The book is a look at how in the early stages of my career, I was led to believe that I was a good teacher. Not because I was, but because I had created an image that I thought I was. Armed with a wealth of ideas, I would help colleagues and share resources left, right and centre. However, there was a problem. Although it was the perception that I was a good teacher, all of the data suggested that I was distinctly average. All that I seemed to share, didn't really have much impact.
As a result I decided to immerse myself in research and journals to effectively 'reteach' myself how to teach. Picking off one T&L aspect at a time, I worked out what I was doing wrong, what I potentially should be doing better, and went about trying to refine my craft. So in 2013 I began blogging about what I'd learnt about principles such as questioning, feedback, planning, cognitive science and differentiation.
Relearning to Teach is a greater exploration of this period in my career. It picks off one T&L area at a time, debunks the myths, shares the research, offers practical advice, and shares the views of other teachers from around the world who have had similar journeys as myself. It's aim is to tackle each T&L area in turn, and offer a few principles that you might want to try if you want to get better at it. It aims to open up your eyes to research and spark your interest in learning about what might work yourself. All in all it's an open an honest book, with views from numerous teachers, researchers and journals, about how a few tweaks here and there could have a bigger impact in your classroom. It's a starting point, not the complete article. As with all things research, some of it may be debunked a few years down the line. But what it offers is a genuine starting point for any teacher at any stage in their career on how to reflect and make changes to how they teach.
The book is out on Friday 4th October 2019 from Routledge or other good book sellers. I hope you find it useful!
Buy it here from Routledge, or here from Amazon.
