As 2018 draws to a close, as usual at Durrington we like to look back over the year and select some of the best blogs from the last 12 months. As a profession, we are very lucky that so many colleagues are prepared to share their thoughts and practice through blogging. So here we go – for each month, one from classteaching and one blog of the week.
Enjoy!
January
‘Talking Positive’ by Chris Runeckles discusses how the very best teachers develop great relationships with their students through the language they use.
Bit of a cheat this one but ‘Teaching to the Top: A Challenge Collection’ by Jamie Thom is a really useful collection of blogs that look at how we can ensure challenge for all.
February
‘Classroom Change: How the EEF’s Implementation Guide Can Support Classroom Practice’ by Fran Haynes looks at how this useful publication can be used to improve classroom teaching.
‘Differentiation, Inclusion & Classroom Culture’ by Damian Benney is a great romp through so much that is important about effective teaching.
March
‘Mobilising the Evidence – Part 2’ is an account of our INSET day, where staff shared how they have been mobilising research evidence in their classrooms.
‘Metacognition Assisting Revision’ by Julie Watson is another great example of a teacher mobilising research evidence to support students, following an assessment.
April
‘Bright Spots: SPDS’ highlights everything that is great about CPD at Durrington – sharing effective practice from our fortnightly subject specific CPD meetings.
‘Evidence Informed Teaching: Here’s what you might be doing’ by Tom Sherrington explores what evidence informed teaching looks like in practice,
May
‘Improving Our Subject Knowledge’ looks at how the geography team at Durrington are keeping their own subject knowledge in good shape.
‘Practical approaches to bringing research-informed practice to the classroom, the department and the whole school’ is a brilliant post from Claire Hill & Rebecca Foster on their researchED Durrington talk.
June
‘Year 7 and the joy of learning new subjects’ by Andy Tharby discusses what we can be doing to enthuse students about our subject.
‘Goldilocks Teaching: Pitching it Just Right’ by Harry Fletcher-Wood is an example of why Harry has been one of the most consistently good bloggers over the years.
July
‘Pruning your practice: seven criteria for cutting away ineffective strategies‘ by Andy Tharby does exactly what it says on the tin!
‘Dual coding & working memory’ by Rufus William is a very good account of how Rufus has been grafting key findings from cognitive science on to his day to day practice.
August
No blogging…we were at the beach!
September
‘Knowledge Organisers: Tackling the Misconceptions’ by Fran Haynes unpicks some of the challenges and misconceptions about using knowledge organisers.
‘Applying Cognitive Load Theory part 1: Overview & the Worked Example Effect’ by Tom Needham is another great example of research mobilisation in the classroom.
October
‘Cracking Homework’ by Chris Runeckles takes a look at how we are trying to ensure homework is effective as it can be at Durrington.
‘What makes a top teacher?‘ by Paul Kirschner & Mirjam Neelen unpicks the anatomy of a great teacher.
November
‘Threshold Concepts for Teachers’ is a great example of all that is good about Twitter – good people sharing their ideas freely.
‘How to explain…schema’ by David Didau is David doing what he has been doing brilliantly for years…writing really useful and thought provoking blogs.
December
‘I, We, You – A Simple Approach to Modelling’ by Andy Tharby is an excellent account of a really effective teaching strategy that is being used to great effect by our English team.
‘Closed questions are often the most important questions’ by Louise Hutton looks at the importance of questioning in the classroom.
And finally, here’s a special Christmas treat from the Durrington Research School team – 12 great research papers/articles to keep you busy over the festive period.
Have a great Christmas and all the very best for 2019
Class Teaching 