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Have I got an assessment for you? | thinkdotlearn
The article discusses the importance of designing effective internal assessments for GCSEs and A Levels, emphasizing continuous reflection and modification of exam papers. It presents twelve reflective questions for Heads of Departments to evaluate exam appropriateness, question coverage, differentiation, marking consistency, and feedback processes, highlighting the role assessments play in the learning journey.
Changing Homework to Lesson Extension | thinkdotlearn
I have been doing a lot of thinking about homework recently. Homework is a divisive topic. Teachers generally don't like homework because it creates more work, more follow-up, more opportunities for students to not complete something so a sanction would have to be applied, more marking to add to the pile. Parents think that homework…
Changing Homework to Lesson Extension | thinkdotlearn
I have been doing a lot of thinking about homework recently. Homework is a divisive topic. Teachers generally don't like homework because it creates more work, more follow-up, more opportunities for students to not complete something so a sanction would have to be applied, more marking to add to the pile. Parents think that homework…
I don’t believe in regrets | thinkdotlearn
I was having a chat with a colleague during the past week and I used a phrase that has been rattling around in my head ever since. I don't believe in regrets. It was maybe a strange thing to say as part of a conversation - we had been talking about old jobs that we…
Two leadership Learning points from D Day | thinkdotlearn
When I was about 12 years old, my dad took us to visit some of the memorials and sites scattered around the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, France. Since then, I have held on to a fascination with D-Day (and military history in general). As the 80th anniversary of the landings approaches next week, I…
Why do teachers still talk about ‘delivering’ lessons? | thinkdotlearn
I have been doing quite a few observations of teachers within my school over the last couple of weeks and I got thinking about some of the language that we use around lessons. A common phrase that has been used for many years is when you hear teachers talking about the delivery of lessons. I…
Using ICT for learning – where are we now? | thinkdotlearn
4 years ago I wrote an article called a Pedagogy for Blended Learning that has been downloaded over 15,000 times. It was an attempt by me at the start of the Learning Lockdowns caused by COVID to organise my thoughts on the best way to try and negotiate the switch from face-to-face learning to one…
New Revision Resources 2024 | thinkdotlearn
On Tuesday 16th April I uploaded a new blog post about the timing of the big revision push. You can read that post here There are two pieces of work that you might want to access that are linked to this The video I produced for students and parents called 'Revision Techniques' and The supporting…
Timing the big ‘revision push’ | thinkdotlearn
All teachers appreciate the importance of revision. We sometimes struggle with working out how we integrate the good habits of revision into lessons and learning. We want to use and model good revision and retrieval practice as a support to the learned material. However, we every year we end up with the same conundrum. When do we really hit…
The language of Christmas | thinkdotlearn
The language of Christmas Sometimes I reflect on how far I have come as a teacher. Or, perhaps it is more correct to say that I reflect on how far I have come as a person. I am far from perfect and am mightily glad that my successes usually outweigh my failures . . . but it is…
On Dual Coding | thinkdotlearn
Over the last 2 years I have probably said the words ‘revision’ and ‘retrieval’ a couple of thousand times. I am constantly talking to students about revision best practice and giving a series of little tips about why? How? What? Where? When? Revision should be taking place. Motivating the students to see this as a…
The Principles of Booklet Design | thinkdotlearn
The Principles of Booklet Design In Feb 2020 (just before a global pandemic closed schools down and shifted learning onto online platforms) I led some staff training in my school about how we can use booklets more effectively as teachers. I have always loved booklets throughout my career as a teacher. I find them a…
On Questioning in the classroom | thinkdotlearn
How to make questioning work! by Tim Manson If you were to ask me what I thought was the most important thing in making a lesson amazing – I would say that it is a really effective question and answer session. Questioning in a lesson is something that brings so much to the lesson: It provides…
On Activity in Lessons | thinkdotlearn
by Tim Manson Activity within a Lesson Plan (Explore the Learning and Questioning) The third stage in creating a interesting, engaging and memorable lesson is all about how we help the student to embed the key concepts from the learning into their long term memory. We have thought already about the importance of the Introduction and…
Why do we call Question papers Question Papers? | thinkdotlearn
A few years ago I had a bit of a revelation and I am sure that most of the people that I work with are fed up hearing. When teachers work with exams we often call them, ‘question papers’ – but the reality is than in most modern day exam papers there is not one…
What makes a great teacher? | thinkdotlearn
A few weeks ago I was asked what I thought the 3 most important things were when looking to fill roles within a school. There are loads of different things that I could have talked about – I could have talked about the pastoral element and how every teacher was a pastoral teacher; the importance…
Intelligent Accountability | thinkdotlearn
A few years ago I came across a quote from Simon Sinek that resonated with me. He said, “The responsibility of leadership is not to come up with all the ideas, but to create an environment in which great ideas can thrive.” David Didau in his recent book – Intelligent Accountability, takes this further. He…
Do we have a Boy’s underachievement problem within Geography in Northern Ireland? | thinkdotlearn
I recently realised something. My youngest child – who is a lad currently completing his Y14 A Level courses is at a distinct statistical disadvantage compared to his sister (who completed the same A Level subjects three years previously). I know what you are thinking – it has NOTHING to do with COVID, Centre Determined…
The future of Geography (in NI) | thinkdotlearn
The Future of Geography (in NI) I have recently been reading Tim Marshall’s new book called “The Future of Geography”. It’s all about the geopolitics (or the Astropolitics) of Outer Space. However, the title of the book got me thinking along a different tangent . . . what exactly is the future of the subject…
The importance of developing the confidence of your students | thinkdotlearn
John Hattie (2012) wrote in ‘Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on learning’ that teacher efficacy has the greatest impact on student achievement. This was based on the confidence that a teacher has in themselves – a teacher who lacks confidence was less likely to push students, try new teaching methods or tackle behaviour difficulties. …
The importance of Retrieval in learning and Revision | thinkdotlearn
In just over one week I will be trying to get all the external exam students in my school to start to focus on their revision. It is never easy to work out when is the right time to start the focus on this but with just 10 teaching weeks to go – the time…
It’s a brain thing | thinkdotlearn
In 1994 I started my PGCE course to allow me to train as a teacher. This followed 3 years of studying for my BA in Geography (and History!) I was young. Enthusiastic. Driven. Motivated and really keen to learn as much as possible. However, through that whole year of training – at no point did…
The pursuit of kindness | thinkdotlearn
The Pursuit of Kindness I’m not naturally a particularly tolerant or deliberately kind person. It’s not something that I find easy. I usually describe myself as a realist but the truth of the matter is that I might be closer to being a pessimist and I struggle to see the good in a situation. It…
The Reading Challenge 2022 | thinkdotlearn
The Reading Challenge 2022 Last Christmas my daughter encouraged me to download and start to use the Good Reads app on my phone. In recent years I had started to lose track of the different books that I had read (and what I had not read) so I had been using a wee app to…
The Retrieval Mindset | thinkdotlearn
This year in my school we have started a focus on 'Retrieval Practice'. You can read more of my thinking in this area on this page . . . It has been interesting working through some of the key elements of retrieval practice. Even the very basic focus on how learners actually process and embed…
Using research to develop the practice of teaching | thinkdotlearn
I am a member of the Chartered College of Teaching and have been for a while now. I don’t really engage with a lot of their stuff or activities – I just don't have the time, and much of it is very focused on English teachers. However, one of the things I really, really like…
The thing about sleep | thinkdotlearn
<<This post was originally posted in March 2022, but for some reason it disappeared from my blog>> In a few weeks time I will be completing a series of lessons with my Year 8 pupils where we take a look at some of the things that can act as barriers to our learning. Amongst other…
The thing about energy drinks | thinkdotlearn
News reports tell us that young people in the UK consume more high-caffeine 'energy' drinks than children in the EU or the USA and the debate is raging about how significant these things are in harming their health and education. From the outset - I am going to make really clear that my children have…
Revision – When is the time to push the button? | thinkdotlearn
This year our pupils in Year 11, 12, 13 and 14 will be doing external exams for the first time in over 2 years. Some of them maybe have already done an exam or two already in November, January or February so they are starting to get to know the feeling of pressure that comes…
How John Dunlosky changed my [teaching] life | thinkdotlearn
I have been teaching for over 27 years now. I have always tried to be as innovative as possible. I started with a Bachelors degree in Geography at Queen's University in Belfast and then went straight into my PGCE in Geography at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. However, I never really felt that the…
The thing about memory | thinkdotlearn
This week I have been doing some work with my Year 8 students about memory. I usually introduce each class by explaining that I often describe myself as having "a bad memory" but then point out that actually that is not true because I have some really vivid and old memories of my childhood, my…
The thing about exams | thinkdotlearn
Over the last 10 years there have been some massive changes to assessment in Post Primary schools in Northern Ireland. But, these changes are not quite what you think might have happened. If you had asked me ten years ago - I would have assumed that by now, we would still have elements of Geography…
Is it time for common holidays/ training days across NI schools? | thinkdotlearn
Some years ago I was involved in helping to organise some training events for our local Area Learning Community. Each school had agreed to designate ONE day where we would all get together and share training/ ideas in teaching and learning. We actually managed to run this for two years. The first year was fantastic…