Justin Hockey

On singing together: Everybody wins when everybody sings Everybody sings with the right songs - So we must sing better songs.

This is also true for men. I used to joke "I'm not ready for anyone to be calling me 'Dad' yet." From the moment my daughter was born I was embarrassed to have ever thought that. Life knows no greater joy than parenthood.

In 10 years, we'll realize young adults can't read, write, or think as well as they should. We'll wonder how we allowed students to offload huge chunks of their learning to AI. Today we're just watching it happen. This is the most obvious unforced error of our time.

Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction

Setting is the UK term for placing students into different classes based on their perceived ability or prior attainment in a subject. Following the news this week from the UK of positive effects of setting on maths achievement and self-confidence, here are my thoughts. 1. More than three gradations per year level makes no sense. There is no data that can reliable place a child in set 5 out of 7. 2. The least advanced group needs the best teachers. Too often, they are given a new teacher or even a relief teacher, while the head of department somehow ends up with the most advanced kids. 3. All groups should get substantially the same curriculum, otherwise students never have a chance to move sets. What should vary is the level of scaffolding. A teacher should keep the less advanced students close. 4. While I’m fairly convinced of the value of setting in *mathematics*, I would always be keen to hear the views of the relevant head of department. If the head of English and their team want mixed ability groups, I would listen, ask challenging questions and, depending on the responses, probably support it. I suspect many advocates of setting would find at least one of these four points to be controversial.

"Math fact fluency is often misunderstood as memorization. In reality, it functions as a cognitive support system. When foundational knowledge becomes automatic, persistence increases, frustration decreases, reasoning improves, and confidence grows. Automaticity doesn’t replace thinking, it creates the space for understanding." @SamanthaBrauns2

Not teaching students math facts because they can use calculators, spelling rules because they have spell check, historical dates because they can google it, or writing skills because they have Al is a travesty. Depriving students of these things enslaves them to technology rather than freeing them to flourish as human beings.

Just set off from Edinburgh to get to Auckland in time for this weekend’s researchED New Zealand. First in 8 years, and it’s completely sold out. I am beyond pleased to see this idea roaring back. From 2018: #rEDNZ

Weak foundations turn normal challenges into identity crises.

Nick Gibb: "Progressive ideology caused the decline in educational performance: simply because it doesn't work." clarin.com/opinion/nick-g…

@Joseph_Fasano_ There's something moving about seeing your words - not in print, but in painstakingly handwritten script. Blessed.

The best thing my students ever gave me. One semester I thought they were just *really* focused on taking notes. Turns out they were compiling a book of all the slightly unhinged things I'd said. It's 152 pages long.

@themetresgained Bread and circuses. Er, make that breadcrumbs...

Ah, election year handouts.

Data shows that banning cell phones in schools has led to increased use of the library. Who would have guessed that when students don’t have constant access to their tiny screens they would choose to read books? Roald Dahl had a hunch and even wrote a poem about it.👇🏼 Television “The most important thing we've learned, So far as children are concerned, Is never, NEVER, NEVER let Them near your television set -- Or better still, just don't install The idiotic thing at all. In almost every house we've been, We've watched them gaping at the screen. They loll and slop and lounge about, And stare until their eyes pop out. (Last week in someone's place we saw A dozen eyeballs on the floor.) They sit and stare and stare and sit Until they're hypnotised by it, Until they're absolutely drunk With all that shocking ghastly junk. Oh yes, we know it keeps them still, They don't climb out the window sill, They never fight or kick or punch, They leave you free to cook the lunch And wash the dishes in the sink -- But did you ever stop to think, To wonder just exactly what This does to your beloved tot? IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD! IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD! IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND! IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND! HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE! HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE! HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES! 'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say, 'But if we take the set away, What shall we do to entertain Our darling children? Please explain!' We'll answer this by asking you, 'What used the darling ones to do? 'How used they keep themselves contented Before this monster was invented?' Have you forgotten? Don't you know? We'll say it very loud and slow: THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ, AND READ and READ, and then proceed To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks! One half their lives was reading books! The nursery shelves held books galore! Books cluttered up the nursery floor! And in the bedroom, by the bed, More books were waiting to be read! Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales And treasure isles, and distant shores Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars, And pirates wearing purple pants, And sailing ships and elephants, And cannibals crouching 'round the pot, Stirring away at something hot. (It smells so good, what can it be? Good gracious, it's Penelope.) The younger ones had Beatrix Potter With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter, And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland, And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and- Just How The Camel Got His Hump, And How the Monkey Lost His Rump, And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul, There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole- Oh, books, what books they used to know, Those children living long ago! So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books, Ignoring all the dirty looks, The screams and yells, the bites and kicks, And children hitting you with sticks- Fear not, because we promise you That, in about a week or two Of having nothing else to do, They'll now begin to feel the need Of having something to read. And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy! You watch the slowly growing joy That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen They'll wonder what they'd ever seen In that ridiculous machine, That nauseating, foul, unclean, Repulsive television screen! And later, each and every kid Will love you more for what you did.”

Learning about Cognitive Load Theory can be done in a half hour PD and immediately touch on nearly every aspect of your teaching practice. As far as education frameworks, it may be the most valuable thing a teacher can possibly learn about. It's crazy that more don't.

This is one reason why it’s so critical for teachers to have a mental model of how learning happens. When you know for example that the overwhelming consensus of cognitive psychologists is that knowledge deeply encoded in long-term memory & readily accessible facilitates higher order thinking you should be instantly skeptical of, say, Boaler-esque research claiming to have found the opposite. You don’t have to dismiss it out of hand but your first reaction should be: that is very surprising & goes against consensus. Let me look closer…

Television is going to revolutionise education! [Television changes education a little but it’s hardly a revolution] Microcomputers are going to revolutionise education! [Microcomputers change education a little but it’s hardly a revolution] The internet is going to revolutionise education! [The internet changes education a little but it’s hardly a revolution] Multimedia CD-ROMs are going to revolutionise education! […] Gamification is going to revolutionise education! [Gamification changes education a little but it’s hardly a revolution] AI is going to revolutionise education!

Science of Reading doesnt become real because you buy materials, host training, or say the right things. It becomes real when leaders build systems that make evidence-based instruction clear, supported, practiced, inspected, protected, and sustained. Clarity. Consistency. Culture

I do *not* want an AI "summary" of an email, or a book, or a life. I do not want an AI summary of a winter sky, or my father's hands, or the hope in my child's eyes. I do not want an AI summary of the human heart, or the first little shiver of lust, or the long good work of love.

@themetresgained Had it on tape back in the day. Some real solid moments

Coldplay's Parachutes is underrated.

I'm still reading posts on LinkedIn claiming that Finland is the best education system in the world. It's not. They performed top in reading once (2000) and have been declining ever since. The Finland Education Myth Explained in 60 Seconds. Link below👇