Do you want to beat those blue Mondays and bust some educational myths?
Here at Teacher Toolkit we do not believe in Blue Monday! So this week we’re helping you to get positive before it hits, as well as catching you up on educational news, busting some educational myths and presenting our brand new free podcast!
Top 5 blogs
- How To Revolutionise Guided Reading – What is whole-class guided reading?
- 12 Educational Research Myths – What was the last bandwagon you jumped on?
- 9 Teaching Ideas To Bin in 2018 – What teaching ideas would you like to say goodbye to in 2018?
- The Teacher And The OfSTED Inspector – Should teachers shun marking piles and instead plan for a more meaningful work-life balance?
- *NEW* #1MinCPD: Verbal Feedback That Sticks – How can we make our verbal feedback stick?
Resource of the week
We are very excited to launch our Teacher Toolkit Podcast! We will be publishing it weekly on the blog and it will feature a range of teachers, topics and education chat. You can listen to the first episode here, in which Ross Morrison McGill interviews Suella Fernandes MP, asking her ‘What makes a great teacher?’ and ‘How can we reduce teacher workload?’
CPD Spotlight: Happiness
Monday 15th January is ‘Blue Monday’ – supposedly the most depressing day of the year. But we want to ensure you do NOT feel down and are determined to help you be prepared to beat the blues and start the week feeling positive. Here are some tips to help:
- 8 Strategies For A Happier Classroom
- 10 Ways To Keep Well
- Easy Ways To Exercise
- 10 Tips For Looking After Your Mental Health
- 10 Ways To Beat Blue Monday
From elsewhere
- Justin Greening resigns and Damian Hinds becomes the new education secretary and Toby Young resigns from university regulator.
- Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman gives a speech at the Association for Science Education Annual Conference 2018 and says: “I hope that a greater emphasis on the curriculum means teachers spend less time analysing performance data and more time considering the real substance of education…At a time of high teacher workload, it is more important than ever for schools to make informed choices about what they encourage teachers to do – and, even more importantly, what they ask them to stop doing.”
- Public Health England launches Change4Life campaign around children’s snacking. Watch their video here.
- A supermarket is to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children aged under 16.
- A new report on effects of social media on 8-to-12-year-olds shows the way children use social media and its effects on their wellbeing hits a ‘cliff edge’ when they start secondary school.
- The World Health Organisation classify gaming addiction as a disorder. According to Oxford research boys spend more time playing videogames than girls but technology is not taking over children’s lives despite screen-time increase.
- Are textbooks making a comeback? Nick Gibb thinks so!
- How can you protect yourself from cyberbullying? Are schools doing enough to protect their staff from online abuse? Take a look at the non-statutory advice from the Department for Education for headteachers and all school staff.
- Educational support for deaf children is ‘in disarray’ according to the Consortium for Research in Deaf Education (CRIDE).
- Take a look at the new document from the ASCL’s Ofsted: 101 ideas to help you manage inspection and ponder number 91 about NOT displaying an Outstanding banner! This is something TeacherToolkit has been campaigning for! Reconsider your banner: whilst you may be proud of your inspection result, remember Ofsted is not the only mark of success. Perhaps the views of your pupils and parents would be a refreshing and welcome alternative!
Is there anything else you’d like to see in our weekly CPD picks? Leave your ideas in the comments below!
