3-Read Friday #005
Teach like nobody's watching, 1% better, and angles
Here are three blog posts that I found interesting this week.
1. Dance Like Nobody’s Watching by Craig Latimir
Craig’s appearance on my podcast where we discussed How to plan a maths lesson is one of my all-time favourite episodes. I am delighted that Craig has decided to turn his insightful Twitter threads into longer-form blogs. In this post, Craig explains why he teaches like nobody is listening. In other words, no matter how strong his explanation is, how focussed his students appear to be, or how well-pitched his questions are, unless he has evidence that students have both listened and understood, he assumes they haven’t. This is a super-powerful mindset to have as a teacher.
2. 100 things 1% better by Thahmina Begum
When British cycling was dominating the world a decade ago, the idea of marginal gains became popularised. Teaching can’t resist a bandwagon, and hence I remember sitting through several CPD sessions where we were advised to seek out the marginal gains in our lessons and exploit them. The problem was, it was all a little too abstract and gimmicky. In this post, Thahmina goes concrete and super-specific, identifying 13 components of how she dismisses a class at the end of the lesson and seeks out ways to make a 1% improvement in each of them.
3. Thinking About Interior and Exterior Angles by Paul Rowlandson
Paul is one of my all-time favourite maths bloggers. He specialises in taking topic-specific deep dives. He looks at different ways of introducing the topic, explaining key concepts, identifying misconceptions, choosing appropriate examples, and providing high-impact practice. In this post - the first in a series of three - Paul tackles the topic of interior and exterior angles, suggesting we use something that I haven’t thought about in 30 years…
If you found this edition of 3-Read Friday useful, feel free to share it with colleagues. Also, you can check out all the back issues of my Eedi newsletter and Tips for Teachers newsletter here. But, most importantly of all, have a great weekend.
Craig