Education Panorama (July ’15) by @TeacherToolkit


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Education Panorama Newsletter by @TeacherToolkit

@TeacherToolkit

Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit in 2010, and today, he is one of the 'most followed educators'on social media in the world. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the '500 Most Influential People in Britain' by The Sunday Times as a result of...
Read more about @TeacherToolkit

This is my 15th edition of Education Panorama. In total, my newsletters have shared more than 750 educational blogposts from across the world! Here is a summary of what’s been going on in the education sector during the past month …

. Education Panorama If you are new to my monthly newsletter, you can expect to find the following:

  • Education: all the links to my @TeacherToolkit articles I have shared over the past 30 days.
  • Panorama: plus the blogs that have caught @TeacherToolkit‘s eye online, plus any interesting events in the real world of education.

In The Educational Panorama July 2015 edition – this monthly newsletter aims to capture a summary of everything from the online edu-sphere of bloggers and tweeters across the UK and afar. In my June 2015 newsletter I shared over 40 blogs on teaching and learning which 4,500+ of you read!

This month, I am NOT sharing my own blogs for the first time. Why? Because I have been conducting a blogging experiment over the past two months and have blogged once a day and 4 times at the weekend in order to create a regular blogging pattern for analysis. This has proved to be the busiest months of my blog, reaching over 150,000 views collectively throughout June 2015.

During the summer term, I have attended several speaking engagements, including an invitation to speak at Goldsmiths College this month… This July edition features articles on a range of topics from bloggers old and new. It’s all here! By the time I write my next Education Panorama, we’ll be into summer holidays, lost in beach dreams and the allure of blue seas and sparkling sands. Until then, enjoy the final days of term (if you are reading in the UK), take time out to rest and spend time with your family and friends.

Vietnam Beach @DodgyEye Ross McGill Image: by @DodgyEye aka Ross McGill.

Education:

This month, this section of my newsletter will now, no-longer feature the blogs I have written during the past 30 days. Why? Because I’ve written 34 blogs in 30 days; too many to list here. Instead, I have re-selected the most popular reads and the blogs I wish were read more by you;

  1. My Education Panorama (June ’15) newsletter gathering in over 4,500 readers.
  2. With 7,500 readers, How To Create a Teaching and Learning Culture?
  3. And a blog that I wished had been more popular; Focus on the Fluffy Stuff. A blog that compares the lives of two teachers working in an Outstanding school, versus a Requires Improvement environment.
  4. And On Being A Dad; a blog that is the catalyst for why @TeacherToolkit exists as it does today …
  5. Finally, Why I Need to Work Smarter gives the reader a little insight into the demands of my virtual and real world.
  6. You can read all 34 blogposts I’ve published over the past 30 days, here.

Here are photographs shared by me throughout June 2015;

 Images: @TeacherToolkit photographs from June 2015

Panorama

Here are the blogs I’ve noticed over the past 30 days. There are not very many this month because I have been working harder than normal at school; plus writing much more of my own. This include my new book, as well as blogging at least once a day. More time working for me has left me with less than I would have hoped for you; to read other blogs written by my readers. I always say, it’s difficult to keep up with so many wonderful blogs as more teachers blog online. I’ve read as much as I can to represent the blogs that have ‘pricked the ears’ of all those who talk about all-things-education. I promise to read more throughout August 2015.

Teaching and Learning:

  1. Alex Quigley has been writing about confidence and becoming a confident teacher. Even more so since he suffered illness in June: “our confidence in ourselves can easily drop with work absence.” Read An Absence of Confidence by @HuntingEnglish.

CPD / Well-being:

  1. Last week I stood by the canteen door and counted 47 students consuming pizza at morning break. ‘Dear parents, did you know your son/daughter has pizza for breakfast every day?’ by @pw2tweets.
  2. @ATharby and @Shaun_Allison were fortunate enough to spend the day at Wellington College; (I am yet to attend, despite having been asked to speak twice) soaking up all that the annual ‘Festival of Education’ had to offer. [They] had a great day – here are some of the key messages.” Read, A Grand Day Out at Wellington College.
  3. @headguruteacher also shares his own thoughts on the day, as well as his own presentation; Festival of Education 2015.

Leadership / OfSTED / DfE / Politics:

  1. Every now and again @LeadingLearner gets so angry with politicians who want to inflict their latest vanity project on schools or children. The F-Bacc is On the Way captures what really matters.
  2. A Shower of Spite by @DebraKidd based on a speech by Michael Wilshaw. Kidd asks; “Where are the teachers in your speech and vision Michael? Where is the humanity, the compassion?”
  3. “Schools need more parent governors, not fewer,” says @MikeRCameron in Ducking The Issue. A blog in response to Nicky Morgan MP speaking at the National Governors Association Summer conference.

Twitter / Blogging:

  1. The opening lines in my blogs sparked @cazzwebbo to write; Your Writing is Awful. What’s the best way to start a blog post? I hope I’ve improved …
  2. “Sometimes I feel like I am living in two worlds: the Real World and the Virtual World. In the Real World.” Wise words from @Sue_Cowley. I can only echo her sentiments. Read, The Methods and The Madness of social media.
  3. “I don’t usually win things,” says @NancyGedge in her blog, TES Awards, where she wins TES Blogger of the Year Award 2015. Well done Nancy, well-deserved!

Top Blog of the Month:

I’ve selected one blog for the July 2015 edition.

Favourite educational blogs
Favourite educational blogs

A passionate blog by headteacher Tom Sherrington (@headguruteacher) which has touched a nerve and has already been shared widely; written in response to ‘Hundreds of ‘coasting’ schools to be transformed’. Nicky Morgan unveiled “a new measure which for the first time will identify those schools which are failing to push every pupil to reach their potential.”

Sherrington says,

“… you are the Secretary of State, not the editor of the Daily Mail.” Read, Nicky Morgan vs The Bell Curve.

Nicky Morgan vs. Bell Curve Tom Sherrington

  Image: Tom Sherrington

Next Month:

We are almost at the end of the year and looking forward to our well-deserved summer holidays. I’d like to wish you all a restful period and good luck to all schools, teachers, students and parents in anticipation of their summer examination results. Keep calm everyone!

And if you haven’t noticed, I have a NEW book out in September 2015.

TT.

@TeacherToolkit logo new book Vitruvian man

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@TeacherToolkit ‘Saving teachers time and money!’


3 thoughts on “Education Panorama (July ’15) by @TeacherToolkit

  1. Thanks for all your blogs and summaries throughout this academic year, Ross – and have a great summer!

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