Great teachers are always seeking to make their classrooms as rigorous as possible. Over the next three days, I’ll be sharing thoughts about three ‘common opportunities’ –things I see in place when I observe great classrooms that can often make a big difference—quickly—in good ones. Common Opportunity #1: Improve the rigor of your classrooms by defining…
Cold Call, as you probably know if you read this blog regularly, is one of my favorite techniques– meaning that it’s one of the techniques that has the greatest potential to increase the rigor and engagement in a classroom. I also love that it can be used by almost any teacher, and in concert…
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a series of posts about my visit to London’s Michaela School. I wrote about: their marking policy and how it could in some cases reduce teacher workload; the power of the school’s emphasis on gratitude; and the decisions we all get to make on whether to judge or ‘steal’ from…
Katy Mills is the Team Leader for English at Westbourne Academy in Ipswich (UK). She recently shared some video that she shot from her classroom. Mostly, she was looking for feedback, but in watching it I found myself really impressed, so I asked Katy if she’d be willing to share some examples of her teaching. …
Had the opportunity to talk teaching with an amazing group of math, science and technology teachers from my own region in the New York State Master Teacher Program on Saturday. This post is specifically a follow-up to share two more examples of Cold Call, one of the techniques we discussed during the session, but the clips…