My Books

Exam Class Toolkit - how to create engaging lessons that ensure progression and results:

The key philosophy within this book is to show how exam preparation should not destroy good learning and teaching. There are too many cliches and misunderstandings surrounding the teaching of exam groups and if education is to be improved (as per recent government initiatives) then we need to tackle these head on. The book also demonstrate how innovative and exciting lessons are more essential when working with exam groups than at any other time.

This clever book caters for all levels of ability and throughout has sections encouraging you to develop your skills. Read review

Innovate with ICT: engaging ICT across the curriculum is divided into two main parts: Understanding the ICT and Skills and Issues. The first section demonstrates how to use a particular tool by actually creating a resource that can be used with your classes. The second section begins with the Key Skill(s) as the premise and demonstrates how a Key Skill can be enhanced through using a particular ICT tool. So, for example, if you are looking for an effective way to progress students’ Thinking-Skills then read about how to use Adobe Flash to create an interactive diagram in our Deep Learning chapter in Skills & Issues.

Each chapter has a skills focus which is detailed in the Learning Zone box. This area also discusses opportunities for extending a particular skill with the ICT tool in question. In Understanding the ICT, the Learning Zone indicates which skill will be enhanced and how the ICT can assist, while the Skills and Issues section focuses on the Key Skill itself and provides opportunities to find out more about e.g. Independent Learning.

We are both indebted to our University tutor and mentor Terry Haydn for inspiring us to become hard-working teachers. Thank you Terry.

We were approached and asked if we could write a book to share some of the ideas and activities we have amalgamated over the years. Ideas range from designing challenging lessons to keeping students interested and on task to organising your teaching in order to control challenging behaviour. We loved writing the book, hope you enjoy reading it.

Many similar ideas and resources can be found on our partner site Innovativehistory.net (currently under development). Although the main focus is on the teaching of history the vast majority of resources can be easily modified for any subject.