Personal Reflections 2/4/19

Simplifying Algebraic Fractions with S4
I have had a great unit on Algebraic Fractions with my S4 class these last couple of weeks. I have made extensive use of example problem pairs and the whiteboards I have around my room. I talk in more depth about one aspect of the unit here.

Bloom's Taxonomy
I blogged about my view on the famous pyramid, and how I think it has been misinterpreted but still has value. Interestingly, since I posted this, Pooja Agarwal has released an article linking retrieval practice to Bloom's Taxonomy (https://www.retrievalpractice.org/strategies/2019/3/27/blooms-taxonomy).

Newsletter
I published the first issue of our T&L Newsletter of 2019 last week. We have a couple of new sections linked to our school focuses for the year, and links to 8 blogs that I hope people will find useful. I also blogged about using objectives effectively as part of our focus on the Principles of Great Teaching.

Challenge
I ran an INSET session on Challenging All Students, which is our first Principle of Great Teaching. In summary, I talked about the following:

• "But I already do that!"
• Memory is the Residue of Thought
• Mindsets
• Pygmalion and Golem Effect
• Differentiation
• Content vs Task
• The Struggle Zone
• Success Before Struggle
• Show Them Excellence
• A Culture of Challenge
• Further Reading

If you are interested, you can find the presentation with my detailed presenters notes here.