Thinking Classroom Podcast

Mike talks to Sonia Gill of HeadsUp and author of Journey to Outstanding and Successful Difficult Conversations in school about, well, those two themes. How do you have a knotty conversation with kindness? And what would Sonia do as Secretary of State for Education?

Mike talks to Tara Elie of Starperformance about teacher wellbeing and the challenges and opportunities of senior educational leadership for marginalised and under-represented groups.

Tara's masters research reveals the lived experience of these groups and offers positive ways forward.

In this episode you'll also hear a completely silent pneumatic drill. Wow.

Mike talks to Jamaican engineer, entrepreneur and author Dianne Plummer about how early childhood experiences at home and at school set her on a path to STEM success.

Dianne talks about her book, Science in the Sun; describes her learning journey across the world; and tells us about the power of asking why?

Mike talks to Emmie Bidston, teacher and director of coaching and leadership at Wellington College. Emmie brings fun and energy to the world of education; she's a pragmatic advocate of 'flourishing' and describes for us the coaching culture in her school.

This episode radiates positivity about being a teacher in the world today.

And Emmie let's us know if she'd accept the job of Secretary of State for Education and what her priorities would be.

Roy Blatchford CBE has served the world of education for over 50 years. Teacher, headteacher, consultant, advisor and international thought leader, his vision is inspiring and his approach pragmatic.

In this episode I talk to Roy about Blinks and how they offer a far more effective way to empower schools to get better by making sure that the folks who work there are the ones with the agency and autonomy.

In 20 minutes we only get to the very tip of his educational iceberg. However, we do cover Tony Blair's 1997 pledge (Roy shares his 2023 version); we look at teacher standards (which Roy wrote); and we find out how the French school inspection system works. And we learn that brown is actually yellow. It all depends on if you’ve been to university.

Education, Thinking, Innovation: Educator, Author and Coach Mike Fleetham explores the latest thinking in pedagogy, teaching, learning, leadership, coaching, thinking skills and artificial intelligence.

Stephanie Davies is head of happiness at Laughology,  a company that applies the science of emotion to teaching and learning. Steph tells Mike that this is far more than just making lessons fun: there’s a lot of empirical evidence around that links neurotransmitters with laughter and memory – and if we get this right in the classroom, learning can be more effective and more enjoyable. She’ll tell us about her FLIP model for making that happen and also reveal how many times as a child she sadly had to let a school go due to incompatibility issues.

Mike talks to author and educator Hywel Roberts about his concept of botheredness  – what it is and how it can help children get invested in their learning. Find out about the let's say technique and which millworker inspired Hywel in his pedagogical journey. And we discover his top priorities if he were to ever be made secretary of state for education. We also get to meet his dog.

What are the two kinds of gamification? Does gamification work or is it bull****? (get to hear the beep again). And is there a best way to use the design of games to enrich the planning of learning?

Mike talks to Josh Barton, lecturer in Games Design at the University of Middlesex, UK about games design and learning. We cover designers as 'architects of meaning and experience', step into the magic circle and find out why the gamification of cars might make better drivers.

Mike talks to Alex Nightingale and Hannah Spencer of the Yorkshire Endeavour English Hub about their work in the North of England giving our young learners a great, linguistic start to life.

But their region is a little different to most. Children often come to school by quadbike or tractor. Sheep can be involved. Alex's school has around 30 children. (that's school, not class). His current YrR cohort is a massive three (3) big. Go figure the data implications.

Find out how Hannah manages her English hub of smaller schools, like Alex's, and if you're curious about how to develop your own skills as a Literacy Specialist, Hannah describes exactly how to go about it.

What do you do when the conversation is so difficult that words are not enough? You can turn away, you can harden up...or you can use the creative arts with kindness, compassion - and with food! You can communicate in ways that transcend spoken language and culture.

Mike talks to Roni Edwards of Pamodzi Creatives https://pamodzicreatives.com based in south England about her work with refugees, inspirational women and schools.

Find out how Brexit prompted Roni to do what she does best and learn the value of breathing for Year 6. And discover what 'Pamodzi' really means.

Mike works out that comedy and learning have a great deal in common and finds out how a good stand up routine is like a good lesson. He talks to autistic comedian Joe Wells about school, grammar, confidence, writing and english teachers.

Along the way there will be at least several jokes, three ways to use the structure of comedy in your lessons and proper theories that start to explain why we find things funny.

CONENT WARNING: there is content in this podcast.

https://www.joewells.org.uk/

https://www.edfringe.com/

https://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/

Mike talks to Katie Stickley of DidTeach about the many options available to teachers outside of school and even outside of education. If you are considering a move - for whatever reason - find out here why your classroom skills are in demand, and always will be.

Mike and Katie create a 'Manifesto for the Teacher' in real time - a list of the skills and dispositions that teaching provides and needs. How many of them do you already have?

We're at that significant 42nd episode milestone and a competition and review are in order. Win a set of Thinking Assessment Cubes or a Thinking Stories book. 4 prizes, 4 winners. Closing date for entries is 11th July 2023 6pm. Judge's decision is final. Mike is the judge BTW. Listen to the episode to find out how to enter.

In episode 42, Mike reviews the last 20 episodes with clips and highlights and also hints at where episodes 1 to 21 can be found. He also reveals a bit about why he does it and how you can get started with your own podcast - purpose and tech.

This is actually an ideal starter episode to get you tuned into the Thinking Classroom Podcast ethos.

Finally, Pete does a poem about a sheep that has nothing to do with anything. But, after all, he is free to exercise his creative freedom through the autonomy and agency granted by a £0 contract.

A summary of the 4Ls conference, 23rd June 2023 in Bracknell. In 6 words. With appropriate pedagogical stingers from Pete.

Get a practical flavour of what all 6 speakers said and did; find out which one of them went from rule-breaker to rule maker; and discover if Mike sold any books from his stall.

Conference highlights and soundbites from:

• Tanuka Yahata, Hibakusha
• Mike Fleetham on Pedagogy and C10 Toolkit
• Michael Meinhardt on FISH Philosophy
• Robin Launder on Motivation Theory and Practice
• Ann Beatty on Learning Barriers
• Will Arinze on STEM, Drones and Inspirational Teachers

The conference followed an original narrative design structure which can help enrich lessons, meetings, and larger educational gatherings. Find out what it is and how to use it.

Get in touch if you'd like to know more about how we designed the event and what we have planned for another time.....

A single word has immense power. But who decides which word is used to describe, to summarise, to evaluate, to judge? Mike looks at this in several ways: through the much loved Parking Eye organisation; through a short story about cognitive enhancement; with the Your One Word activity; (Oxford semi-colon) and by describing a hypothetical scenario where single words don't really make sense. In this episode Pete reveals his 'one word' and Mike uses the profanity bleep-out sound effect. Twice.

A quick guide to pedagogy - what it is, how to say it and what 20 adults and 5 children think. Mike summarises Rosenshine's 10 principles into 100, 20 and 5 words and does Marzano's 9 strategies as audio bullet points. Does it work or is it cognitive overload? You decide. (plus a new educational poem from Pete)

There are at least three kinds of happiness - are you chasing after the right one? Mike talks about school dogs, LinkedIn, cheesecake and US record producer Teddy Riley in an attempt to explore wellbeing and happiness. He also presents the PERMAH wellbeing survey which you and your teams can use to audit and improve individual and organisational wellbeing. Also, new stingers from Pete and an accelerated summary of three books on happiness. The explicit box is ticked because Mike says 'sex'. Twice. Really? Best be safe. There might be school dogs listening.

The best known thinking hierarchy and an easy way to infuse all kinds of thinking into any subject. But this is only a third of Benjamin Bloom's work from the mid 20th century. Find out about the other two thirds; see what happens when we remove the Taxonomy from Bloom's Taxonomy; try out a simple technique for bringing it to life in class; and hear some new podcast stingers that Mike's trying out.

Thinking needs stuff to work on, so we'll think about Avatar, Talking Heads and the Jackson 5 to illustrate how Bloom's Thinking works.

'Coach' Colin Farrell in Guy Ritchie's wonderful film 'The Gentleman' typifies the standard, traditional idea of coaching. But it's not 'pure coaching'. In this episode I'll define and describe pure coaching and suggest when and when not to use it. Find out how a coach does their thing. Discover the 3As of coaching to help you work out the difference between mentoring, coaching, pure coaching and other kinds of paired professional support. I've also added in some excellent royalty free music from Penguin Music, found on Pixabay. That's not an ad. Just a genuine thanks.

Everyone is intelligent; everyone is valuable; everyone succeeds. Really? Take a listen to Mike talking about Prof. Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI). The idea is 40 years old this year (2023) and although it's been hidden away for a while, its presence and impact remain. Find out how MI works and discover that you're probably using it already. Why do experts disagree about its validity? What are the eight and a half intelligences? What tests does a concept need to pass to become an official 'intelligence'? And which TV comedy show was first broadcast in the year MI appeared?

Why did a white female who unleased her dog illegally in Central Park hysterically call 911 after a black male birdwatcher simply asked her to control it?

Why are conversations about race difficult and messy - especially for white people? What's the fear? What's the risk? What's the barrier? And what's the gain for everyone if we get it right? Mike talks to New York Times bestselling author Dr Robin DiAngelo and History Hotline's Deanna Lyncook about Robin's book and concept, White Fragility. Find out what it is and how to start meaningful discourse about being black and about being white.

This episode partners with #28 Black Leadership as a grounding for you and your organisation to really get to grips with an essential aspect of diversity and inclusion.

If learning is the commitment of knowledge to long-term memory, then you'd see 'memory skills' on the curriculum, right? You wouldn't just expect children to remember, you'd teach them how, surely. And CPD would include the art and science of 'making learning memorable' - the cognitive stuff, yes?

This content would be a topic within the subject called 'How to Think and Learn'.

Do you formally teach children how their memory works? Does your curriculum include a progression of memory techniques and a continuity of cognitive understanding?

This time I'm talking with master educator Jordan Mac about Active Recall, Spaced Repetition and Mixed Learning - three easy wins if you want to start developing a Memory Curriculum.

Makeup, model railway figures and underwear - what have these got to do with black history and black leadership in the UK? Are you leading conversations about race? How do you approach them in school and outside? Why are they needed and what might be the positive impact of engaging?

I talk to Deanna Lyncook from the History Hotline podcast and Renata Joseph, headteacher of a successful South London secondary school, who are both leading conversations about race in positive, effective ways.

If you want a way forward for your school to address race; if you want a strategy and content, then this is the episode for you.

Mike talks to Maria Wojciechowska-Caneda who has over 20 years’ experience working within Primary Education as classroom teacher, SLT and creative consultant. She is the founder of  creative company Arco Iris Learning www.arcoirislearning.co.uk which is now in its 12th year. Maria has supported primary schools with nurturing wellbeing through creative explorations and has delivered her sessions to primary schools and organisations nationwide.  Maria is currently piloting a new programme of imaginative explorations for primary schools called ‘Harmony in Nature’, in collaboration with The Harmony Project www.theharmonyproject.org.uk. It provides opportunities for children to engage with environmental and social challenges, and is linked with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. ‘Harmony in Nature’ is available from September 2023.