CPD via Twitter (up to 15th May)
As yesterday’s post shows, I favourite way too many tweets. Some of them, of course, have absolutely nothing to do with teaching. (I’ve still linked to some of them.) But a lot of the time, it’s a way for me to save links or ideas that I can use at work, or links to useful CPD that I want access to. Now that I’ve set up ifttt.com so that every time I favourite a tweet, it arrives in an Evernote folder, life is even better. Thanks to @cleverfiend and LifeHacker for the prompts to this service.
Highlights
There have been two fantastic responses to Wilshaw’s comments (that I’ve seen – I’m sure there have been many more) I wanted to link to. Time For a Change is, as @infernaldepart tweeted, ‘A superb and must read blog post from @mwclarkson‘. I wonder whether a lot of this is a reaction to the media coverage as much as the original comments. @daviderogers produced a post about ‘monitoring and Ofsted bashing‘ which I found really helpful in reminding me what monitoring is supposed to be about; making teaching better. It’s something I feel strongly about, partly because I think in many departments we need to be better at supporting colleagues to share their own examples of best practice.
I’ve managed to unfavourite (and therefore lose) the original tweet, but this article on recent psychological research is very interesting, especially as it applies Dweck’s mindsets ideas to real life situations. Worth reading for all teachers.
This piece from @ng_dave on the (hypothetical) evolutionary biology of the unicorn is interesting, and might be good for able GCSE students or AS/A2 biologists. It would provide interesting discussion and link natural selection pressures with the (distant) potential of GM.
If you don’t already read John Scalzi’s writing (@scalzi on twitter), then go out and buy some. Start with Old Man’s War or The Android’s Dream. While you’re waiting for it/them to arrive or download, try this. Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is would make a fantastic starter or stimulus for a PSHE lesson or, if you have time, form-time discussion.
This great display produced by @hrogerson, presumably with input from her class(es), links in with the book proposal I’m trying to put together. Because I’m not busy enough. She’s kindly given permission to include the photo.
And for all of us currently teaching Physics exam classes, maybe these flash animations will make life easier. Linked by @alomshaha who possibly felt left out of the last blog post. 
Pedagogy and CPD
- @thelazyteacher RT “@reflectivemaths: Towards Independent Learning http://post.ly/7DvAe
#ukedchat” Another sentence axed = more doing time! - @dylanwiliam: Engaging with parents has a significant impact on attitudes and student achievement at a relatively low cost: http://bit.ly/Jh5hOn (pdf)
- @DKMead: New Blog Post: Chunking and SOLO Taxonomy http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/chunking-and-solo-taxonomy.html?m=1
- This is a video from New Zealand but lots of interesting thoughts for any teacher, about student engagement. @WISE_tweets: How can students contribute in the development of teaching methods? http://bit.ly/JjU1gN
- @crystalkirch: What is a
#flippedclassroom? I asked my students; here are THEIR definitions-some gr8 ones! http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-is-flipped-classroom-my-students.html#flipclass#flippedclass - This is a fascinating approach and one I’m trying out – on a much smaller scale – myself. @headguruteacher shared http://ow.ly/aSnf0 Our latest Learning Lessons publication. Co-constructing Physics IGCSE. Great fun!
- @ICTevangelist: Blog post >>> Teachers use Twitter as their preferred CPD tool http://bit.ly/K54utx
#ukedchat#addcym#tmclevedon#teacherontwitter - @davidweston: RT @TeacherDevTrust: Read all about our launch event at the Department for Education on Friday 11th May: http://bit.ly/KZ64Oq
Stressed Teachers and Mobile Phones
Wilshaw managed, in one week, to annoy us all yet again. There were two main issues; he questioned whether we should support ‘stressed teachers’ and also implied that mobile phones should never be used in a classroom. As someone who’s livetweeted from #ASEconf and seen some very powerful uses of mobile phones by adults, I’m surprised by such a close-minded attitude. How are students going to learn responsible uses of mobile phones in a ‘work’ context without doing it at school first? (I wonder how many journalists would like to work without their phones?)
- @tombennett71 linked to Michael Wilshaw’s actual speech which had been extensively quoted from – not always in context – by many, on twitter and in old media. This was when he talked about stress to independant school heads. Which don’t get inspected. Hmm.
- @dukkaboy: new blog post: Why
#OFSTED criticisms can hurt teachers (and its nothing to do with stress Sir Michael Wilshaw) http://bit.ly/KpICwP - @tj007: RT @timbuckteeth: Head of Ofsted says he wants mobiles banned in schools: Here’s my response http://j.mp/INvaod
- @tom_hartley: Government-sourced facts on stress related illness by profession: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress/index.htm Teachers amongst the most affected.
- @MikeMatthewsCDN: Should mobile phones be banned in schools? Do teachers know anything about stress? My
@GuardianTeach thoughts#ofsted#wilshaw#ukedchat http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/may/11/michael-wilshaw-ofsted-stress - @NuttyA10: RT @philallman1: http://bit.ly/IJaGJw Would seem one of the 4 Yorkshiremen has a response to Wilshaw. My latest blog post. Pls RT < :0)
Science
Two tweets tagged with #science140 – a great revision method, by the way – caught my eye, both from @garwboy:
At any point in time, half the plants on the planet are not photosynthesising. But look on the bright side…
A travelling electron saw some particle physicists watching it, so it turned to wave.
Other
There is a certain irony that I suspect @tom_hartley got a lot of the traffic to his blogpost (about the point of twitter) through twitter. That’s how I heard about it, from @professor_dave: Great post from my York colleague @tom_hartley about why academics should get on twitter! http://thermaltoy.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/what-is-the-point-of-twitter/ #tweetingtotheconverted?
- @MsMonroe15: Eg of how private sector want to squeeze our NHS for profits. 1000s of NHS Staff told “take a pay cut or be sacked!” http://goo.gl/ZUUmc
- @GarethAveyard: So, I quickly scribbled this “thing” down about depression, no idea if it makes sense, you can read it, if you like… http://j.mp/M4V1Zn
- @TimHarford: Anodyne anonymity, thought provoking article by @doctorow http://dlvr.it/1Z206
My aim is to repeat this each weekend or so, hopefully with rather less to try to include. And yes, I know I’ve not hotlinked all the tweeters. Those that are linked pasted that way from twitter. I shall investigate quicker ways to list them, possibly as a Storyify of some kind. We shall see. If you’ve found any of the links useful, please comment below – that will massively increase the probability of me doing it again.
Filed under: CPD, science, teaching, web | 3 Comments
Recent Comments
RCTs: a Twitter disc… on The Evidence-Based-Teaching… Arnav on GCSE Science Revision Katherine Mathieson on From the Classroom Up Devinder on From the Classroom Up lunatikscience on From the Classroom Up Teaching Science
I also have far too many favourites on twitter – mostly science related, so I am finding your list of CPD tweets very useful. Just spent a good half-hour exploring your links and links from your links. The co-constructive ideas are very interesting – something I have tried in the past with not much success so good to see how it can work.
Please keep posting – it is appreciated!
Both ‘CPD via Twitter’ posts are excellent and extremely useful, try as you might you will always miss something on twitter. Thanks for all your work, looking forward to the next one.
New to twitter, I’m finding your tweets very useful and when you direct us to your blog I look! I appreciate any filtering and sorting of information you do. Keep it up!