 Hello everyone, this is Ross teacher toolkit. This is my first ever video that I'm gonna post to my Facebook followers first of all Yes, I always sit at home in my red teacher toolkit t-shirt. Not really. This is just a quick video to kind of Try something different speak to people that are want to engage in terms of teaching So it's gonna be very amateurish to begin with it probably will all stay that way But I just want to say a couple of things first before I kind of go into the video And the reasons what I'd hope to share Firstly to Lee Parkinson who's inspired me to do this if you're not following Lee on Twitter He is at ICT underscore. Mr. P famous for all these ICT Kind of iPad work in primary schools. That's Lee Parkinson. So please follow Lee and Lee. Thank you for the inspiration secondly to all the new teachers in the profession and Newly qualified teachers you can now smile all that stupid kind of advice that we're given it's now Christmas We've got a week to go. It's the 10th of December today when I'm posting this So I've got another five days in school. Some of you might have a little bit longer But when Christmas does arrive, I hope you have a wonderful time at home More importantly to everybody who is working full-time in schools There's some research just come out that suggests in fact, it shouldn't really suggest It's pretty obvious that it is critical that teachers relax and unwind Over the over the any kind of break never mind it being Christmas So it's critical that you do relax and take time to spend time with your your families and your friends and enjoy the festive period I know some assessments mock exams tend to happen at this time, especially in secondary schools And they tend to happen before Christmas So fingers crossed they're all out the way and you have a week or two still in school to mark those rather than have to do Over the Christmas period But the reason I just want to share this my first video is if you do have to mark over Christmas Then I just want to give you five tips There's a blog that I've just written about which is is kind of a spin-off from other people Deputy Headteacher Jeremy Hane who works at the Three Bridges primary Which his school claims to be the happiest school on the planet? So somewhere I'd like to work but Jeremy's pushing the idea that there's no research yet to say that Written feedback is the is the number one We know feedback is the thing that makes the greatest difference, but there's nothing to suggest that Written feedback is that thing. So I'm pushing along with Jeremy and I'm sure everyone else will soon join on The verbal feedback train, please don't stamp you can check out my views on that on my blog But verbal feedback and there's a great analogy on his blog that I've put on my blog About a kind of Sports fixture story where the team are at halftime They're losing the game and they're wanting the coach to give some inspiration And he's writing down the written feedback and telling all the players what they should do next and the whistle Goes and they go back out into the pitch And ultimately lose the game and get back in the changing room and they're a bit peed off with the coach And they kind of look at the verbal written feedback and they realize all the tactics that he would have given or she Was was not incisive enough and it essentially supports that the verbal feedback from the coach would have been more Would it impacted on their performance on the pitch if it was given there and then and that's exactly what we Should be doing in the classroom verbal feedback Instance so students can act on on on on their work So my first tip for everyone if you do need to mark over the holiday period is less Written feedback more verbal feedback. So if you have exams and fair enough you do need to mark them But if you've got some marking to do in school before the you there you break up Make it verbal second tip We hate this saying we hear it a lot especially on social media works smart and not harder now That's quite difficult to achieve. So I'm going to give you a little tip I use a visualizer in my classroom I put the students work under the camera and I'm doing verbal feedback there and then If I need to record anything written students can see it on the whiteboard But a nice little approach in terms of approaching a lesson is Through modeling so I do it first we do it together and then the students do it themselves So I do we do you do it's a fantastic strategy For encouraging a climate in your classroom where kids can work harder than you. So that's my second tip Third tip high challenge low threat. This is a lovely analogy From Mary my it Mary. I've worked with for many years She is fantastic. So if you're not following Mary on Twitter, please do but there's a nice graph that's displayed on my blog Which is looking at challenge and versus their knowledge and skills and how if if the challenge Isn't pitched at the right level students become bored if it's challenged too high It's a bit of a threat and students likely shut off also. So it's a very important Point for teachers in terms of planning is to get the pitch right in their lessons. So in terms of feedback It's it's it's also something to make point of when you're writing feedback for students But also your verbal feedback that we we pitched our feedback based on the students needs. So it's important to keep that In mind as well my fourth tip the yellow box Not my dear from a school. I forget the name. It is on my blog. I apologize to that school It will come back to me shortly Yellow box don't mark all the page Highlight one area that needs to be improved draw an empty box The lock the size of the box determines how much work you want the students to feedback on sorry to act upon It's visual. It doesn't have to be yellow But you're asking for the kids to improve their work. It might be from a Diagnostic question. It might be a spelling exercise. It might be some grammatical work For an essay either way it makes it instant You can give students the opportunity to do it as a homework or in the lesson I certainly won't mark it again, but I would certainly look at it and give some verbal feedback to the student I wouldn't stamp it all I'm doing a stamp in that for An SLT or an offset inspector. It's absolute nonsense. Don't waste your time Just yellow box written recorded feedback. You don't have to mark the whole piece of work It's just a little zone that the students can act on and it's a visual check to see if they're actually doing what you ask them to do the last tip and I just realized I don't have the image with me so never mind It's gonna be a book plug last week. I put online my new book that's coming out mark plan teach I'm gonna finish writing it over the holidays It's gonna be online from February and published from next September in a nutshell It's 30 ideas from Mark planning and teaching and what I look to to do is Discuss ideas that I know work from my 23 years experience in the classroom There'll be linked to some evidence-based research, which is not just a fashion But it's important that teachers are working from evidence-based ideas And secondly, I bring in an expert. I'm not gonna announce who it is at the moment But a psychologist I've been working with it kind of explains the ideas Of why they work better than others and what kind of tactics we use as teachers that we might not be aware of To make students do the things that we want them to do All the things that we give to the students what makes them act upon the certain strategies that we put in the classroom So that would be my last tip so check that out on my blog a couple of things I'm gonna be reading over the Christmas period just to finish off Firstly one of the most controversial books of the latest year is the Battle Hymn of the Tiger teachers I'm only about two or three chapters through. I know a few others have already been Writing about online, but it's a very interesting book. I'm really enjoying it lots of provocative ideas So I'm gonna put that on my blog over Christmas. That's that's my education reading Something that I'm reading that's not related to teaching at all Although it is related to what I do as a teacher how to be free So this is a book by Tom Hodgkinskin, which was recommended by a colleague who Who now works part-time is looking to do other things with these life with all the demands that I have as teacher talk on Twitter for 23 years Working in schools in challenging situations in London and the demands that I have as a blogger I am considering going part-time in the future. So this is my first kind of public announcement. It's very early days. Nothing's been confirmed My colleagues don't even know yet So if you're watching here, then you've just found out But I'm looking to just go one day out so I can do a lot more things with schools across the country because I'm getting asked all The time it's something I love to do in terms of teacher training, but I just can't get out and help people So I'd like to try something different. So this book what the colleague that suggested to read it He said once you read it after the weekend, you made a part-time request. So I've done it the other way round I've made a part-time request and now I'm going to read the book. So I'm taking a risk So that's it. I hope you like my first video. Please write some comments Please send me some feedback I'd happily blog about other things here in this format if you think it's useful And maybe I'll put another one on over the next week or so over Christmas But I wish everyone watching a very happy Christmas. Please get some rest And if you like some of the ideas, please like this video and share with your friends So bye for now. This is Ross and I'll speak to you soon Teacher Talkit one of the most followed teachers on Twitter in the UK Find out more at teachertalkit.me