UKEdChat Magazine - Issue 45

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Issue 45

Supporting the Educational Community

PRAISE

EXPECTATIONS

ENGAGING CLASSROOMS TO ENGAGE MINDS Write for UKED Magazine: ukedchat.com/magazine/submit

RETHINKING TECH

From the Editor

Talking about oneself is hard. Finding the right balance of modesty and pomposity is tricky, especially as every listener's tolerance will be different.

Teachers often feel embarrassed about talking about their achievements and we at UKEdChat, all being past or present teachers ourselves, are certainly guilty of this.

A few weeks ago I was chatting to a teacher after a training session I was running and explaining what UKEdChat is, where it came, and what it does. He was shocked that I didn't talk about UKEdChat in my training session. "If people only knew," he exclaimed.

So, with our trumpet most certainly sounding... this is what UKEdChat is and does.

It was started in 2010 by Colin Hill as a Twitter discussion which still happens every Thursday at 8pm. We try to focus on UK-wide issues and improving teaching in the classroom. Check out #UKEdChat on Twitter on Thursday evenings to discover more.

A website to archive and summarise the discussions quickly followed. This evolved into the community website UKEdChat.com where anyone can read and submit articles by getting a free profile (see ukedchat. com/profile).

In 2012, UKEdChat became a 'not-forprofit' Social Enterprise company. Our mission is to provide the best educational

professional development for teachers and schools that we can through digital tools, and beyond. It was important to us that the open and sharing nature of UKEdChat on Twitter should be the guiding principal of the venture, so we decided that we would keep as much of our growing platforms and features free and open to teacher and schools.

In addition to this magazine, our articles on ukedchat.com are free. Listing teaching jobs to our careers service at UKEd.Careers is also free.

Our app at ukedchat.com/app is free with no subscriptions or in-app purchases.

We have developed community resource listing at ukedchat.com/resources designed for teachers who believe resources should be shared, not sold.

This simply links to resources which are stored in the creator's cloud storage, like Google Drive or Dropbox, so there is never any concern that you waive your rights as you must with most resource sharing platforms.

We have recently started UKEd.Academy where users can complete many free online course and create courses them too.

Naturally, our content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr and our RSS feed are free to view.

We are not affiliated to any company, past or present. We are independent because we are self-sufficient. We are a very small team, which helps with our costs.

So, how are we funded? We reach out to organisations that we like and who share our ethos about education to help them to promote and improve their services. Also, some of our services have premium options for those who have extra requirement beyond what we offer for free.

But we are also funded by you - the community. A growing number of teachers value the open 'free at the point of use' ethos of UKEdChat and are helping us improve and grow by donating as little as ÂŁ1 a month to provide great teaching resources for all via our crowd funding page at patreon.com/ukedchat. We understand that not everyone has the means to do this, but if everyone who read this did the same it would be a gamerchanger education and the teachers we support.

We will put the trumpet away again and let you enjoy the rest of the magazine.

Martin Burrett @ICTmagic

Subscribe by email ukedchat.com/emails Write for the magazine ukedchat.com/magazine/submit

14 ARTICLES 06 Changing Behaviour

10 CONTRIBUTORS Dan Ainscow @PrimaryIdeas

14 Positive Improvement 16 Cooperative Learning for Engagement

Liam Murphy @PrimaryIdeas Isabella Wallace @WallaceIsabella Matthew Roberts @Mroberts90Matt Sarah Murphy @smwordlaw @digicoled Eddie Conlon @EddieMConlon Nic Masters @NicMasters2 @3edmigos

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10 The Marking Monster

18 Unrealistic Expectations of Middle Management

22 Going Above and Beyond

REGULAR FEATURES 04 Research Highlights

13 ICTmagic EdTech Resources 19 Book Review 20 In Brief 24 UKEd Resource

The publishers accepts no responsibility for any claims made in any advertisement appearing in this publication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publishers accept no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

Joanne Roulstone @JoanneRoulstone Cover image: depositphotos.com

Rob Ellarby @Robellarby Barbara A.Zielonka @bar_zie Kara Dowson @karadowson Jade Newsum @JNewsumEnglish For details about how to write for the magazine, go to

ukedchat.com/magazine/submit

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Research Highlights

Inattentive kids show worse grades in later life Researchers studied children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and found that inattentiveness was linked to worse academic performance up to 10 years later, regardless of ADHD, even when they accounted for the children’s intellectual ability.

Although grades aren’t everything, academic achievement is clearly an important factor in later career success and financial stability. Helping children to maximize their academic potential and overcome obstacles to academic success is important. One factor in academic performance is intellectual ability, and unsurprisingly, numerous studies have found that higher intellectual ability is linked with higher academic performance.

Another factor that can affect academic performance is attentiveness.

Aside from making it difficult to focus in school and on homework, inattentiveness can be associated with other problems, such as mood disorders and difficulties interacting with other children. Helping children to overcome inattentiveness could pay dividends in later life.

Read more at uked.chat/handlingreading

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Ethnic diversity in schools may be good for students’ grades, study suggests Early adolescents’ grades were higher when they socialised with peers from other ethnicities, according to the findings of a University of California, Davis, a study that looked at the lunching habits of more than 800 sixth-graders in three (USA) states.

The findings suggest that schools might look for ways to provide crossethnic interaction among students—outside of lunch—to take advantage of ethnic diversity, researchers said. “The great part about these findings is that the results were just as true for white students as ethnic minority students (African American, Asian, Latino/a, and multiethnic),” said Adrienne Nishina, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology and study co-author.

Even white and Asian students, who had significantly higher GPAs than members of other ethnic groups, appeared to benefit from daily crossethnic interactions, the study found.

Students who spent lunchtime with at least one cross-ethnic peer received higher GPAs in academic courses as well as higher teacher expectations for their educational attainment at the end of sixth grade, Nishina said. She said teacher expectations are a factor that can influence how students remain engaged in school long term.

Read more at uked.chat/diversityschool

Oldest in class do better, even into university, study finds It’s been known for years that the oldest children in class perform better in school than their youngest classmates. But according to a new study co-authored by University of Toronto Scarborough economist Elizabeth Dhuey, that gap can persist, with older children more likely to attend postsecondary school and graduate from an elite university.

“Older children, in this case those born in early September, do better in elementary school than their younger peers,” says Dhuey, whose past research has explored this phenomenon.

“What we found in this study is that gap persists throughout their school careers, so they end up being more likely to attend a postsecondary school and graduate from an elite university.”

The study, by Dhuey, an associate professor of economics, and a team of three economists from U.S.-based universities, was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Read more at uked.chat/classoldest

UK Education 2017 Snapshot Revealed by OECD Tertiary enrollment is expanding rapidly, with very strong returns for individuals and taxpayers, but new evidence shows that universities can fail to offer, and individuals fail to pursue, the fields of study that promise the greatest labour-market opportunities, according to a new OECD report.

Education at a Glance 2017 includes for the first time in-depth analysis of the subjects students take at vocational and tertiary level. It finds that business, administration and law are the most popular careers in countries surveyed, chosen by around one in four students. This compares to 16% in engineering, construction and manufacturing, and less than 5% of students study information and communication technologies, despite graduates in these subjects having the highest employment rate on average across OECD countries, exceeding 90% in about a third of them.

Data specific for the United Kingdom reveals that the highest proportion of wealth is spent on primary to tertiary educational institutions, above the average for OECD countries.

Read more at uked.chat/oecdsnapshot

Image: pixabay.com

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Another factor that can affect academic performance is attentiveness.

Aside from making it difficult to focus in school and on homework, inattentiveness can be associated with other problems, such as mood disorders and difficulties interacting with other children. Helping children to overcome inattentiveness could pay dividends in later life.

Read more at uked.chat/inattentivegrades

Schools are rejecting the chance to teach children in “mixed-ability” classes despite evidence that the alternative – pupils being put in ability sets or streams – will have a negative effect on at least some of their charges’ results, according to new research from UCL. The paper – “Factors deterring schools from mixed attainment grouping practices,” written by Dr Becky Taylor, UCL Institute of Education (IOE), together with academics from Queen’s University, Belfast, was presented yesterday at the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) annual conference.

It finds that fear of reactions from parents, who often expect children to be grouped in sets or streams, as well as a more general caution in schools, may be playing a part in these decisions. It cites previous evidence that setting, where pupils are grouped in classes based on prior results in tests or other judgements the school may make about their “ability”, is overwhelmingly used for maths in English secondary schools.

Read more at uked.chat/mixedclass

Children praised for being smart are more likely to cheat, new studies find

Self-concepts of ability in maths and reading predict later attainment

Although grades aren’t everything, academic achievement is clearly an important factor in later career success and financial stability. Helping children to maximize their academic potential and overcome obstacles to academic success is important. One factor in academic performance is intellectual ability, and unsurprisingly, numerous studies have found that higher intellectual ability is linked with higher academic performance.

Children who are praised for being smart, or who are told they have a reputation for being smart, are more likely to be dishonest and cheat, a pair of studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and researchers in the U.S. and China has found.

OISE’s Jackman Institute of Child Studies (JICS) Professor Kang Lee and study co-authors say that while praise is one of the most commonly used forms of reward by parents and educators around the world, studies show that when used incorrectly, it can backfire: “Giving children wrong kind of praise makes them dishonest,” said Professor Lee. In the first study, “Praising young children for being smart promotes cheating”, published today in Psychological Science, preschoolers who were praised for being smart were more likely to cheat subsequently than those who were praised for doing “great” in a particular task. Similarly, in the second study, “Telling young children they have a reputation for being smart promotes cheating”, recently published in Developmental Science, preschoolers who were told that they had a reputation for being smart also became more likely to cheat.

Read more at uked.chat/smartcheat

Educational and developmental psychologists have tried to understand how skills and motivation are linked to academic achievement. While research supports ties between individuals’ concepts of their abilities and their achievement, we lack a complete picture of how these relations develop from childhood to adolescence. A new longitudinal study looked at how youths’ self-concepts are linked to their actual academic achievement in maths and reading from middle childhood to adolescence. The study found that students’ self-concepts of their abilities in these two academic domains play an important role in motivating their achievements over time and across levels of achievement.

The findings come from researchers at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and the University of Michigan. They appear in the journal Child Development.

“Our study shows that youths’ perceptions of their abilities in middle childhood are important in promoting their later achievement in maths and reading,” explains Maria Ines Susperreguy, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education, who led the study. “This relation is not limited to students who perform at the top levels, but extends to students with different levels of achievement in maths and reading. Even the lowestperforming students who had a more positive view of their maths and reading abilities had higher levels of achievement in maths and reading.”

Read more at uked.chat/selfability

UKEdChat Magazine

Schools are rejecting the chance to teach children in ‘mixed-ability’ classes

ISSUE 45

Researchers studied children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and found that inattentiveness was linked to worse academic performance up to 10 years later, regardless of ADHD, even when they accounted for the children’s intellectual ability.

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Inattentive kids show worse grades in later life

Classroom Management can do as a result of their actions and Changing Behaviour they how to improve on them in the future.

By Dan Ainscow & Liam Murphy

Here's how I explain our behaviour policy: When you arrive home and you've driven at 30mph and stopped at red lights, do you expect a sticker, a round of applause or some other praise? Or, did you just drive like that because it's the right thing to do?

We no longer give praise, House Points, stickers etc. for ‘doing what’s expected’ at our school. We no longer ask children to ‘do something for us’ and we no longer tell children they’ve made us pleased by their behaviour choices.

We have no set rules, no set consequences and no set rewards.

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Children know what the expectations are of them in a classroom and on the playground. Pupils can reflect upon their positive and negative behaviour choices.

They can make suggestions about what

So, let them!

If children do the right thing, great. Point it out, tell them so, but it is not necessary to heap praise and stickers on them. If children don’t do the right thing, sit down with them, discuss their choices, why did it happen, what were the circumstances, what happened and what are they going to do about it?

Which helps more?

"Stop that" - detention.

Or Unpicking the incident.

What were you doing right before the incident? Why did it happen? What should you have done? What can you do in the future? As a result of this, what are you going to do to put things right? Do you need a sanction to help you think about this in the future?

One approach is adult lead and whereas the other is student lead. The adult can still advise and guide with the second approach, but surely the second is more productive? The results have been evident at our school.

We don’t tell the children they’ve pleased us or done something for us (adults).

They’re doing something because they should, because they want to - for themselves.

Let’s build a community who do the right thing because they know it’s the right thing to do...

Dan and Liam @PrimaryIdeas are Assistant Heads from a junior school in Cambridgeshire. They both retain teaching responsibilities. Between them, they have almost 30 years of primary school experience. Together, they blog and Tweet as Primary Ideas: 3x3links.com/pi.

Did you know that UKEdChat is a social enterprise on a mission to help educators use social media and other online tools to aid their professional development?

This includes running workshops in schools, online discussions creating podcasts and videos, and much more.

The UKEdChat magazine is completely free to read online and to download.

The UKEdChat app is also free to download.

If you would like to find out more, get involved and support our mission, visit our Patreon page.

patreon.com/ukedchat

Download the free UKEdChat iOS and Android app via

Browse the map and yourself via

bit.ly/edutwittermap

ISSUE 45

Our international Twitter map now has over 2200 educators listed from around the world.

UKEdChat Magazine

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Image: depositphotos.com

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Conference #UKEdConf17

Conference Partners

UKEdChat Online Conference

We are delighted to announce details of our first online conference. Educators from around the world are invited to participate in this inaugural event, where the focus is on pedagogy, classroom practice, and ideas to improve teaching and learning.

The event will take place in October 2017 – planned to be during the half-term holidays for most educators in the UK – but educators are also invited along to share in the incredible pedagogy that goes on in classrooms around the world.

We have over 40 confirmed speakers, including: James Starbuck @starbuckedu Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur Dan Haesler @danhaesler Bukky Yusuf @rondelle10_b Bryn Llewellyn @brynll Zoetanya Sujon @jetsumgerl Alex Corbitt @Alex_Corbitt Trevor MacKenzie @trev_mackenzie Hywel Roberts @hywel_roberts Eric Sheninger @E_Sheninger James Nottingham @JamesNottinghm Stephanie Davies @Laughology Adam Llevo @MrAdamPE

Sarah Pavey @Sarahinthelib Crista Hazell @cristahazell Jeremy Hyler @jeremybballer Bethan Baëz-Devine @ArtBethan Nina Jackson @musicmind Mark Finnis @markfinnis Gill Kelly @lifeisnotaline Barbara Bray @bbray27 Anita Devi @Butterflycolour Action Jackson @ActionJackson David Cameron @realdcameron Joe O'Reilly @edu_wellbeing Martin Illingworth @MartinIllingwor

Floyd Woodrow @floydwoodrow Vic Goddard @vicgoddard Anne Goldsmith @annemgoldsmith Gwyneth McCormack @PositiveEyeLtd Alan Parkinson @GeoBlogs David Harris @bravehead Gemma Sanchez @HabitGetInTo Elizabeth Cronshaw @HabitGetInTo Mark Allen @EdInTheClouds Steven Baker@KilgarthSchool Mick Simpson @KilgarthSchool Jay Rixon @teacher_think Ros Wilson @rosBIGWRITING

Get a ticket for just £10, or become a UKEdChat Patron via Patreon to join this event for no extra cost.

ukedchat.com/2017onlineconference #UKEdConf17

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Assessment

The Marking Monster That ‘phantom’ third party that haunts teachers when they’re marking

By Isabella Wallace

The answer is simple. Hours of teachers’ valuable time gets wasted, and a corrosive de-professionalisation of teachers starts to take hold. When a teacher is so worried about adhering to a complicated marking policy or – worse – proving to a line-manager what has taken place in the classroom, the teacher has to stop acting with common sense.

Because common sense, when we’re marking, means simply considering this question: “What marks can I make on this pupil’s work to help them want and understand how to make progress?”

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If you suspect that you or your colleagues need to exorcise the Marking Monster from your midst once and for all, then you can use the following practical steps to help you bury the beast: 1. Firstly, ask yourself and your colleagues: “What is the purpose of marking?” It’s useful to bear in mind, that whilst we know that feedback is incredibly important to a learner’s progress, there is no law stating that any feedback must come in written form.

(That’s right – it’s not even an Ofsted expectation!) Perhaps you feel that marking is a good way to differentiate for each pupil’s needs, to inform future planning, to check whether learning has “stuck” and to move the learners forward? With your colleagues, make a note of what you all feel are the key purposes and discuss the unhelpful nature of any erroneous suggestions, such as “because Ofsted expects it” or “to prove we have looked at the children’s work”.

2. Next, check yourself for hard-wired habits that might not keep pupil progress as central. If you’re recording “VF” on a piece of work just to prove to your linemanager that you gave “Verbal Feedback” – Why? Surely Records of verbal feedback only need to be kept if they help you or the pupil? And can you justify writing lengthy sentences on the work of a child who can’t yet read polysyllabic words? Sean Harford @HarfordSean Ofsted’s National Director has worked to bust myths around marking so make sure that your school’s policy doesn’t have you all working under a misguided notion of “what Ofsted expects”.

3. Conduct an investigation into whether written feedback is being acted upon. Remember, there’s no point giving feedback if it doesn’t get used – yes, even if it’s in 3 different colours and comes with a sparkly sticker! If pupils aren’t acting on the written feedback they’re receiving then they may need more time allocated for this purpose, or it could be that the feedback needs to be phrased in a more accessible, actionfocused way. Requiring the recipient to engage in some serious contemplation – for example, by asking the learner questions or highlighting areas and asking them to identify the problem, will not only save you time, but will also make the feedback process more interesting for the learner.

4. Take a close look at whether your marking leads to progress? Is the feedback you’re giving actually moving your learners forward? If you’re writing on a 7-year-old’s work with the sole intention of impressing a book scrutiniser, you might write: “You have described physical features accurately and used appropriate vocab to convey a character’s personality.

Try to use more interesting adjectives in future”. Whereas, if you’re writing with the true intention of actually getting through to the 7-year-old, you’d be more likely to write: “Use a thesaurus now to find interesting alternatives for the words I’ve underlined”. Notice what type of feedback works best for each learner. Do some of them respond better to written

feedback than verbal feedback and vice versa? Make use of this information!

In Best of the Best: Feedback, we’ve brought together advice from some of the biggest names in Education globally, and we’ve given you practical strategies for putting their insights to use in your own classroom. You'll also find invaluable guidance from David Weston @informed_ edu on how to set up an action research group to investigate and enhance the feedback process in your school.

So next time that Marking Monster comes lurking over your shoulder on a Sunday evening, give it a good kick up the bum and, instead, mentally conjure up the little face of the learner you’re really making marks for!

Isabella Wallace @WallaceIsabella is co-author of the best-selling teaching guides, “Pimp Your Lesson!”, “Talk-Less Teaching”, and the new “Best of the Best” Classroom Guides for Teachers.

An experienced teacher and keynote speaker, she presents nationally and internationally on teaching and learning.

Image: pdepositphotos.com

Let’s just admit it - we’ve all done it.

We’ve found ourselves writing comments on exercise books thinking, “What will the book scrutiniser think of this?” rather than “what feedback would best help this pupil?” But what if it’s not just an occasional thought of the phantom inspector that interrupts our pile of marking? What happens if teachers become so anxious about how their feedback will be judged by a 3rd party that it’s pretty much ALL they think about when they’re marking pupils’ work?

youtube.com/ukedchat

UKEd Directory

Browse the new UKEd.Directory

A place for educators, schools and everyone in the education sector to network and connect.

Create your profile at www.uked.directory/register

Bridge the gap with an app

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- Android and Apple phones and tablets - One place for all essentials about school - Fast and easy for school and users “Having an app has brought us firmly into the 21st century, our parents love the immediacy of the information and the layout.�

Gail Hard, Headteacher Boost engagement

Stimulate feedback

01702 780051

Improve communications

piota.co.uk

Save time and cost

@piotaapps

Fogstone Isle

An online game where users use their knowledge of fractions to build structures to create a village. uked.chat/fogstone

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Loom

A very useful tool to capture videos of your computer screen, webcam and audio as a shareable upload which can be downloaded for offline use and editing. uked.chat/loomcapture

Star Banks Adventure

An iOS and Android game which teaches financial ideas and skills to help players learn about managing money. uked.chat/starbanks

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JPL Space Infographics An amazing collection of infographics from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showing aspects of space and the missions to discover its secrets. uked.chat/jplgraphics

Writing Sparks

A superb creative writing site to stimulate ideas for opinion pieces, news articles, stories or poems. There is a teachers area, and a pupil area where your pupils can write their pieces and print. uked.chat/wrisparks

UKEdChat Magazine

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Amazing augmented reality map-based app where users pin images to specific geo-locations for others to discover. Upload photos, clues for a virtual trail, or virtually displaying work around your school. uked.chat/membitapp

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Membit

twitter.com/ukedchat

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ICTmagic EdTech

Behaviour

Positive Improvement Shifting the Paradigm in my Classroom

By Matthew Roberts

At first I felt I had guided the more challenging members in my class to make good choices. Things were positive, and then low-level disruption crept in more and more. Positive mentoring and feedback followed and no improvement. I felt at this point that I began to take action in a more negative manner. Sanctions and discipline in line with the school behaviour management system followed. Sanctions are an important part of any school behaviour management system – but so is my mentality.

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The Trap As days turned into weeks of dealing with consistent incidents outside my classroom, followed by some also appearing in my classroom, I subconsciously began to take a more negative stance. My thinking behind this was to suppress any poor behaviour that could take place. External influences such as the upcoming SATs, imminent Ofsted inspection and the most responsibility I had taken on thus far (leading the middle leadership team, PE and Sport Coordinator, Maths Lead Team and completing an NPQML whole school project) meant that I felt less and less patience for the children. I was ultimately working myself to the bone so that they could make progress in their education.

I was developing a class that responded instantly to the threat of sanction for shortterm engagement rather than a class who were creating a love for learning and who responded because they wanted to do well.

Of course, I did not want this. However, the day-to-day flow of teaching and pressure in many areas created this environment and mindset.

The Escape As things were developing in this negative culture, I found myself following a Twitter thread of an educational event and the first keynote speaker was Paul Dix @pivotalpaul. I wasn’t there in person however the Edu Twitterverse exploded with quotes from his comments. One thing in particular stood out to me – we should not praise poor behaviour. Obvious?

However, he made this point which was very poignant for me at the time – why do teachers insist on writing the names of the children who make the wrong choices on the board? Why not write the children’s names on who make the right choices?

Reading this was almost like a revelation.

I had fallen into the practice of routinely writing names on the board in an attempt to visualise to the children the wrong choices they were making – but ultimately all that was doing was giving them promotion to their actions.

Another major factor on this path back to positivity was a twilight given by Andy Whitaker @ArtOfBrillAndyW. This motivational speaker really energised and enthused the staff with positivity and the mindset that we can aim to be our top 2% and ways to overcome challenges to that positive outlook. When we can maintain that positive outlook that positivity will leak into our teaching into our classroom, into the children we teach.

The Change So, what did I do? From the following Monday, the usual space where I wrote perpetrators’ names was changed to our 'Best Seats in the House' space (inspired by Ant and Dec and @chrisdysonHT). I moved away from jumping straight to negative reinforcement to try and subdue behaviour problems, but tried instead to encourage a better mindset. Did it work completely? No. No matter how much of a positive approach you take in teaching it would be foolish to expect there to be no behaviour problems.

However, slowly but surely things started to improve.

After this reflection I have learnt very important lessons: Positivity trumps negativity – every time.

If anyone can come and prove to me that a negative, suppressing approach to behaviour has a better impact on a child’s ability to consider their own behaviour then I would readily receive it. However, I am yet to find a circumstance where that is the case.

What you promote in the classroom is what you’ll receive If you are consistently on the lookout for poor behaviour and that is the commentary in your teaching (e.g. I am looking to see who needs to receive (insert sanction), whoever is talking will…, make sure you are not making the wrong choice) then that will probably be what you find. If you consistently promote good choices (e.g. proximal praise, I am noticing a lot of good choices being made… and do on) then that will be found more often. Again, nothing is fool proof, but it certainly has an impact.

Positive and promotional approaches must be in place early on to be effective I found at the end of the school year that I had certainly turned things around in my classroom, things were probably not as positive as they could have been.

This leads to the most difficult lesson – positivity must be persistent. Even in the cold, dark, wet months of November to February. Carry optimistic approaches from from the summer months and things will be more positive. It may be difficult to maintain, but worth it!

Matthew teaches in a growing, vibrant primary school in Manchester, as a Year 6 teacher with responsibilities in Maths and PE. You can follow him @Mroberts90Matt and mroberts1990.wordpress.com.

Image: pdepositphotos.com

Since beginning teaching in 2014, I have always considered myself to be a fairly positive teacher. I believe in helping pupils to understand the reasons behind choices in the classroom and empowering them to take responsibility for their actions.

But during the last academic year, I was confronted with the most challenging class I had encountered…

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Engaging Teaching

Cooperative Learning for Engagement

By Sarah Murphy

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Cooperative learning is the key!

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching pedagogy where small teams, each with students of mixed ability, use a range of learning structures to improve their understanding of a skill or topic.

Every member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for supporting their teammates learning, therefore creating an atmosphere of achievement and positivity. Every student in each team are working towards a common goal, in which they all need to participate in order to be successful. In a cooperative learning classroom, every child has a role, no one can hide. In a cooperative learning classroom, there are no hands up (to answer questions), because everyone is enabled to answer through structured talk, even if they didn’t know the answer at the start of the structure, they’ll know it at the end. In a cooperative learning classroom, 100% of children are engaged 100% of the time.

Kagan Cooperative Learning is just one example of a successful program. In Kagan Cooperative Learning schools every child is given a role through using table manage mats similar to the example at uked.chat/ kaganmats.

So your dialogue as a teacher changes from “talk to your partner” (where one child in general does most of the talking and the other child can switch off), to “As tell Bs you have 30 seconds” and then swap. This means that both children are participating equally and you know as a teacher that every child is engaged. In addition, you are able to choose any child at random to share with the class because everyone has had an opportunity to both speak and listen equally. Questioning techniques such as “tell me about your partner’s thoughts” are great too, as it encourages children to truly listen to their partner and not just take it in turns to speak. Encouraging children to paraphrase what their partner has said, and also praise their effort and responses, fosters positivity, true collaboration and builds self-esteem. It also develops and promotes those social skills which are essential to being successful, not just throughout school but in adult-life too.

The most challenging part of initially implementing cooperative learning, is teaching children to participate in groups equally, but it comes with time!

There are three integral factors in order for cooperative learning to be successful: Shared Goals - teams work towards group goals, and each member works to earn recognition for the progress and success of each member of the group. Children should also understand that each child is responsible for the success of the team, a positive interdependence. When outcomes and goals are linked, we support the success of others and when we cannot do a task alone, we work better with others.

Individual accountability - students are expected to perform as an individual

in front of someone - this could be one teammate, their team, or the class. There are some children who really struggle to perform in front of a class, but if they are delivering a presentation to their partner they thrive. The learning gains of individuals form the basis of a team score.

Equal opportunities for success - if one child is successful, a team is successful.

As children are sitting in mixed ability groups, progress is celebrated and individual expertise are shared. For example, a low-ability child in a reading may be an amazing artist, and therefore would become the expert in those projects, and vice-versa. This allows every child to feel valued and experience success.

Research has shown improved academic achievement, improved attendance and behaviour, increased self-confidence and motivation, and increased liking of school and classmates has been the result of implementing cooperative learning.

Cooperative learning is also relatively easy to implement and is inexpensive.

On a personal note, I have found it transformative with every class (more so the most challenging ones) I have taught over the years. It fosters classrooms full of fun, positivity and collaboration. Ultimately, children who love coming to school, learn better and make more progress (and make our jobs as educators much easier!).

Sarah Murphy @smwordlaw is a Primary Assistant Headteacher and Year 6 teacher.

Leader of Teaching and Learning with a particular penchant for Computing, ProjectBased Learning and Music and Performing Arts.

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What is the biggest cause of behaviour disruptions in classrooms? Engagement. In general, when children are 100% engaged, there’s no room for disruptions, because they want to learn. Easier said than done.

We all know that as teachers we are faced with problems on a daily basis that are out of our control; children coming to school with no breakfast, very little sleep, or consumed by anxiety or stress. So how do we combat these issues and engage all children?

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Leadership

Unrealistic Expectations of Middle Management By @digicoled Shouldering the responsibilities of middle management can be an overburdening task for individuals, who are suddenly faced with serious accountability pressures from many directions. This is true in the business world, but also recognisable in schools, as teachers become tempted by progression, pay and future plans, thrusting them into the world of middle leadership, accepting responsibility for a Key Stages, subject areas, or data analysis.

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But, with pressures coming from high up in the command chain, and expectations from colleagues lower down, recent research has shown that some middle managers may turn to unethical behaviour to face unrealistic expectations. Although not aimed at the educational sector, the research conducted by Smeal College of Business, Penn State University in the USA, highlighted how middle managers used a range of tactics to inflate performance and deceive top management, because leadership instituted performance targets that were unrealisable.

The research showed that, faced with obstacles, middle management enacted a series of moves designed to deceive top management into believing that teams were actually meeting their goals, getting really creative because their bonuses were tied to what their people do, or because they didn't want to lose their jobs. "How can you lead a company if the performance information you get is fake? You end up making bad decisions�, Niki A. den Nieuwenboer said, assistant professor of organisational behaviour and business ethics at the University of Kansas.

There are clear links here with how schools operate, in many jurisdictions.

Goals and targets are set nationally, with government, quangos, local groups, governors, and parents all placing pressure that schools achieve exams results. Accordingly, schools create their own targets, strategies and tracking solutions to ensure that they are on target, but who wants to openly admit that they are not working, and the

schemes are not going where everyone had hoped? Teachers and headteachers get banned from the profession for ‘adjusting’ data, or helping pupils receive good grades for their tests. There is a growing wealth of evidence that such malpractice happens behind locked doors in more schools than we would like to admit, but are those individuals really to blame, or should we be looking more closely at the culture of expectations that are placed on schools? We all want our pupils to succeed, of course we do, but not all pupils are academically gifted, and many will enjoy vocational jobs during their lives.

Essentially, as the research highlighted above concluded, top management in organisations should do more in-depth work to institute realistic goals and incentives. Failing this, middle leaders in school will produce results that are not reliable, as all they are trying to do is save their reputation and job.

Great Books from Crown House Publishing

Making Every Primary Lesson Count: Six Principles to Support Great Teaching and Learning

Trivium in Practice

The Teachers Guide to SEN

by @Trivium21c

by @NataliePacker

Advocates an approach designed to cultivate a classroom culture of growth and excellence enabling pupils to leave primary school as confident, successful learners.

'Trivium in Practice' brings together a series of case studies written by educators who were inspired by Martin Robinson s first book, 'Trivium 21c'.

Taken together, these case studies reveal how, regardless of setting or sector, the trivium can deliver a truly great education for our children.

In The Teacher's Guide to SEN Natalie Packer outlines what all teachers need to know about SEN, and provides a range of practical tips and ideas that can be applied in the classroom.

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In Brief...

Rethinking Technology for Teaching and Learning Here are some of the tools I use to get away from traditional handouts, worksheets and presentations. By using them over time, and reflecting on pedagogical successes and failures, I can go to them when something needs to be changed in the learning experience.

Although I have categorised them by tool type, they cross over.

For example, Nearpod and Quizlet could be used for quizzing on PCs and phones, while mind mapping tools and mood boards can be swapped around.

Furthermore, the majority of these tools are very powerful in students’ hands. For example: - Instead of finishing the lesson by asking students about take always, LearningApps and other quiz tools can be used by students to create their own quizzes and plenaries - Office Mix and Toondoo can replace, or add to, assignments, e.g. students make their own comic book or interactive presentation instead of relying solely on essay submissions - I have also witnessed Childcare students using Tarsias to make activities for their placements In this way, they cross the levels of challenge (think Bloom’s Taxonomy), making the much referenced “padagogy wheel” a starting point not a definitive list.

What tools do you use and how? Can they be rethought?

Everything is Under Control...

Most people seek control because of fear. Fear of making mistakes, fear of failure, fear of change. Do you need everything in your classroom to be exactly how you want it to be?

The reality is, that teaching in schools today is stressful enough, without adding to your workload with additional mental anxiety.

As a teacher, do you need to start asserting your 'No gene' and let go of control?

At work, you need to say no when....

• Saying 'yes' involves doing the person’s job for them.

• You already have a full workload (that is representative of your hours and salary) and the 'extra' is resulting in you feeling stressed, anxious or affecting your home life.

• Communication is the cause. Are you regularly asked to complete last minute tasks by someone who doesn't understand the term 'time management’? Their pressure and stress, should not become yours!

• When the task is unrealistic - before saying yes, it's perfectly reasonable to take time to ask some questions, so you fully understand what is expected. Don't be afraid to say 'I need to sleep on it' (even if you aren't going to sleep!).

So, this week, try letting go of the small things, manage your expectations and write yourself a well-deserved post it…Note to self: It’s ok to say no. @NicMasters2 Primary Teacher/Consultant - Milton Keynes

@EddieMConlon Lecturer - Belfast

Parental Engagement So often when we talk about engagement in schools, we look solely within the four (heavily displayed) walls of our classrooms.

Parental engagement, however is integral in children's wellness and in them making sustained progress.

Research shows that family engagement improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism, and restores parents' confidence in their children's education. Students with actively engaged parents achieve more highly, have better social skills, and show improved behaviour So the question is, what are the best ways to engage parents? Well we have to address, what the barriers parents/carers have: • Time

• Negative own school experience

• Poor communication from school

• Language barrier

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• Confidence There is some great practice happening in schools, if only we’d share it more freely. One school I’ve seen had “Speed Learning” sessions for parents, which was much like Speed Dating, only each table was a different element of their taught curriculum. Also, organisations such as @parent_tutor run parent tutoring to empower parents/carers to tutor their own children by learning how subjects are taught in schools from teachers. Imagine a world where every parent was actively engaged in their children’s learning - let’s work towards that goal! Share your practice. @smwordlaw Assistant Head of School - Croydon

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Cooking your Curriculum After an immersive purpose for a ‘topic’? Look no further than a restaurant! This year, our Mayan topic was exactly that.

We simply broke down the process a restaurant might go through before opening (and visited our local Chiquito to ‘research’) and planned our topic around it. We began by designing the interior: learning Mayan myths, beliefs and culture and retelling these in our decor.

Restaurant designed, onto the food itself: evaluating modern Mexican food and cooking techniques as well as doing consumer research.

Shopping lists ready, our maths focussed on weights, measures, ratio and scale factor which all sat perfectly alongside considering percentages (profit margins) and calculating within the budget.

Google Sites for the classroom enabled pupils to collaborate on a restaurant website which was reinforced by persuasive writing; how can we really ‘sell’ the taste and aroma of our restaurant in a limited number of words?

Closer to opening, we moved into ‘teams’ – managers, chefs, waiters, ‘bar’ staff…pupils had responsibilities and roles to carry out to ensure we operated smoothly.

All that was left was for the customers (25 parents) to come and enjoy their food cooked and served by the pupils! @3edmigos Curriculum Coordinator - Nottinghamshire

The Big Wide World Learning happens everyday for everyone. Why? Because we move around. We don't stay in the same place. We don't stay in the same room. How much would you experience and learn if I told you to stay sat where you are all day? How about all week? All year?

To maximise my students learning I get them out of the classroom as much as possible and they can bring their tablets too. You see a tree, I see a way of measuring it using a mirror. You see an exam hall, I see a giant co-ordinate grid. You see a dog tied up outside, I see a loci problem! The world we live in is our ultimate tool, coupled with the technology we now have and I see no reason to keep my students cooped up in the classroom. @Robellarby Maths Teacher - Brighton, UK

Setting High Expectations It is incumbent upon us all to plan and deliver sessions that enable learners to achieve and exceed their targets, therefore it is imperative we effectively and consistently communicate our high expectations of learners.

Create a Self fulfilling Prophecy: “…..merely setting an expectation results in enhanced performance.…” Schilling and Schilling 1999 Set your own ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, create a climate conducive to learning and achieving. Establish your ‘Group Protocol’ / ‘Class Ground Rules’ that should be: Negotiated, Positive, Permanently Displayed and Motivational, Collegiate consistency is key to setting Ground Rules, challenge your colleagues if their lack of consistency is letting you down as this is disempowering.

Maximise opportunities for adhering to high expectations: • Greet students at the door • Develop a toolkit of connect activities that immediately engage learners • Narrate learner progress, skill and knowledge development throughout the session • Refer to high expectations in both verbal and written feedback • Check regularly for understanding – of instructions and content • Establish routine practices and expect all colleagues to join in: • ‘No opt out’ – it is not ok not to try – deploy strategies to build confidence • ‘Without apology’ – there is no such thing as boring content – make it accessible @JoanneRoulstone Head of Teaching, Learning & Assessment

Digital Leadership is a Must Have you ever thought how to help digital citizens become digital leaders?

For the past six years, I have been a great supporter of global and collaborative project-based learning. Not only has this way of learning helped my students boost their global competencies, but it has also made them autonomous learners. Learners who know how to build their own learning network, how to find necessary funding and how to make their dreams become reality. Even though the process of empowering our students might seem like a very complex and difficult task, it is definitely worth it. So next time you create a lesson, think twice how you can build digital leaders, not just digital learners. @bar_zie Teacher at Nannestad High School - Norway

Behaviour

Going Above and Beyond Rocket Recognition, a Whole School Community Positive Approach

By Kara Dowson Reviewing Behaviour Policies always seems to be top of the agenda when beginning a new school year and inducting new staff. Having just left an Assistant Headship in Dubai after five years, discussing the collective expectations we have of children was of paramount importance when taking up a Deputy Head position in a small school in rural Northamptonshire. In discussing the topic with children and staff it became apparent that the existing approach was inconsistent. There were blurry lines between rewards, praise and sanctions with an embedded focus on negative reminders and rules in some areas of the school. Children were confused as to what was expected of them when they moved from one lesson to the next, and teachers were frustrated with the laborious system of filling out lengthy house point slips to ‘award’ praise. Sanctions weren’t restorative, children lost golden time and didn’t have a chance of gaining it back. A revamp to our approach to dealing with children’s behaviour was needed and fast, the first day of school was around the corner and we wanted to hit the ground running.

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When generating a systematic approach to behaviour management in a school there isn’t a one size fits all model. Schools and their communities are vastly different and it is extremely important to consider context sensitivity. Sharing best practice from a variety of sources is key to establishing a clear policy for a school. A very wise leader once shared her educational philosophy during my time in Dubai. An importance was placed on using positive language around the school building.

By shouting ‘don’t run’ as a child, a child will hear ‘run’ and probably continue. By saying ‘please walk’, not only is the adult modelling using positive language, the child will hear a reminder rather than a rule. Since then, I have focused my own behaviour management on using positive language and a praise based approach in the schools I have worked in. In my new school environment, I was keen to instil a positive approach which would provide consistency for children which helped them to feel valued and for teachers, a more time effective strategy which would have maximum impact.

As a starting point, through discussion, we decided that we needed a fresh approach with a strong launch to involve the whole school community. We decided to keep our rewards and sanctions as separate entities. Sanctions are still apparent through a traffic light warning system, however, they are now very much restorative and children are encouraged to reflect on their choices and consider how to rectify more negative ones. At the beginning of the school year children discussed what that thought constituted green, amber and red choices and generated their own class set of essential agreements. For rewards, we wanted to keep house points, but make the process less arduous and decided to embrace classdojo.com, linked to our learner profile.

Children love their monster avatars and the log on is shared with all the staff, including specialists which works perfectly to ensure a consistent approach for the children. We have also colour coded them so the children can celebrate their house in assembly.

Having ironed out basic rewards and sanctions, it still felt like we needed to focus more on promoting even higher expectations amongst our school community. Star of the Week in assembly felt like a one off, children realised they would probably only get it once in a rotation of twenty-four children, they had usually forgotten why they had got it and sometimes teachers were generating reasons because it was someone’s turn. I wanted to create a system which promoted above and beyond behaviour which had an on the spot, in the moment reward. Turning once again to best practice, I consulted the work of @pivotaleducation, which is

brimming full of ideas to promote positive behaviour. A combination of researched ideas of best practice and prior experience led to the birth of Rocket Recognition in our school.

The premise is simple. All of the school community are expected to go ‘above and beyond’ in every aspect of their life.

When something is spotted, anyone can be awarded a noticeable rocket recognition lanyard. It is emblazoned with ‘ask me how I have gone above and beyond this week’, and anyone can award them. They are expected to wear them throughout the school day and at home to promote discussion. During our Friday celebration assembly all rocket recognition lanyard awardees, children, teachers and any other adults, from the week join us in assembly whilst dancing to Katy Perry’s Firework and sharing their efforts. Their name is then put on a star on our prominent rocket recognition board and they dance out of assembly to enjoy hot chocolate with the Head.

The response to our initiative has been amazing. There is a buzz around school about Rocket Recognition with our whole school community working hard to achieve the very best positive behaviour expectations. By highlighting this behaviour and encouraging discussion both within school and at home, high expectations are constantly being exemplified by all. An example includes a Year 6 child who actively gave up her time to help a Reception child settle in by communicating with her in her native language. Three weeks in and we are surprised each and every day by the continuously positive efforts of all. Most pleasing of all is that our children now feel empowered to nominate others. Mrs Page @AWJSHead, our Headteacher, received a beautifully written letter from a student nominating her teacher for going ‘above and beyond’, which we then of course awarded. Parents have also commented that their children are more motivated to strive for high personal standards and like that the focus is not just on academic recognition. Rocket Recognition is still in the early stages, and we will continue to reflect on the impact but so far we have a much more consistent, adjoined approach to positive behaviour management.

Kara Dowson @karadowson is a Deputy Head at Akeley Wood Junior School in Northamptonshire. She has taken up the post this year, having moved back to the UK after seven years teaching in Dubai and Bangkok.

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