Accelerated Learning Pocketbook

By adopting accelerated learning principles you can teach in a way that maximises your students' chances of reaching their potential. This pocketbook offers practical strategies and techniques that get results. After outlining the background to accelerated learning, Brin Best explains how to prepare your students for learning and how to create the right learning environment. A chapter on teaching strategies covers questioning techniques and styles of teaching and learning, with suggested activities helpfully linked to each of the multiple intelligences first identified by Howard Gardner. A detailed self-evaluation framework allows you to review and develop practice. To quote one head of science, "some books have a good idea every few pages; this one has a few good ideas on every page".

This third edition of the Head of Department's Pocketbook will support middle leaders in both primary and secondary schools in carrying out their jobs confidently and efficiently. Authors Brin Best and Will Thomas know from experience that managing diverse teams in a climate of inflated performance expectations is no easy task. They devote a section of the Pocketbook to leadership and management, encompassing vision, goals and creativity, as well as challenging adult behaviours, up-skilling, influencing and motivating colleagues. A later chapter called 'Raising Student Achievement' looks at excellence in the classroom and includes material on enriching and supporting learning, data use and lesson planning. Effective documentation and raising the profile of your department or curriculum area are also explored. Whether you're new to middle leadership or a seasoned hand, you'll find the self-evaluation checklist at the end of the book a useful professional development tool.

There are more similarities than differences between girls and boys, but there are innate differences in how they think, feel, behave, communicate and learn. That said, not all boys and not all girls are the same. The challenge for education is to avoid gender stereotyping, while understanding and exploiting gender differences for better teaching and learning. Ian smith argues that by letting boys be boys and girls be girls we can help them become successful learners who will mature into confident adults, comfortable with themselves and with others. He covers how to motivate both boys and girls through a combination of challenge and support; how to connect with both genders; how to create a structured environment that will work for girls and for boys; how to actively involve both in their own learning; how to give effective feedback; and whether boys and girls should be taught separately or together. This is not another book that harps on about 'the problem with boys'; it takes a refreshing look at the broader picture and gives practical classroom advice.

It was in response to requests from teachers that Learning to Learn came to be written. Hard-pressed to cover what to learn, finding time to research or devise materials on how to learn was, we were told, a problem. Tom Barwood's highly- regarded workshops for teachers and students in schools address just this issue - and now so does his pocketbook. Working on the premise that successful learning depends partly on knowing why you want to learn, the first part of the book looks at motivation. How to learn - registering, retaining, recalling, revising - is the focus of the remainder. From slicing, mind-mapping and learning styles, through mnemonics, mind pegs and the seven keys of memory, to reviewing, snowballing and recording, the art of learning is explored and demonstrated. Full of practical, fun techniques for successful learning, this is a book for teachers and their students.

Drama-based activities encourage high levels of cognitive activity; they're fun, they get everyone involved, and they foster creativity across the curriculum. Maybe you recognise drama as a powerful tool for learning but don't see how it applies to your subject/classroom? Possibly you've experimented with drama and would like to build on this, or perhaps you're waiting in the wings unsure how to make your debut? Enter the Drama for Learning Pocketbook with its wardrobe of techniques: drama games; exploring narrative, character and dilemmas; 'stylisation'; analogies; props and 'teacher in role'. Each chapter describes several different drama activities with a worked example of each followed by ideas banks suggesting applications right across the curriculum. Whether you're a primary or secondary specialist why not give Drama for Learning an audition? It could become the star of your show! Brian Radcliffe is also author of 40 Creative Ideas for using Drama in RE, a series of downloadable pdfs designed to engage pupils in the RE curriculum