Five teaching changes to make in 2019!

New year, new start! As we enter 2019, people across the world, give up chocolate, take up exercise and make new resolutions. But, what will you change in the classroom? Here are five easy steps you can take to improve your professional practice. Small tweaks can make a huge difference to you, your wellbeing and your children!.

Take Teaching Risks!

Where risks are taken, mistakes are made and where mistakes are made, learning happens. This is the philosophy taken by teachers with their pupils but rarely do we apply it to our own practice. More often than not teachers play it safe and stick to what they know, particularly during lesson observations. 2019 is a great time to start taking regular measurable risks that can allow you to discover new approaches to teaching and can excite both the children and you!

Instant Marking!

Feedback can be very effective if done in the correct way and can improve learning but it can also be very time consuming and take a lot of time away from the children and/or your evenings at home. Instant marking provides instant feedback for students who can make changes, adaptations and progress further immediately. Simply move around the class with your pen and mark children's work as they go, during the lesson. It does not always have to be written and can be verbal. By the end of the lesson 50% of your marking will already be complete. Make it a habit and you will thank yourself for it at the weekends whilst watching that extra episode on Netflix!

Try Something New...Weekly

Getting complacent is very easy to do, when you are in you are a competent teacher. You can feel comfortable enough to stop being innovative in your classroom. You may find yourself using many of the same lessons that you have taught in previous years. You are not alone! Without someone driving you forward it is easy to become stagnant.

To avoid this, create a weekly slot in your timetable where you promise yourself that you are going to try something new - A new approach or a new challenge. It doesn't have to be anything too crazy. Just something that will keep you and your class on your toes a little more. If it goes wrong, that's great - it is good for students to see you make mistakes too! Try new strategies will build your knowledge whilst developing your creativity along with the children's. Just go for it!

​Ask the students what they thought!

Student feedback on lessons is not utilised enough! They are our customers but for some reason most schools fail to gain regular feedback on their opinions of how they are being taught. Three simple questions can allow teacher to gain some great simple reflections on how they should teach.

What would like me to continue doing in your lessons?

What would you like me to do less of your lessons?

What would you like me to do more of your lessons?

Their feedback may not be the most constructive at first but give them time and practice and your class will become the best lesson observers you have ever had in your classroom! Try gaining weekly feedback from the people who matter the most in school!

Simplify Your Planning

Planning takes too much time and more often than not, while filling in box after box of extra information, they take away the focus on what learning should be taking place. Over planning is never a good thing! Simplify your planning by focusing on what learning is taking place. Lessons should be made up of 5 simple parts that can be ordered in different ways to suit different types of lessons.