It's the school holidays in Australia and I thought I'd take a fortnight off. However, after getting over the compulsory first week of holidays cold, I've read so much great stuff that I thought I'd better get to sharing it!

T1 this week is just marvellous. A quick snapshot into one English teacher's classroom with an actionable summary of how to do whole class feedback. T1 is complete with photos and templates that you can use in your own classroom. Well worth checking out.

T2 is an excellent 50-ish page document about the science of learning. It uses the acronym ‘MARGE' to help us to remember to motivate, attend, relate, generate, and evaluate. Each chapter finishes with a summary of things to remember for the classroom. This booklet was recommended by Daniel Willingham, so you don't just need to take my word for it. (also, the chapters are super short, I read the one on motivation in 11 minutes, and I took my time, so it's short enough to be used as a discussion prompt in department meetings)

T3 is a bit of a new format post from Harry Fletcher-Wood. Harry asked teachers to comment on one of his previous posts in response to a question similar to ‘What are some of the strategies you use when a class, or a student, seems reluctant to begin a task'. He crowdsourced the wisdom and compiled it into a post. Very interesting read.

T4 is a helpful metaphor that I'll be using in future.

T5 is a good follow up from Ben Newmark's piece last week. In last TOT I shared Ben's piece about keeping your priorities straight in a school, this week Ben gives three pieces of advice on writing and implementing effective school policies.

I've already written a fair bit, so I'll let the titles of the rest of the takeaways speak for themselves. I guess one other thing I could add is that last Wednesday I interviewed Dylan Wiliam for 2.5 hours on his book ‘Leadership for Teacher Learning'. It was an incredible discussion, so watch this space for the release of that ERRR episode on November 1st.

Enjoy : )

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The best ‘How to whole class feedback' vignette I've ever seen, via @MisterKirkman

MARGE: Motivate, attend, relate, generate, evaluate: A must read booklet on the science of learning

Advice on how tackle the problem of students refusing to start a task, via @HFletcherWood

A balanced diet: A helpful analogy for instructional practices, via @teacherhead

Solid advice to ensure your school policies don't just end up on a dusty shelf, via @bennewmark

Helpful snippet: You can arrange your seating plan to ensure the first few students you see are a representative sample, via @Doug_Lemov

 

New study finds that Grit is a redundant construct, via @Psych_Writer

Maths teachers: IM, Exit Tickets, Practice Problems…and “Conceptual Understanding, via @hrwave2004

Important things to consider when studying the impact of technology on education, via @RobertSlavin

New study: Apparently being bilingual doesn't improve executive function

How teachers can support students through a divorce of their parents

Prepping for exams? What about listening to an exam hall soundscape at the same time?

Just for fun: Time lapse of seeds growing

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