Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com My first teaching post was as a ‘Humanities’ NQT. Having studied some Theology during my degree, I was excited to teach KS3 RE alongside KS3 and KS4 history. I was less than thrilled that I would also have to teach KS3 geography; having given up geography aged 14, I … Continue reading What a wonderful world: teaching Humanities
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com During her first placement Tina proved to be a good teacher in the making. She has sound ideas about what she wants to achieve in the classroom, is organised and a great team player. She was quick out of the blocks at the start of the course and really … Continue reading Teflon Tina: How to support a beginning teacher struggling to act on advice
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Low level disruption (shouting out/ whispered conversations/ persistent clicking of pen lids/ ignoring instructions) in the classroom is the scourge of teaching and learning. It eats up time and energy and takes away learning opportunities from the wider class. There is nothing really 'low level' about disruption - it impedes learning. … Continue reading ‘I predict a riot!’ Supporting your mentee to notice and deal with low level disruption*
Photo by Max Fischer on Pexels.com As we stand on the precipice of returning to full classroom teaching after the most recent lockdown I’ve begun wondering how our beginning and early career teachers might be feeling. It seems I’m not alone in this thought. Indeed, shortly after having conversation with one of my own PGCE … Continue reading I don’t like Mondays: Advice for beginning teachers on making a positive return to post-lockdown teaching
It is a tricky job writing a reference for a beginning teacher who may then be compared with more experienced colleagues, but where to begin in the middle of a Pandemic when their initial teacher education year has been so disrupted and unusual? I first wrote a blog about writing references for trainee teachers in … Continue reading Writing job references for beginning teachers: Recommending Rahul, the Pandemic Edit
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com The pandemic has demonstrated the strength and versatility of cooperation and collaboration in our ITE partnership. This has been shown through the support and flexibility of our school partners joining with us to train beginning teachers, and through the ways in which the University PGCE has worked to develop … Continue reading An Ode to our History ITE Mentors: A journey into training to be a teacher virtually, Part 3
This week on the University of Nottingham ITE programmes our beginning teachers have been looking at how we can teach effective lessons in a remote learning context. As part of this work they were tasked with exploring a range of different online learning tools which could be used in their teaching. Erin Brady, one of … Continue reading Bamboozled by remote learning apps? Making sense of different online learning tools
Helping early career teachers and training teachers to move their lessons into a virtual space Photo by Yan on Pexels.com This week I was contacted by a former tutee who is an early career teacher. They asked if I could talk with them about the challenges they are facing moving to a live online classroom. … Continue reading Finding your feet with remote (and online) teaching
by Victoria Crooks and Sally Burnham Photo by Julia M Cameron on Pexels.com This year has been full of technological and pedagogical challenges, not least the speed with which teachers have had to transition to providing remote learning for their pupils. When schools closed in March 2020 it was all so new to us – … Continue reading From classroom to computer: Equipping training teachers to teach online
Photo by Vlad Cheu021ban on Pexels.com “Why aren’t they just able to cope? They need to be more resilient.” UK National lockdown in March 2020 threw all of us into a land of unknowns. In education, carefully crafted spiralling curricula was suddenly disrupted and at every level new ways had to be found to fulfil … Continue reading Lessons in resilience for early career teachers
During the SHP Virtual Conference in July, I got into a Twitter conversation with a beginning teacher who, following Christine Counsell’s presentation on ‘The what, why and how of broadening historical content at KS3’, commented that he felt like a teaching toddler: This feeling of not having done enough or learnt enough or not … Continue reading Discovering Lego: Growing as an early career teacher
Back in March I wrote this blog for the UoN Primary Team's excellent Blog considering six ideas for developing primary history, along with some practical strategies. I now reproduce it here in case it is helpful to a wider audience. “Mum you’ll never guess what happened today!” These words we’re delivered by my 7-year-old with … Continue reading From caveman to concepts: Making history count in the primary classroom
I remember the moment I was first asked to be a NQT mentor. The news was delivered as a fait accompli, and my heart sank. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it, I did, but I had just gained my first middle leader promotion and was in the middle of a MA. I … Continue reading Why bother mentoring a beginning teacher? What’s in it for me?
Around this time last year I wrote about how beginning teachers could make the most of their final weeks as PGCE students in the classroom. This year, they do not have classrooms, they only have the virtual PGCE programme to prepare them for NQT in the absence of critical practical experience. I asserted previously that … Continue reading Supporting your new NQT colleague to THRIVE amidst a global pandemic
Photo by Ingo Joseph on Pexels.com Before I begin this blog it is important to establish that I am utterly convinced of the importance of partnership in Initial Teacher Education. Training teachers ‘outside’ the classroom environment in a purely theoretical realm is just not possible; theoretical knowledge cannot be easily interpreted by teachers into effective … Continue reading Embracing the space: A journey into training to be a teacher virtually
Photo by Julia M Cameron on Pexels.com The last month has brought changes to our world that none of us could have envisaged when we set off in September on the endeavour of training beginning teachers. Our minds were preoccupied with the usual concerns – how do we move students through the plateau, how do … Continue reading Becoming a teacher, virtually
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com In my admissions tutor role I occasionally undertake interviews via video-call. Those of us tasked with this job agree that, whilst video-calling is an incredible C21st development, it in no way replaces the valuable, nuanced interaction of a face to face interview. In teaching, where interpersonal skills and classroom … Continue reading Virtual Interviews: How to manage an online teaching interview
Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi on Pexels.com It is at around this point in the ITT year when many training teachers begin to get into their stride. They are no longer complete novices; they have built a familiarity with their placement setting and its rules and procedures, they are understanding how to fit into the departmental … Continue reading Moving beyond delivery: The thorny issue of competency
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com In part 1 of this blog, I provided some of the context to why it is important for beginning teachers (those engaged in ITE programmes, NQTs and RQTs), engage in the lesson planning process. In this second part I will unpack the ways in which we try to take a … Continue reading The Many Faces of Lesson Planning: Part 2 of 2
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com One of the best lessons I taught as a history teacher was conceived as I wrestled with the plan whilst walking down the corridor to the lesson. In that moment, I realised that my sense of unease meant I needed to re-orientate my historical enquiry question and, therefore, utilise … Continue reading The Many Faces of Lesson Planning: Part 1 of 2
We're approaching that time in the ITE year when our students prepare to move to a new school setting for their second teaching practice. Having just settled into their placement school, having just found their feet as beginning teachers, we uproot them and transplant them into a brand new context, with different children, staff team, … Continue reading A shape-sorter understanding: Why mentees find changing teaching placements so hard
Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com Wanda had started to struggle. It was small things at first, a partially completed lesson plan with the promise that the full version would follow and a set of books she’d taken home for marking accidently left in her kitchen on the day they were due to be returned. Finally, … Continue reading Worrying about Wanda: Supporting your mentee’s well-being and workload
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Edward was a quiet, some might say timid, chap. When he started his teacher training it was hard to imagine him standing in front of a hardened year 8 class, let alone 'managing' them during a wet and windy Friday period 5. Edward was great when working with pupils one … Continue reading Creation not Emulation: Developing teacher persona
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com One of our history ITE mentors likes to talk about the way she and I often perform a ‘pincer movement’ on the beginning teachers we share. This sounds much more aggressive than the reality! Our ‘pincer movement’ most often involves both of us praising the student for the same achievement … Continue reading The Power of Partnership in Initial Teacher Education
Photo by Nikolay Draganov on Pexels.com "Come on then, what makes someone a good PGCE student?", I was asked by a friend during the summer break. The faces of those successful beginning teachers I've supported over the past few years flashed through my mind. How do you answer that question? All of those people successful, … Continue reading Optimistic, Observant and Open: What makes a successful PGCE/ ITE student?
As we pop into school in the next two weeks for results days, it's worth giving a thought to how we can support new colleagues (whether NQTs or more experienced teachers) joining our departments and schools in the new academic year. How can effective mentoring and induction support them and benefit your department?
Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com At the start of the PGCE I use a recurring image with my students of a house under construction. I set out that our aim during the ITE year is to dig and lay the foundations upon which their teaching career (the ‘house’) will be built. This process will … Continue reading Building your house: Teaching in the Long Term
Photo by Arul on Pexels.com One afternoon in June, at the dawn of the National Curriculum, a Year 8 pupil opened her history exercise book to find a handwritten note from her teacher which said: ‘You are a gifted historian with a keen analytical mind and deep interest in the past. You should ensure History … Continue reading Flying the nest: Helping your student to end well
We are entering that often tricky period in the ITE year when most students know if they have done enough to meet the teacher standards and are very much in the final furlong with the finish line in view. They now face a decision - do they gallop to the finish line, driving forward, attacking … Continue reading Galloping into the final furlong: Supporting your mentee to make the most of their final weeks as a training teacher
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Quinton is a good questioner. On one level he is able to present the pupils with a task and draw out the salient historical facts through his questioning feedback, ensuring the pupils ‘get it’. He feels confident in his ability to do this, and yet his mentor and university tutor … Continue reading Quinton’s Questioning: Unleashing historical discussion in your mentee’s lessons
Becoming a History Teacher 