Wow, this has taken a while to write.

 It’s taken me nearly three weeks to finish this blog as I have had to question a lot. I have doubted myself, had to think hard, question my own ability, reasons and question if I had my own fixed mind set about how I taught.

Last year when I started giving students more independence, own timetables, group teaching rather than whole teaching it felt right. I enjoyed what I was doing and feedback from the students also showed this. Yes, it took a while to get there but in the end I think as a class we thoroughly enjoyed it. This was me trying hard to take on MLP in a single cell classroom.

This year it has been different. Although we are still single celled, we are planning as a team and working more together in twos or threes  rather than individually. So why then do I feel disjointed, lacking enthusiasm and not enjoying myself? This is quite a hard thing to admit as I have to question myself, my surroundings and where I am working. I am quite good at reflecting on my own teaching and learning. I know I can be very head strong, stubborn and see things very differently to those around me. I feel I have had to sit back and accept things, question less and go with the norm (even when I am not sure it is right). Is this how I want to teach? Is it me?

I guess this is why it has taken me a while to write this as I really do have to reflect and wonder if it could be me. I enjoy the fact that we are working as a team. I love the fact that I am not planning on my own, coming up with my own ideas and feeling a little like I am by myself. I enjoy bouncing ideas off others, listening to different ideas and views.

But I feel more constrained and restricted then I did last year.  As a school we have been encourage to change our way of teaching and work more closely as a team. To have a growth mind set and to look at things differently.

What I am wondering?

·         Are we really making a change?

·         Have we actually made a difference?

To be honest, I don’t think we have.

To me it is like a messy desk, moving things around and making piles isn’t really the same as creating a tidy desk. And I feel this is what we are doing. We have moved students around given them different teachers for different subject but have we actually really changed the way we are teaching?

The truth is no.

I have been questioning these MLE where they think giving students different teachers all the time is MLP. But is it? We are meeting the needs of your children by grouping them and they may not have their usual teacher. Isn’t this the same as streaming, groups, setting (or any other words you want to use)? Is this really MLP? What are we doing differently?

And I guess this is what I have struggled with this term as I feel this is what we are doing.

Do we really need to split all five classes up? Could I not work with the teacher next door with just my own homeroom and theirs? Teach more small groups rather than whole class? Give students the choice?

What do I want next term?

Integrate our topic so I don’t have stand-alone lessons.

Give students more of a voice.

Feel excited about teaching again.

Maths Outside

Sometimes when I finish a unit of maths, I tend to find or develop a mathematical scavenger hunt in the classroom. This is a fun way for me to see whether or not they have understood what we have been learning.  It allows me to listen to their conversations, thought process as well as their written work. And it is so much better than doing a test!

I tend to do ‘loop’ questions. This is where they read a question and work out the answer. Their answer will lead them to the next question and lead them back to their starting question. This way they automatically know if their question was right or wrong. It also gives me insight into how they fix/change their mistakes. And it makes students realise what mistakes their making.  

This time I decided to let them develop their own scavenger hunt. We talked about all the mathematical vocabulary that was around the room and how we could use them to create questions relating to objects inside the classroom.

We looked at a range of questioning techniques and went back through our maths book to view our next step questions, question we had asked and set questions we had worked through in our lessons. Giving us an idea of what ways we could ask a question, how to incorporate two step questions and how to make sure our questions were going to extend our thinking.

In pairs the children set off and explored the school environment to develop their questions. I set a few ‘musts’ to keep them on task. From there the students set off and got created. After a set amount of time we gathered back together and discussed ideas and thoughts.

While I had been walking around and prompting ideas, I also set some of my own questions to model with them. I develop some very simple questions and we discussed why these would not be suitable for us (aiming for stage 5/6 questions) and how we could change them to meet the criteria. I also gave them questions that met our criteria and we discussed why these were suitable.

Students then spent time editing and working through their ten questions with their partners so they meet our ‘success criteria’. Once finished the students them typed their questions and answers up. On Friday, my actual class will use them and feedback to my maths class about them.

If you've been teaching for around 14-and-a-half years, you could be about to ask your one millionth question.

Having spent the weekend couch surfing on Twitter (literally) following #edchatnz I began to question myself and my teaching. Not in a negative way but in a positive way. I began to realise that a lot that was being tweeted, I was doing or knew about.
It made me realise that maybe I need to be more open and share my teaching journey. So the idea is to write a few blogs about what I have done in the past and doing now.
This one came about while reading all the tweets during Steve Mouldey presentation at the Edchat.
Having spent the last 10+ years with Ofsted breathing down my throat you do develop some nifty skills and questioning was one of them. When observed, inspectors needed to consider whether: “teachers use questioning and discussion to assess the effectiveness of their teaching and promote pupils’ learning”
Therefore headteachers in our very regular observation used to follow a lot that was outlined here so that we all could ' be 'outstanding' teachers. Yes, many did turn up with the class list to make sure you asked every child!
Teachers are great at asking questions!
• Teachers ask up to two questions every minute, up to 400 in a day, around 70,000 a year, or two to three million in the course of a career
• Questioning accounts for up to a third of all teaching time, second only to the time devoted to explanation
• Most questions are answered in less than a second. That's the average time teachers allow between posing a question and accepting an answer, throwing it to someone else, or answering it themselves.


In a traditional teaching classroom, the questions are very teacher centred. Hands go up, teacher picks a frantically waving hand (which is usually accompanied by noise??), question is answer, response is usually a' no' (if they got it wrong) moves on to next waving noisy child who answers it correctly to which the teachers responds with either a ‘yes’ or ‘ well done' and then quickly moves on as they are aware they need to get this lesson done.
But has any real learning taken place? Has any of the class had the opportunity to reflect on their own thinking and learning? Have the children had the chance to ask questions as well? How do we then go about appropriately checking for understanding?
We end up ‘pinging’ all these questions out into the room but all that is coming back are ‘general’ answers. We also don’t allow children to ask questions. Majority of the questions asked in a classroom are from the teacher!
Effective questioning can be used to:
• Identify where pupils are currently in their learning
• Expand and deepen their learning
•Develop critical thinking skills.
•Increase motivation or interest
•Nurture insights
•Stimulate independent learning
"Good learning starts with questions, not answers," says Guy Claxton. The consensus is that questioning leads to more effective learning - and more enjoyable teaching - than explanation alone.
So how can we improve our questioning techniques?


Questioning is an integral part of a teachers everyday life. But if you're going to be asking millions of questions, it's probably worth making sure you ask the right ones in the right way.
I love asking questions! A colleague of mine will tell you I tend to great him most days with a question.
These are just a few things I do in the classroom. I am no expert and all these ideas have come from readings, professional developments other teacher etc.
• Ask fewer questions- As they always say 'less is more'.
• Prepare key questions
• Involve the whole class (multi choice, on line, moving to a place etc)
• Think, pair, share
• Provide think time- 5- 10 seconds. If you’re asking deeper questions you need to allow the class to have time to think and ponder their answer.
• Try no hands up
Stop now and think of your class and I bet you can name those same 3 who always put their hands up? How often do you go straight to them for the answer? The 'no hands up' is great. I was one of those students who hated putting my hand up to ask a question- the fear of being made to look silly not wrong. Research shows that student's main fear is not of being wrong, but of looking silly. Such "peer fear" is the main obstacle to students answering and asking questions Lots of children are like this. It also means that you are more likely not to always choose the same students as well, meaning you are engaging everyone. Try using lollipop sticks (where you have the entire classes name on sticks and randomly pick one out) or the IWB that randomly picks children names or like me, I just pick. Even if they are not comfortable at answering the question, offer two or more options and let the student choose one e.g. 'phone a friend' where they get to ask someone else to answer the question.
• Avoid NO!
We can't always be right but what we need to do is foster an environment where children feel safe to answer questions. Reward every answer regardless by the way you respond.
“What do you mean by…?”
“Can you give me an example?”
"What are your reasons for saying this?”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Let me see if I understand you. Do you mean…?”
“Could you explain your answer further?”
“Can you rephrase your answer?”
• Ask more ‘open’ questions, question the answer, develop deep thinking questions, Ask why?
Blooms Taxonomy provides a structure for developing questions that encourage students to think on different levels. In order, the levels are:
Knowledge (facts, recall, recognition)
Comprehension (translation, interpretation, extrapolation)
Application (to new or unfamiliar situations)
Analysis (break into parts)
Synthesis (combine elements into a new pattern)
Evaluation (apply criteria to defend the conclusion)

Throw the ideas around the room. Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce is a great technique.
"Asking good questions is the basis for becoming a successful learner," says Guy Claxton. "If children aren't asking questions, they're being spoon-fed. That might be effective in terms of getting results, but it won't turn out curious, flexible learners suited to the 21st century."
It is about getting students to think more critically enabling them to have a better understanding of what they are learning. Effective questioning isn't a one-way process. If we asks the kind of questions that stimulate thought and debate, there's a strong chance our students will also start to ask more.