Introduction
Started in April 2016, Through the Threshold is a log of a personal journey about learning about education. Despite having taught since 2008, I still feel I have a long way to go to reach mastery in this field. I write to share my opinions and fully expect that I may well be wrong on a great many things. I believe the only way for me to pass through the threshold concepts of teaching is through practice, reflection and discussions. All my opinions expressed in this blog are fluid and subject to change.
Thoughts on…
This blog
Education: debates, history, policy and philosophy
- Burn, heretic, burn!
- 100th Post: Learning in the age of Humanism
- Learning in the age of Dataism
- Towards a strategy: mission, vision and data
Global university guidance
Setting up and running a program
- Creating a University and Careers Guidance Program (Part 1)
- Creating a University and Careers Guidance Program (Part 2)
- Creating a University and Careers Guidance Program (Part 3)
- Creating a University and Careers Guidance Program (Part 4)
- 13 reflections at the end of my first guidance cycle
- Life-long on the job learning: creating a guidance program from scratch (part 1)
- Life-long on the job learning: creating a guidance program from scratch (part 2)
- The Future You Festival
- Team culture: teachers and counsellors
- Guidance Handover Notes part 1
- Guidance Handover Notes part 2
Universities and university systems
Tools
Teaching
Biology
- What is the best place to start teaching DP biology?
- From Knowledge to Understandings
- Teaching genetic databases
- Biology vocabulary
- Biology reading list
- EAL Resources for biology classes
- Sequencing facts before concepts: natural selection
- What I learned about teaching biology this year 17-18
- Reflections from examining 2018
- Developing a progression model for IBDP biology
TOK
- A summary of the structure of knowledge (Oxford ContEd TOK course assignment 1)
- Reductionism and the problem of testimonial belief (Oxford ContEd TOK course assignment 2)
- TOK logical fallacies activity
- Listening list
- You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want to
EAL
- Intensive EAL support and differentiation in biology
- Biology vocabulary
- This much I know about EAL teaching
- EAL Resources for biology classes
- Whole school support for EAL learners
- Whole school support for EAL learners II
EdTech & PLNs
- What I learned about edtech (part 1: social media)
- What I learned about edtech (part 2: mobile tech)
- What I learned about edtech (part 3: screencasting)
- Edtech tip: screencasting
- Edtech tip: online sketchpad
- Edtech tip: trimming video in quicktime
- Edtech tip: downloading film with clipgrab
- Edtech tip: Using preview to merge and edit pdfs
- Teaching #tags
Curriculum, assessment, planning & delivery
- Learning Theory and Educational Neuroscience (PGCE assignment)
- Teacher Understandings of Educational Neuroscience (PGCE assignment)
- A list of good open questions to use in teaching
- Is Content King?
- Goals for 2016-2017
- Grade 12 revision advice
- Routines
- Why revising for seven hours a day isn’t necessarily a bad thing
- Why I am not a fan of the MYP
- What is the evidence for the IB ideology?
- The evolving role of the Diploma Programme Coordinator
- Supporting the IBDP curriculum
- Delivering the core of the IBDP
- Taking your Diploma Programme to the next level
- The Extended Essay: The central support for teaching ATL skills?
- Remembering stuff
- Developing a school wide Academic Honesty Policy I
- Developing a school wide Academic Honesty Policy II
- Reflections: First term in senior leadership
- Summary of Assessment Principles and Practices
Books
- Review: How to raise an adult
- Review: Making thinking visible
- Review: What if everything you knew about education was wrong?
- Review: Millionaire Teacher & Expat Millionaire
- Review: Notes on Trivium 21C
- Notes on making good progress by Daisy Christodoulou
- My reads by year
- Through the threshold library