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Zoe Elder

What 3 things would you do to help a teacher improve?

2013-12-04T22:54:12+00:00December 3rd, 2013|training|

If there was no OfSTED, no league tables, no SLT... just you and your class. What would you choose to do to make it GREAT? Do that anyway... Tom Sherrington Every teacher needs to improve. Not because they're not good enough but because they can be even better. Dylan Wiliam It's been said before but, I think, bears repeating: Ofsted have a lot to answer for. No one wants failing schools going unchecked but the medicine is often worse than the cure. I spent the morning at a lovely primary school who have just been 'done'. And they really do feel [...]

Planning Lessons – lessons I’ve learned from lessons I've taught

2013-06-09T17:07:42+01:00June 9th, 2013|Featured, planning|

This is a summary and a drawing together of several earlier posts. I consider it a refinement of my thinking and something which is painstakingly (and grandiosely) groping its way towards a total philosophy of planning. It does also attempt to offer something new but is this enough to deserve a new post? You decide. "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Smug teachers, everywhere Planning: still a good thing to do first As a new teacher, lesson planning seemed to suck up almost all of my available time and energy. Looking back over those frenetic early years it's become [...]

Icebergs, taking risks & being outstanding

2024-01-19T10:53:07+00:00February 11th, 2013|Featured, learning, planning, training|

How do we recognise a great teacher, a great lesson or great teaching and learning? How do we know what we're seeing is outstanding? The sad truth is that often observers don't (or can't) see the wood for the trees. They see your planning, they see your interactions with a group of students and, hopefully, they see the evidence of impact in your students' books. But most of what goes into making your lessons finely crafted things of beauty are invisible. Observers only ever get to see the tip of the iceberg. If a writer of prose knows enough of [...]

Building challenge: differentiation that’s quick and works

2017-01-02T15:16:55+00:00January 19th, 2013|English, learning, planning|

UPDATE: These two posts represent my latest think on differentiation:  Is differentiation a zero-sum game? April 2015 Why do we overestimate the importance of differences? November 2014 Since having a good long think about differentiation some while back it doesn't keep me up at nights nearly as much as it used to. But this is still one of my most visited posts so clearly other folks continue to be troubled. I want to set out my stall early by saying that this is yet another of those troublesome topics which is far simpler than most teachers imagine. My bottom line is that mucking [...]

Outstanding teaching & learning: missed opportunities and marginal gains

2012-10-14T11:52:32+01:00October 14th, 2012|learning, myths, training|

I work at an 'outstanding' school where the teaching and learning is 'good'. As such we are squarely in Wilshaw's sights and almost certainly due an inspection at some point this year. We were last inspected in November 2011 but a lot of goal post moving has gone on in the intervening months. The new inspection framework is widely seen as a ravening beast out to devour schools that are not delivering to the lofty standards of our hero, the saviour of Mossbourne Academy. In essence, what this means is that if we want to retain the right to put 'outstanding' [...]

So, what are learning spies?

2011-07-11T20:18:53+01:00July 11th, 2011|learning|

A few years ago an Ofsted inspector told me I talked too much and that as a result the lesson that had been observed was 'satisfactory'. I was gutted. I was also determined to do something about it. The task of getting out of the way so that my students are free to learn for themselves has been challenging but also without doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me. As an educator I mean - obviously the birth of my children etc. was way cooler! Following some training with Zoe Elder on Observing Learning, I began experimenting with the [...]

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