Category: workshops/talks I have presented

Cultivating Positive Team Culture: Workshop at TeachUp, May 2019

Ice breaker questions such as these ones help build vulnerability between people. This helps create a positive team culture.

I really enjoyed presenting at the Singapore International Schools TeachUp. Thanks to the participants who came along to my session about positive team culture. I have been encouraged recently by learning that team culture can be impacted by even one person delivering a steady stream of cues in three areas:

  1. Belonging
  2. Vulnerability
  3. Story

In the workshop I shared that these three areas were named for me in the book The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Some of the ideas are obvious but it’s valuable to have a structure within which to think about them.

In the workshop, we spent some time sharing ideas about creating culture by visiting stations around the room and talking with each other. A lot of good ideas were shared. The scanned sheets from the stations have been uploaded below.

Slides available here.

(Cookie recipe here.)

Blank table materials available here. Scanned table materials with participant’s contributions available here.

How would you create a positive culture in your team (or school)? Maybe you think the ideas are obvious, but naming them helps us remember to do them. Share here in the comments or tweet me @mathsfeedback.

Things I Learned about Marking, Students Collaborating, Diagnostic Questions, and Students’ Reasoning (Notes from the Maths TeachMeet in Kuala Lumpur)

The maths TeachMeet in I attended today at Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur was inspiring. I attended sessions about marking (by Denise Benson from Beacon House School), a collaborative KS3 scheme of work (Phil Welch from Alice Smith School), things learned from Craig Barton (John Cartwright from Garden International School), and ways to deepen students’ reasoning  talk (Simone Dixon from Tanglin Trust School).

I also led a workshop about career progression for teachers (materials here). One of the tips I give is about reflective journaling. I recommend starting a blog, for instance. Someone asked me about my own blog and I realise I should probably practice what I preach and write some posts. A good first goal would be once a month since I’m currently writing a lot less than that.

Smart Marking (by Denise Benson from Beacon House School)

My main takeaways were twofold, one of which is not even about marking. First, exit tickets are the way Denise marks because it provides her with feedback for the planning and teaching of the next lesson and because it’s immediately useful to the student as well to see if they understood the lesson. I was struck that it would make them easier to have a little pre-printed form that they use and then the next lesson they could stick it in their book (if I deem that it would be useful for them to keep them). The scribbles below are a mock-up from my notes; hope you can read them!

Secondly, teachers complain about marking because they don’t have time. But actually teachers give up lots of time for lots of things, for example, reading teaching blogs, writing worksheets, or going to a TeachMeet on a Saturday. The problem with marking is that it’s not always a good use of time. Denise was saying that we should find a way to make it quicker and worth the time it takes.

She left us with a brilliant question.

A collaborative KS3 scheme of work (Phil Welch from Alice Smith School)

We had some good background discussion first about what KS3 looks like in each of our schools (using a Padlet). But I shall skip forward to the thing that struck me: Phil has capitalised on a timetabling quirk in that the whole of year 7 has maths at the same time. Thus they can have one week a term in which the students do a collaborative project in mixed groups. Also, the school has pairs of big classrooms with sliding doors between so they can squish a whole year group in for introduction or closing sessions. They also have a lot of breakout/corridor space for groups to work on projects. Really, this is such a great idea that works thanks in part to the brilliant facilities they have at Alice Smith School. Collaborative projects would still work in my school but would be a bit messier.

Highlights of the things learned from Craig Barton (John Cartwright from Garden International School) Continue reading “Things I Learned about Marking, Students Collaborating, Diagnostic Questions, and Students’ Reasoning (Notes from the Maths TeachMeet in Kuala Lumpur)”