David Byrne, Mark Heffernan

Evidence-based reflection One thing I think we can all agree on is that teachers are a reflective bunch. Whether it be on the stairs, in the shower, on the bus or lying awake at night wondering why our meticulously planned running dictation wasn’t the glowing success we’d hoped. But how effective is this reflection? That’s the question that’s kept us awake this week. Is it reflection for reflection’s sake or is it actually driving us forward? As a younger teacher, David would often say that whenever he had a bad lesson, it would stick with him. He’d linger on it; it...

A new model for writing: incorporating AI We (Mark and David) started writing lessons together when we met in 2011 and have been doing so pretty steadily ever since. What’s interesting is that in all of those years, we’ve rarely disagreed about anything…that was until AI came along. Disagreement isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. And it is through this disagreement and the eventual discovery of common ground that we have come to the joint decision that maybe there is a place for AI in our writing lessons, and that maybe instead of AI reducing the amount of creative work required...

This article offers advice on how to ensure your teaching has real impact. Time must be allowed for feedback and reflection and it is important that the final impact be outside the lesson.

The article describes a seven-step process which allows for meaningful feedback for all students during a speaking activity.

David Byrne and Mark Heffernan discuss the socially distanced classroom and examine how we can compensate for reduced interaction between students and convert a loss into a gain.