Claudia Lewis

Nope.

I tracked the temperature in my classroom and the science office over the day. Highest temperature was 28.4°C. Blue denotes a lesson.

What is the difference between prerequisite knowledge and checks for understanding @mbdscience.bsky.social has the key definitions

I hate eating breakfast, but I can't go through to lunch without something, so I'm trying to find a healthy mid-morning snack to tide me over. Today, I made omelette muffins. We shall see if they do the trick.

At the beginning of the year, when asked which football team I support, I told my students I support a regional National League team, and now the boys give me weekly updates on how they're playing.

This is what you wanted. What did you think "globalise the intifada" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?

Two Jews can't even be shot dead outside a Jewish museum after attending a Jewish event without Woo EduTwitter retweeting posts implying it was a set-up by the Israeli government.

Grit is a form of resilience and you can't build either unless you're exposed to setbacks. It's far better for those setbacks, inconveniences and failings come in minor form, in a supportive environment, where the consequences are low, and not later when they can be devastating

We will never be able to teach students 'grit' while we're prevented from asking them to do anything evenly mildly unpleasant.

Until I can set homework with a high pass mark, and a detention for failing to meet it, without getting pushback from parents, there will be no grit.

Woooo! 🥳

You can lead a horse to water… Learning is an active process. Too often, I encounter students who believe they can simply sit, passively in a lesson and absorb what is being taught, without having to do anything. And to a degree…

🚨New post🚨 We need to make sure our students are not trying to be passive learners. We must make the horse drink.
mbdscience.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/y...

Not all feedback is created equal. “A lot of the same students were putting their hand up. Try cold calling or turn and talk.” Giving feedback is a vital part of leading, but – as with many parts of leadership &#82…

🚨NEW POST 🚨
It's been a while, but I'm on a cross-country train, so what better use of my time than to blog about feedback.

mbdscience.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/n...

a cartoon character with a candy cane and the words sensational below it ALT: a cartoon character with a candy cane and the words sensational below it

Want to see an awesome list of speakers for this year's #cogscisci in Surrey #edusky?

Check the thread below for updates on speakers

I do have one. It feels like writing on paper which I love, and it syncs with my phone which I also like because it means I can keep track of everything, even if it's not technically filed away properly!

I see Fazackerley has written her regular Observer column dumping on schools.

AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH

AI for planning is the equivalent of thinking it's ok for children to talk as long as they "get the work done."

I'm not so sure - the interaction with e.g. ChatGPT is much more human, and it feels the same as asking for advice, and I think that will lead/is leading to higher levels of trust in the outcome that previously with e.g. Boardworks or Badger or whatever.

But for an inexperienced teacher, they don't necessarily have the expertise to realise it's bunkum...

It doesn't "know" anything, it just uses statistical models to suggest the most likely next word, given the previous. It's no surprise it regurgitates VAK and the like, given how much information there is about them on the internet!

If you're a very inexperienced teacher, there's also the risk that you blame your delivery for the poor lesson, rather than the LLM that read every resource on TES and gave you the mean average.

It scrapes everything, even the bad. For inexperienced teachers that can very easily result in them delivering dross that doesn't help students learn, and there's no voice saying "actually, don't do that, try this".

One of my concerns about the use of e.g. ChatGPT in teaching is how easy it is. It's the looking up the answer of teaching. Why think hard about the best way to explain something, why find an experienced colleague and ask their advice when you can just type your question into a box and get an answer

The robot at the Tesco petrol station near me shouts at you if you get your phone out at the neighbouring traffic lights

This is beautiful!

Homework instructions that are supportive, encouraging and bursting with high, manageable expectations!

Task description 1. Go to this link: Homework. Your log in is your name. 2. Spend at least 15 minutes going through the flashcards. For each question, either write down the answer, or speak it aloud (whispering is fine!) 3. No earlier than the following day, repeat step 2. 4. No earlier than the following day, complete the quiz.. If you score below 80%, immediately revisit the flash cards. Repeat the quiz the following day. For example: Thursday - 15 minutes flashcards Sunday - 15 minutes flashcards Tuesday - quiz. 80%+, homework done. <80%, 15 minutes flashcards Wednesday - quiz

I'm trying to get my students into good habits with their Carousel homework - to not race through the flashcards - so I'm trying the following instructions, and so far the students seem to be engaging with the flashcards much better and doing less cramming!

I'm not saying airports lie or that some people don't know how to queue, but I arrived at the airport and within 10 minutes I was through security and in a departure lounge. And that included getting swabbed.

The three biggest myths in education:

The system requires a third of students to be sacrificed to the GCSE gods.

Knowledge is stickier when you work it out yourself.

Discipline is bad for children.

The image shows a beautifully baked pineapple upside-down cake. The cake has a rich caramelized glaze with pineapple rings arranged in a circular pattern, with one pineapple ring in the center and smaller slices radiating outward. The golden-brown cake beneath complements the shiny, juicy pineapple topping. Alas, the cake showing through the inner pineapple ring looks like an anus.

Now, I understand why a maraschino cherry is placed inside the pineapple ring...

I wonder how much of this is a fairly modern phenomenon - as identity politics grows, one's own sense of identity becomes more precise/niche and the perception of what "like me" becomes tighter, leading to the impacts shown there...