As the year draws to a close, thought I would share some of my favourite edu blogposts of 2014! #14for2014
It’s been a busy old year, so much to reflect on and a thanks from me to the following bloggers for your musings, the time and effort you put into blogging and for challenging my thinking on a daily basis!
In no particular order….
This has to be one of the most useful blog posts of 2014 and a must read. Tom has archived a ‘canon of educational thinking’ from Hattie to Willingham and beyond. In it he includes the work of the current key education researcher/writers and the things that if you are a practising teacher you ought to know and be aware of. If you are reading this, with a responsibility for the development of your colleagues and you could only share one post, make it this one.
Love Kev’s posts, one of my fave bloggers, I find myself physically nodding along in agreement as I’m reading and I could have included a few others from him in my top 14, really enjoyed this one too, ‘It’s a myth-tery: 7 ways in which Ofsted are better than SLTs’. Chose ‘Confessions of a wondering horse’ as it covers a subject close to my heart and has been the topic that has probably most dominated my newsfeed this year, that of the growing rise of research leads in schools and the #researchED movement.
Really enjoyed this post and others written by Sue Cowley and Ros McMullen that cover the ‘elephant in the room’, male domination of the Twitter/blogsphere and everyday sexism.
Recently I have archived nearly 30 articles, podcasts and blogs relating to ‘Assessment after levels’ here. I keep hoping that I’ll open a post that will give all the answers, though much of this has left me with even more questions..found this post by Shaun Allison really helpful and a comprehensive guide to how his school have developed an innovative approach to assessing without levels.
Not sure if this is the favourite post I’ve written this year but it is the one that gained the most RTs, written back in January 2014 at the height of the lesson observation debate, the other hot topic that has dominated the newsfeed this year!
John’s posts are a bit like Horlicks to me, they give me a nice warm glow inside. He writes from the heart, with emotion and integrity. This post is a really useful collection of growth mindset materials
Tom is a fantastic and inspiring writer, witty, engaging and hits the nail on the head. Could have chosen any of his posts to put in here but this one pretty much sums up why I love being a teacher 🙂
I have watched from afar, with much interest, the growing development of the ResearchED movement this year. I wrote my own post, ‘If you can’t stand the research, get out of the classroom..’ and here archived the majority of the posts I have read on this subject, this year. This post by @turnfordblog neatly summarises where those assigned with ‘research lead’ roles are at following the recent research lead conference in December #rEDlead, love the suggestion of a researchED ‘research digest’!
The first lady of Twitter and a wise owl, love this by Jill, some excellent, practical advice for those in SLT, the dos and dont’s of Senior Leadership!
Found this post by Stephen, a response to the DfE consultation document ‘Developing the teaching profession to a world-class standard’ (Dec 2014) really useful. As Stephen points out, it resonates strongly with the work of Hargreaves and Fullen on Professional capital, ‘At the heart of our proposals is a belief that teaching should be a learning profession, whose members have access to high-quality, evidence-based development and improvement opportunities throughout their careers and are committed to seizing those opportunities.’ (DfE 2014)
One of the biggest stories of the year was the findings of the Sutton Trust on ‘What makes great teaching?’. Mr O’Callaghan @MrOCallaghanEdu did us all a favour and archived all the relevant news/articles/blogs and helpfully produced an A3 summary of the report.
So good, he gets 2 entries in my top 14 blog posts, here Tom gives his list of ‘silver arrows’, the simple ideas that captures the spirit of a wider set of strategies. ‘A Silver Arrow is one that you allow to penetrate your armour; it changes what you routinely do’.
If you’re a historian and not following @mfordhamhistory then put it right! Michael’s blog Clio et Cetera is one of the most thought provoking and intelligent I engage with. In this post Michael applies some of the principles from the popular Brown Etal book ‘Make it stick’ to the teaching of History.
Ross is a blogging machine and the ultimate tweeter. This post is really helpful regardless of where you are at with your tweeting expertise and provides some excellent advice for newbies and advanced users alike.
My “top tweeters” for 2015
20 Ladies:
Rachael Stephens @murphiegirl
Jill Berry @jillberry102
Debra Kidd @debrakidd
Helene Galdin-O’Shea @hgaldinoshea
@HeyMissSmith
Laura McInerney @miss_mcinerney
Debbie Light & Mel Aberson @TeacherTweaks
Heather Leatt @Heatherleatt
Mary Myatt @MaryMyatt
Sue Cowley @Sue_Cowley
Dawn Cox @MissDcox
Carol Webb @cazzwebbo
Cherryl-kd @cherrylkd
Rachel Jones @rlj1981
@HeatherbellaF
@bethgg
@ChocoTzar
@cazzypot
Ros McMullen @RosMcM
Jude Enright @judeenright
15 Gents:
Tom Bennett @tombennett71
Kev Bartle @kevbartle
Carl Hendrick @C_Hendrick
Alex Quigley @huntingenglish
Shaun Allison @shaun_allison
Chris Hildrew @chrishildrew
Tom Sherrington @headguruteacher
Ross McGill @TeacherToolkit
Mark Anderson @ICTEvangelist
David Didau @learningspy
John Tomsett @johntomsett
Martin Robinson @SurrealAnarchy
David Weston @informed_edu
Andrew Old @oldandrewuk
Disappoints me that of the above 35 people, to date, I have only met 3 in the flesh (Debbie, Mel & Ross). However, looking forward to meeting more of you in 2015 and getting a few of the UK Twitterati over to Dubai, so watch this space 🙂
Rachael Edgar
@Dubai_Teachmeet
From the Sandpit... 
December 22, 2014 at 6:45 pm
Thank you. Love the blog title and will steal. Hope to see you in 2015.
December 22, 2014 at 9:29 pm
Great compilation of ideas and posts – cheers!