to maintain 2m from the students. Whilst one teacher joked ‘Ah, I will finally be able to legitimately spend all lesson teaching by sitting at the front of the room’, another gasped ‘Oh, but circulating the room is what I do!’ I agree with the second teacher but I am also relieved that the students will be sat next to each other and will be able to use ‘think, pair, share’ as it is intended to be used (see my last post). More ideas on how to ‘teach from the front’ to follow in a future post... Whilst most staff seemed happy to return to school there was a feeling of uncertainty and apprehension in the air and that leads me to my second lesson; the need for us to maintain that ‘relentless positivity’ when the students arrive, despite our own feelings....

Lessons Learnt

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