#SLTcamp

#SLTCamp


Should I apologize now or latter for my poor grammar and spelling – that’s why I teach Maths!

My first tentative steps into blogging – inspired by @sltcamp and @kevlister. I only have two worries about this 1) will anyone care, 2) will any read it!

This time last week - I was in the woods with a bunch of strangers I met on the internet!!

Weird isn't it?

But what is even weirder is I was giving up my weekend with my wife and child to go and talk about education, share ideas on how to improve it. There is no other industry where people would give up their free time to carry out unpaid CPD.

Education is funny thing and leadership of education is even funnier. We all have different opinions and different styles but we share a common goal - achievement for all.

What did I get out of it?

Working in a school is crazy, leading in a school in mental! If you aren't careful you can go for months on end dealing with task after task but never leading. You become a doer not a thinker.

It is hard - if you don't do - you fall behind. If you don't stop to think you never act you just react.

SLTcamp gave me the time to think, be provoked and question what I believe in. (I didn't change what I believe in but it did reaffirm it).  It allowed my to think about being a leader and the type of leader I wanted to be.

Would I do it again? Not sure.

Would I recommend it? Yes

Education is about learning and sharing - if as school leaders we stop learning and sharing then we stop being part of the process.

What next?

I am thinking about starting a teachmet in my school and buying magic whiteboard paper!

Year 11 revise - retain - recall arghhhh!!

Should I apologize now or latter for my poor grammar and spelling – that’s why I teach Maths!

My first tentative steps into blogging – inspired by @sltcamp and @kevlister. I only have two worries about this 1) will anyone care, 2) will any read it!

Here is goes anyway.

Improving Year 11 Maths Scores

Problem

My Year 11's don’t retain information, they just don’t know how. This hit me when I was teaching them direct proportion; every one of them had covered it in Year 10 with their previous teaching in the summer term , she had ignored the SOW and covered topics ad hoc. Here I was 3 months later going over the same material and not one of them remember a thing from June. They didn't even say Sir we have done this before!

How can I expect them to get Bs in their GCSE exam, which covers topics from the last 5 years, when they can’t remember topics from 3 months ago?

The phrase “nothing has been taught until it had been learnt” came into my head.

I struggled with this for a while and came up with a plan.

Test – Test - Test !!!

Getting an A or B in GCSE Maths is about mastering about 20 key topics. I was going to test the pupils once a week (Friday period 5!!) on 10 topics for the next six weeks. The test would have the same 10 topics every week, the same order but different numbers.

Students would complete the test in 45 mins , mark their own test for 12 mins and then 3 mins collecting scores into a central spreadsheet.  I didn’t care what mark they got first time around.  What I cared about was that their mark improved next week.

Getting something wrong once is fine – but get it wrong twice is stupid! Especially when you know it’s coming.

It is no surprise – they got better! But they should get better shouldn't they? The difference is they can now do Simultaneous Equations, Cumulative Frequency, and Standard From, Factorize Quadratics etc. Why? The test is forcing them to revise.

They like it – they like getting better at something – they like the routine!

We all agree we can now do Cumulative Frequency – so next week we are adding vectors into the mix and taking out CF. (it will make a special appearance every once in a while!)

Right lefty teachers who tell me I should be teaching through deep learning etc. can get lost!! They are learning, improving and enjoying Maths because of a test.