Morgan Chatten

@Emma_Turner75 Emma, that’s so scary! Wishing you the best xx

Didn’t expect to start my summer holiday 2 wks ago in an ambulance & then in multiple Spanish dentists& hospitals after fainting, breaking lots of teeth & requiring multiple stitches in my face. It’ll be a long road to recovery so thank goodness we still have a long summer break!

@SaysMiss This is an absolutely wonderful thread and one that really resonates with me. Thank you for sharing. 💖

🧵 on making school a compelling place to be: I rarely speak about the fact that I was a school refuser. I found it difficult to attend for many reasons, that, given the opportunity, I opted out of doing so.

@tombennett71 😂 Love this.

The advice ‘build a good relationship’ to teachers is both fundamentally correct and simultaneously the worst advice you can possibly give. It is Schrödinger’s Behaviour advice, both right and wrong.

@adamboxer1 Yes! I could not agree more! Watch, wait and learn! ❤️

The first job of any incoming head of department is to do...nothing. Take your time. Figure things out. Don't rock the boat until you've identified the thing that really needs changing. That applies to anything: booklets, T&L, starters, homework platform, admin...whatever.

A privilege to be able to work with these two exceptional people - join us if you can

@EstherMcVey1 Madame, why is this still on your feed? It’s tone deaf - so tone deaf it’s even had news coverage. No one thinks this was a good idea. We get it, you like a sneaky ciggie in a pub garden and have no social awareness. Take it down for crying out loud.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a communist Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me Pertinent words re Starmer’s smoking ban

@Sam_LGibbs Trying to improve standards by exerting control under the guise of providing consistency - consultation, clear expectations, training, feedback and support raise standards, not cut and shut lesson planning formats.

@adamboxer1 I am all for AI generation to support the reduction of workload, but completely agree with you here Adam. Not doing the thinking and processing that sits behind planning ultimately deskills a workforce. Particularly dangerous for trainees.

There is another issue with using AI to plan your lessons, which is this: When planning lessons, experienced teachers don't tend to sit down and write a "plan" that would be recognisable to anyone as a "plan." They think, they might write some notes, they might make some slides, they might make sure they have a worksheet. But they often won't have a "beginning, middle, end" type thing. The bulk of their planning exists in their head. When I ask ChatGPT to plan me a lesson, the output is totally useless to me. It's not in a structure I would want, it's got too many things in it, it's not related to the way that I teach, it uses activities I would never execute. Using its plans would actually just annoy me. I know that ChatGPT is inaccurate and makes mistakes, but (other than time) this isn't really an issue for me as I could check and find them. The bigger issue for me is that it's just wrong for me and the way I teach. Continuing down the spectrum, what about novice teachers? These people would definitely benefit from materials like this. They don't really have a distinctive style yet, aren't set on "a few routines done really well", and a bit of structure can go a long way for them. But now we have a problem with accuracy. How is someone inexperienced supposed to be able to know where ChatGPT is making mistakes? How would they know if the content is accurate? If the activities are suitable? How long things will take? Almost by definition, they couldn't do this. In sum, it's not good for experienced teachers because they have a distinctive style, and forcing them into a different style is restrictive and lowers performance. It's not good for inexperienced teachers because they won't know if it's any good and cannot adequately quality assure.

@Miss_Grimmer Don’t go ANYWHERE. You’ll be sleep deprived, achey and hormonal - stick that tree up, if people want to visit to see the baby, fine, but they must bring food, watch some crap TV and nap, nap, nap whilst nana’s are having a cuddle. Have a glass of champagne and wear cozy PJs. ❤️

@adamboxer1 5. What the school is aiming to achieve, how to QA and evidence impact and so we get… Word of the Week (screams into a pillow…)

@adamboxer1 at senior and middle leader level that carte-blanch generic and ill defined ‘strategies’ that look good, but do nothing are frequently used. Generally, I have found that even when Literacy has been a priority, those planning and implementing that strategy are not aware of

It's that time of year again where I start to see people's school improvement plans for next year. If you are looking looking at metacognition, oracy, turn and talk, literacy, trauma informed practice or bits of individual theory from cognitive science, I'm not saying these things are a waste of time, but there's a need to prioritise. Whatever it is you are spending your summer planning, I'd consider checking the list below first, if all those things are sorted in your school then go for it, but if they aren't I'd suggest they are prioritised. Calm, orderly, predictable classrooms across the school. Calling out does not occur. Teachers are consistently putting students' names at the end of questions. Teachers have "rules of thumb" for which students they ask questions to and when. There are always checks for understanding in-between explanation and practice. Checks for understanding in the majority of subject are delivered using miniwhiteboards. Miniwhiteboards are used with "hover and show" routines. Students are in the room and learning (i.e. actually doing something academically meaningful) extremely quickly at the start of lessons. Departments have long-term memory strategies that map out how teachers give students the retrieval practice they need. As above, once that stuff is in play, go to town. But if it isn't, it's probably where you should focus.

@adamboxer1 1. How literacy learning happens at all phases 2. How to diagnose literacy issues 3. What research says about how to develop literacy skills 3. What the national/subject requirements are 4. What literacy skill and level is needed for each exam/discipline

@adamboxer1 more deliberate and in line with how students develop literacy capabilities. Have to say, you have hit try e nail on the head with the second part of your comment though - there is so little collective and coherent knowledge of what literacy is and how it is developed

@adamboxer1 Adam, knowing what vocabulary means, how to use it in context, how to spell it, how the meaning and demands change between disciplines (evaluate in History and English for example) or the connotations of vocabulary is literally Literacy. It’s word level learning and usage.

@morgan_chatten Teaching subject specific vocabulary isn't "literacy" though, it's teaching that subject, and is substantially indistinguishable from teaching any of its components

@adamboxer1 Wastes everyone’s precious time they could be getting on with something more meaningful. Also, never literacy at the expense of good behaviour - without good routines and expectations; nothing can be achieved.

@adamboxer1 I think the issue is that most approaches to literacy are so piss poor that they either address an issue that doesn’t exists (everyone competing a phonics intervention for example #pointless) or simple include ‘reading more’ and then it has little to no impact and

@adamboxer1 *decoding (oh the irony 😂)

@adamboxer1 But with our vocabulary expertise, inference and ecdodong can’t take place - student fall at the first hurdle and it’s the same for most exams. Access age of the past AQA Maths GCSE was reading age of 15 for example; if you can’t lineate question instructions you can’t even -