What have you missed off your reading list this week?
CPD Picks of the Week are back with a summary of popular blogs, the TT resource we think you’ll find most useful at this time of year, a spotlight on Dyslexia to mark Dyslexia Awareness week and some education news from elsewhere.
Top 5 blogs
- 10 ICT Pieces of Equipment For Every Classroom – If money was no option, what 10 ICT tools would you use in your classroom?
- 13 Marking Workload Tips For Teachers – How can you get your marking workload under control this term?
- 10 ‘Teach To The Top’ Differentiation Ideas – How do you plan for differentiation in lessons? And how can you cater for every student?
- Teaching Ideas to Bin: Work Scrutinies – Are book-looks dangerous and unreliable?
- 10 Activities To Do In Tutor Time – How can a teacher improve the time they spend with students during registration?
Resource of the week
Over the last month, as you’ve been getting to grip with your new timetable and meeting your new students, you’ve probably been thinking about the behaviour expectations you have for your classroom. Making a plan early on about how you will manage behaviour, in particular, low-level disruption is important.
The #5MinBehaviourPlan has been developed to help address the frustration that many teachers and staff have from work within schools. The background thinking and some more details to help you implement the #5MinBehaviourPlan can be found in the blog post, “Getting Behaviour Right: Research Plus Experience” by @LeadingLearner.
The plan focuses on rules, routines, relationships and disciplinary interventions(rewards, sanctions and behaviour management strategies).
Read details of how to use the 5-minute Behaviour Plan and download it now.
CPD Spotlight: Dyslexia
This week is Dyslexia Awareness week and to mark the occasion, here are some Teacher Toolkit blog posts on Dyslexia and links from elsewhere providing resources to use in the classroom to support your Dyslexic learners.
- #1MinCPD: Supporting Dyslexic Learners – How can you give dyslexia learners independence in the classroom?
- The Dyslexia Migraine – Why is the controversial argument of “does dyslexia exist?” still being discussed?
- Entry and Exit Criteria for Interventions – How do you track and demonstrate the impact of your interventions on Dyslexic learners?
- The British Dyslexia Association has lots of information to help support children with Dyslexia with plenty of resources to use in the classroom.
- In this video, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia expert Jane Emerson talks through approaches for helping dyslexic readers and spellers.
Education news from elsewhere
- Recent research from University College London Institute of Education tells us that England comes last for teacher job satisfaction and a new TES survey reports that almost two in five UK teachers would consider moving abroad next term if the right job came up.
- The National Education Union (NEU) Workload Survey reports that the majority of teachers still haven’t had a workload review two years’ after government recommendations that they should be done.
- Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced a number of measures to make sure all children have access to a ‘world-class education‘.
- Have you heard about MARGE? MARGE is an acronym for five essential principles of learning: Motivate, Attend, Relate, Generate, Evaluate. Find out more in this free ebooklet written by Art Shimamura, a prominent memory researcher.
- Put a smile on someone’s face today and do an act of kindness. Did you know that 5 October is World Smile Day? This is celebrated on the first Friday in the month of October every year. Help a smile go viral around your school. Did you also know that held annually on 5 October since 1994, it is World Teachers’ Day!
On the podcast last week, Teacher Toolkit editor Holly Gardner interviews Professor Stephen Heppell, discussing Stephen’s child-focused approach to teachers reducing their workload. Listen now and remember you can now subscribe on iTunes!
