Tips for Teachers newsletter #1

Use both sides of mini-whiteboards, behaviour & Dylan Wiliam

Hello, and welcome to the Tips for Teachers newsletter. For over 400 ideas to try out the very next time you step into the classroom, check out my Tips for Teacher book.

💡 A quick tip to try in class this week 💡

Everyone loves a mini-whiteboard, right? But do you make use of both sides of mini-whiteboards? 

Now you can ask students a complex, multi-step procedure. Students can do their working out on one side, and then write their final answer nice and big on the other. Or if you ask students to vote for the answer to a diagnostic question, they can write their answer nice and big on one side, and make some notes on their reasoning on the other.

When students show you their boards, you ask them to show the big answer side first. This allows you to clearly see a spread of the answers. If you then choose a child to question further, you can ask to see the other side of their board, and share this with the rest of the class if relevant. This simple idea prevents you from needing laser eyesight to pick out the final answer amidst a board full of working out.

And it also helps the student. It can be daunting to explain your answer to the rest of the class or to your partner. But if students have their working out or reasoning written out, it acts as a support to help improve their verbal explanations. This may be particularly important for your quieter, less confident students.

• What would you need to change to make this tip work for you?

• When could you try it for the first time?

• View all the Tips for Teachers shared so far

📺 A video to discuss with a colleague 📺

Head of Maths, Femi Adeniran, described how the objectives in his first week of lessons are nothing to do with content, and all to do with behaviour.

If the video doesn't play, click here

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👂 A podcast episode to listen to on your way home 👂

The legend, Dylan Wiliam, shares his five tips:

1. Make feedback into detective work

2. Make detention work fit the crime

3. Make question planning part of lesson planning

4. We have little insight into our learning

5. Don’t let “Don’t know” be the end of the conversation

Listen to the podcast here.

Search for Tips for Teachers on any podcast platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc) and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

😎 Final bits and bobs 😎

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