Exit Cards

Sometimes we are unsure how well a topic has been received or understood by the class.  We don’t want to wait until they can’t do their homework, which you don’t find out about until they come into your next lesson, to do something about this. Collecting a quick snapshot from every student about their level […]

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Rolling fog

Have you ever said something to a class and felt something like a fog of non-understanding rolling towards you from the class? It has happened to me many times. Sometimes, especially if I am near the end of the session, I acknowledge the fog-of-non-comprehension but keep going; other times I pause and ask people to […]

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How is life without levels?

Last week I was leading a session at York university entitled native speaker orientation. I was trying to explain to the students from France, Germany and Spain who have just started their teacher training here the differences in the various types of schools in the UK.  Of course, this involved looking at how we have […]

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Conjecturing Atmosphere

Mathematical thinking can only take place in what I call a conjecturing atmosphere. This means that everything that is said is treated as a conjecture that may require modifying. If you disagree with someone you “invite them to modify their conjecture” or you ask how their conjecture applies to some example (which perhaps you think […]

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