Miss…your clock’s not working…

I know!

It isn’t working and whilst it’s been broken I have embarked upon an accidental research project inside my own classroom…

Since the batteries of my classroom clock gave up in December (around about the same time that my tired-teacher-batteries were also feeling quite drained!) students in all my classes have been asking about my clock…so many times each day…every lesson…many times in the same lesson!  I had absolutely no idea that my students were so doggedly staring at time during my lessons – distracted by their break-time count-down calculations…gawping at the minutes…assessing how much commitment they would afford a task set for them to complete ‘by the end of the lesson’ – shocking…and not very flattering!

I have resisted the clichéd teacher responses passed down and learned over the course of my career:

“The bell is for me…”

“I’ll be the one to monitor time in my lesson…”

The lesson will finish when …blah, blahhhh”

Instead – I turn to the pages of Academic Research to explore the insights linked to distraction of many practitioners before me and this is what I have found…

Peps Mccrea – ‘Memorable Teaching’ – is absolutely brilliant!

“Our job as teachers is to increase the life chances of our students by helping them develop more powerful long-term memory (LTM)”

Mccrea presents the theory that our goal in teaching is to manage not only what students do in the classroom but to manage what they think – because “ultimately, what students think about is what they learn…”.  Since my own clock-awareness-gate I’ve been considering Mccrea’s 9 Principles of memorable Teaching and this is what I now know…

1: Manage Information – “schools are information-rich environments – our classrooms are overflowing with data…”

So, I have completed an audit of my classroom (new to me this year, so an opportunity for me to create a new space for learning….curiously I have reverted to type and filled every place available with something shiny and interesting!)

• every wall covered with information/examples/instructions
• every display-board groaning under the weight of GCSE AOs/student work samples
• window-ledges…covered with student work examples etc. etc.

Sounds great?  But is it?  Is it a confusing and (slightly claustrophobic!) eclectic cacophony of information?!  What is it like for a learner to be in Room 9…  Mccrea suggests the following factors for consideration of the physical environment:

Clocks – A classroom clock in plain-view can easily trigger “tangential trains of thought”…Ah haaaa!  I knew it (sort of!).  No more ticking-time-distractions in my classroom, those batteries are never getting replaced!  During a quick classroom circulate this morning around our school, I see that some classrooms are displaying several clocks…imagine!

Music – “the only time when music helps us think is when it offsets the impact of other greater distractions”.  The use of headphones by our students in lessons has long been debated at RPCC – the answer is surely a ‘no’ – our Learners do not require any further distractions in a learning environment?

Displays – unless they detail information needed every lesson they are merely a distraction…this is sad…no more ‘Miss Reed’s favourite Richard 3rd Quotations (a text currently not on any GCSE spec.!)?

2:  Orient Attention:  “Attention is the currency of our classroom”

To orient our students’ attention actually means going against instinct – for example – I added a very lovely green frog reclining hilariously on the first line of my Year 11 resource last week – necessary?  No. …ingrained in me to make my resources visually attractive…yes!  But – we did then have a funny conversation about that frog…this was not linked to progress!  I see Mccrea’s point…

3:  Streamline Communication:  “How we communicate influences what gets learnt…”

Key messages delivered verbally linked to new or re-visited knowledge can be re-iterated on succinct classroom displays as long as that information is relevant every lesson…otherwise our messages may become confusing and/or over-whelming?

4:  Regulate Load:  “Learning happens when students have to think hard”

We have completed T&L Briefing CPD on Failed Transfer very recently – so we are all aware of the value of making simple, obvious and relatable connections within and between GCSE AOs – so Mccrea has (another) great point.

5:  Expedite Elaboration:

Now, this I can get on board with – fancying myself as a fairly capable raconteur!  Mccrea suggests that Mnemonics, rhyme, stories and letter-linking form the basis of any successful classroom display/resource – so we just need to think carefully about using any surplus resources that simply cause distraction – seems like it could actually reduce work-load..?

6:  Refine Structures:

We are all adept at ‘refining’ but perhaps can easily get out-of-practice?  Mccrea reminds us to consider how ‘new knowledge’ can be linked to similar concepts already learned (back to Transfer).  Planning that makes prior learning explicit is therefore more likely to afford progress and if learning ‘journeys’ are displayed to aid Working Memory  in converting to LTM – simple, right?

7:  Stabilise Changes:  ” Spacing…is one of the quickest wins available for teachers wishing to supercharge their impact…”

So, we can cover up displays…then reveal displays when required – I have seen this done and the nodding recognition from around the classroom as students recall and recognise was impressive.  The learning environment thus becomes an interactive one and promotes cultures of impactful low-stakes testing.  This would increase the value of all of those time-stealing displays that we religiously produce to entertain and support our students?

8:  Align Pedagogies:  “Carve every word before you let it fall” (Holmes)

I’ve seen the ‘Me-We-You’ strategy utilised in a variety of classrooms across RPCC – if we reduce Mccrea’s research to a central idea for implementation perhaps we could all adopt one sign for display reminding students of their lessons wherein they were exposed to this strategy (‘Me-We-You’) and this could facilitate a cognitive link to LTM and trigger learning based on memory of what has been learned in that process..?

9:  Embed Metacognition

Mccrea suggest that to calibrate understanding perhaps this mantra may be displayed (I know I’ve said we’re to whittle down displays…but…) could we try this in each classroom:  Predict.  Evaluate.  Reflect.  We are aware of and utilise these metacognitive skills in isolation in our teaching but drawing them together can only improve learning?

So – a basic summary of Mccrea’s work and it’s clear that some of the strategies are firmly embedded in our practice at RPCC…some need further discussion and research but many of them are quick and easy to implement.  Is it as simple as taking down classroom clocks?  Well, yes – as a starting point.  As for tearing down the multi-coloured meanderings adorning the walls of Room 9…I’m not quite ready!