New media and AFL

There is an interesting account here of how a Scottish teacher of MFL is using new media to successfuly support Peer Assessment.

Linited choice

The Teaching Expertise website produces a regular bulletin that focuses on Behaviour Management. A recent issue looked at how offering pupils a limited choice can help to improve behaviour in the classroom. Check out the article here.
Thanks to Claire Fleming for the link.

Blooms' resources

There are a lot of resources for using Blooms' Taxonomy in the classroom as a tool to develop pupils thinking skills at this website here.

Thanks to Zoe Newbery for the link.

Thinking skills online

Futurelab have produced an online resource that they describe below:

Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides. Thinking guides can support independent and group research projects with frameworks for thinking, planning and enquiry. We’ve provided a set of ready-made guides which you can print out or use online. All of the guides are completely customizable or you can start from scratch and make your own! You can share them and work on them in groups too.

You need to register first. Check it out here.

Distributing innovation

Professor David Hargreaves has been writing perceptively about education for many years and has recently been focused on the changes linked to the new curriculum and personalised learning. For him one of the key factors is sharing the responsibility for innovation amongst as many people as possible. Below is one example of his common sense approach:
Those who pioneer radical innovations need to keep track of
the lessons they learn during the innovation, and these lessons need
to be transferred to the recipient as an inherent part of the innovation.
Distributed innovation is effective in part because members of the
innovation network are constantly sharing the lessons learned and so
easing the innovation and transfer processes. There is always a
danger that innovators offer an innovation in too polished a form to
others. When innovations are 'good enough' , with some rough
edges, and not too far from a recipient's current practice, they are
easier to transfer.
Read more here.

New curriculum resources

The DSCF has provided a new website to support teachers planning the new curriculum.

You need to register to use it but it is worth it.

It has some useful resources including videos and a curriculum planning wizard which offers support with planning.

Check it out here.

Learning and Teaching Update

The Teaching Expertise website produces a monthly newsheet called Learning and Teaching Update. The April issue has some useful articles on

• Creativity and the new cuuriculum


• Teachers views on pupil achievement

Download a copy here.