A question: is Cognitive Load Theory another example of the emperor’s new clothes?9 Good reasons to attend: the ones to put to senior leaders
All of the reasons to attend that I’ve suggested in 21 reasons to attend conferences are valid, but they are personal, in a sense. So here are 9 suggested arguments that may appeal to your senior leadership team.
Read MoreThoughts on the curriculum and assessment review
Apparently the Department for Education is working on a new writing framework. Let’s hope it will be voluntary, because if the usual substandard writing we often see emanating from the DfE is anything to go by, it will be the last thing anybody needs.
Read MoreReview: Dear Data
The authors spent a year sending each other postcards on a different theme each week, with pictorial representations of the data they had collected.
Read MoreReview: Blueprints: How mathematics shapes creativity
What place might Blueprints merit on a teacher’s bookshelves?
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A daunting prospect, so what’s your motivation? Photo by Terry Freedman
On this day: Encouraging other teachers to use education technology
Gretchen Rubin talks about four kinds of self-motivation. Might this provide a way of thinking about how to encourage colleagues to use education technology in their lessons?
Read More21 Reasons to attend conferences
It’s often difficult to get time out of school to attend a conference, but I think you should try and get to at least one a year.
Read MoreReview: Renaturing: Small Ways to Wild the World
This book could prove useful to schools keen to cultivate their own dedicated ‘back to nature’ area.
Read MoreReview: Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home
A couple of generations before the first internet cafés were opened, someone attempted pretty much the same thing by opening a ‘radio café’.
Read MoreReview: Level Up Your Lesson Plans: Ignite the Joy of Learning with Fun and Educational Materials
This book is awash with ideas.
Read MoreReview: Conversations With Third Reich Contemporaries: : From Luke Holland’s Final Account
This may be useful for the Hiostory department in your school.
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Quick look: My boss is a moron
I borrowed this book from the library yesterday and have had to stop reading it.
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It won’t be as bad as you think! Picture: Terrified, by Terry Freedman
8 Tips for Newly-qualified teachers
Your first few weeks at school may seem terrifying, but hopefully it won’t be as bad as you think! Here are 8 tips you may find useful.
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Review: The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic
I was surprised to read some of the clearest explanations of neuroscience I've yet come across.
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Review: The Great Exchange: Making the News in Early Modern Europe
In Wren's telling, the real history of the news isn't just a chronology of technological inventions.
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Review: Nature's Memory
One would think that the stories told by the exhibits in natural history museums are reasonably objective and factual, but apparently not.
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On this day in 2010: Review of the Dell Latitude 2110
“Oooh!” “Ah!” “Oh my!”. Such were the collective gasps emanating from the Freedman household when I unpacked the Dell Latitude 2110 Netbook I’d been sent to review. Slim, striking and silent (but enough about me), the Latitude certainly makes the grade as far as aesthetics are concerned. But how does it actually perform?
two girls chatting in Post Office. Picture generated in Ideogram.ai
Kids Aren’t Stupid (Updated)
I overheard a great conversation yesterday. Two girls were chatting behind me in the queue in the Post Office. From their discussion about school options and examinations, I’d say they were around 14 and 15 years old. Here’s part of the conversation, it really made me smile….
Read MoreOn this day: What is good practice in ICT and Computing?
I suppose this article will ruin for good my chances of a knighthood, but I am finding it harder and harder to keep quiet on this subject.
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The Scream, by Terry Freedman (with apologies to Munch)
Viruses and other nasties are a leadership issue -- updated for 2025
How vulnerable are schools to viruses and so on? Here are the results of a survey, plus some comments on the role of the ed tech leader in the school.
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