With the news that UK schools will be closing due to coronavirus, we’ve put together a list of 10 resources that provide great tips on how to teach remotely.

We know there’s no quick fix and one size certainly doesn’t fit all, but these tools to teach online could be a great place to start. Keep up to date with all the resources we're sharing over on our Twitter account @IRIS_Connect

Please share any resources you’ve found to be useful in the comments section below so that your fellow readers can benefit. 

Written by Graham Newell  @Graham_IRISC

I have been talking about professional autonomy for years as I believe it is an integral part of professionalism: autonomy is not the easy option, in fact it’s just the opposite. It demands a rigorous understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and the willingness to objectively enquire about what actually works.

The recent research by the NFER in partnership with the Teacher Development Trust, ‘Teacher Autonomy: how does it relate to job satisfaction and retention?’ (January, 2020), provides a significant and important contribution to the debates about both what constitutes effective CPD and the importance of developing professionalism at the front line.

Collaboration between lead practitioners and teachers is a powerful professional development activity that can help teachers improve their subject knowledge, think about teaching strategies in different ways and learn new ideas to try in the classroom.

In fact, teachers have been found to learn more from each other than with mentors or in traditional classes and workshops. Even better news is that teachers using collaborative practices are more innovative in the classroom, hold stronger self-efficacy beliefs, and have higher job satisfaction (The Teaching and Learning International Survey—TALIS 2013)

Giving quality feedback to students is time consuming but, as the EEF points out, we know it’s effective in improving the quality of learning. Here at The Blue Coat School we’re always trying to improve how we feedback to students and in the last 18 months we’ve been sharing short videos of us talking through exam questions that students can watch in their own time. 

“Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance.”
- Atul Gawande, Personal Best, The New Yorker

Coaching is a fantastic opportunity for experienced teachers to develop themselves further. But also for new teachers, it can give them the confidence, skills and self-awareness needed for a long and successful teaching career.
Researchers and educators have emphasised the importance of teacher coaching for decades, describing it as an essential component of effective continuous professional development.

I believe in inclusion and I often wonder if we’re providing the best possible academic progress for our SEND learners within mainstream schools. Do we have enough time to spend with them? How can we improve their progress regardless of sets, or mixed ability classes? How can we teach them to the best of their abilities within overcrowded classes, struggling budgets and other daily difficulties?

I consider myself lucky - I am a SEND specialist teacher who has worked at a special school and is now working in mainstream. It’s given me a different perspective and an opportunity to compare and apply various approaches, techniques and views into my teaching practice. The majority of strategies I’ve learnt from specialising can be easily adapted and adjusted to meet our pupils’ needs in mainstream schools. Here are my 10 tips to support your SEND pupils better.