Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

It's the middle of the Easter holidays, and Emma and Tom enjoyed recording the last holiday special for Christmas so much that they've decided to do another one! This time there's a bit more of an educational theme, but a change to the format: Emma and Tom both bring a blog post, a tweet and a story about a teacher into the studio, and neither of them is letting the other have any advance warning of the content... Emma has an uplifting blog post, a tweet that's a perfect summation of an accountability culture gone mad, and a story of pupil protest, quietly aided and abetted by subversive teachers. Tom plays true to form by starting off firmly on the rails with a blog post about dealing with work overload, and then veers off into the unexpected with a tweet about how to tell if someone is truly powerful, and a news story about an idea for a lesson that can only be described as insane. Emma hangs on for what she describes as a 'white-knuckle ride' of content, musing on whether Tom's about to get them both sacked - so a normal day at the podcast office, then! If you'd like to take a look at the content that inspired today's episode (and many thanks to all the people responsible for writing it!), please do take a look at the links below: Tom Sherrington: Overloaded? Out of Control? Press the Reset Button. Martin Robinson: Cultural Mobility Ed Morrish: Power Annie Black: Horror Stamper Fake Ambitious Assistant Head: Differentiation The Telegraph: Crazy Lesson Idea Zapataforever: Protests   Please do rate, review and tell your friends. You can find us on twitter at @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze. Our department at Cardiff Met tweets at @ITECardiffMet. See you next time!   ---------- This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 8th April 2019

It's a cosy recording session in Emma's office this time, as we manage to squeeze four student teachers around the table with us to discuss the future of education, focusing particularly on the curriculum reforms here in Wales. After attending a talk by the Welsh Education MInister, Kirsty Williams, all four students felt they wanted to share their thoughts on the way things are moving, and the part they have to play as new members of the teaching profession. With four guests, we get plenty of material for the regular slots, and as an extra bonus we ask them what advice they might have for someone applying to join them in teaching. Their answers are honest, perceptive and inspiring!

Emma and Tom return to their roots with a podcast episode featuring just the two of them - it's been a while! Tom's also relieved to be back in the land of the living after recording the last three episodes back-to-back while suffering from terrible man-flu. With a two-weekly release cycle, that's over a month he's been missing in action on the podcast, occasionally croaking an intervention and then subsiding behind the controls and quaffing Lemsip... now he's sounding much perkier and ready to make a proper contribution! Episode 15 is another episode discussing a learning strategy that we can all try out from time to time: the flipped classroom. Emma and Tom discuss how they used it to reduce the amount of 'death by powerpoint' in their very limited teaching time with the PGCE students, how to get round concerns about technical knowhow and planning workload, and what they've found in the literature about the strategy. Tom's wellbeing tip turns into a fairly epic story, but with a useful message for us all about seeking out the people we think are better than us. Emma shouts out to the students who joined us to record episode 16 (definitely tune in for that one in a fortnight!) and also points out that most of us were never taught how to take notes in classes. Of course, she's found a handy idea to give us a much-needed system for capturing all that vital information from our teachers. Please do rate or review us, and tell your friends about the podcast - we love getting new listeners! Join us next time when we squeeze four students into Emma's cosy office to discuss the Minister for Education's vision for the future of education here in Wales.   The article about PowerPoint in the Guardian that Tom mentioned is here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/23/powerpoint-thought-students-bullet-points-information The article about the teacher who gave up flipped learning is here: https://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/ The pupil who thinks flipped learning is just teachers slacking off is here: https://www.thewrangleronline.com/13877/opinion/the-flipped-classroom-doesnt-work/   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 11th March 2019

In this small but perfectly formed episode, Emma and Tom are joined by two guests: Rachel George and Rhodri Jones from Ysgol Maes y Coed, a school for pupils with additional learning needs. Fresh from delivering a session with the PGCE students, Rachel and Rhodri talk about how the expressive arts form a central part of the learning experience for their pupils, whose additional learning needs (ALN) range from autism to physical health issues requiring specialist care and equipment. Rachel and Rhodri are experts at not taking no for an answer, and have pressed industry professionals and celebrities from the world of the expressive arts into service enriching the lives of their pupils! There's plenty to think about in this track, from how we can use the arts to help pupils access a range of other subjects, to how we listen to the pupil voice to devise our lessons, and how the ALN learners were represented at the heart of the process to devise the new curriculum for Wales.   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 4th February 2019

It's time for another book review! Emma and Tom are joined again by Dr Judith Kneen to look at Tom Sherrington's 'The Learning Rainforest', a book that Judith rightly describes as 'a thing' in the education community right now. What will Emma, Tom and Judith make of this book which promises to tell us about 'great teaching in real classrooms'? After that. Judith brings her wellbeing tip, shoutout and idea to try - we hope you find them useful. If you want to read more from Tom Sherrington, his blog is teacherhead.com - and if you like our podcast, please do send us a rating, review or tweet. Emma is @ethayer_cmu and Tom is @thomasbreeze. We'll be back next time with more guests, and an episode all about how we can use the arts to enrich the learning of pupils with additional learning needs, and how everyone should give it a go. See you then!   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 29th January 2019

For episode 12 of the podcast, we're joined by Fiona Heath-Diffey, Programme Leader for PGCE Secondary PE at Cardiff Met. Fiona is doing her PhD research on the concept of physical literacy, and has come in to talk to us about how we can transform the way people think about being physically active, their motivation and the way they view the interface between mind and body through physical literacy. This has big implications for the way subjects such as PE are delivered in school in order to have the most positive effect, and we take a deep dive into what this looks like and how the philosophy translates into good teaching - and how a lifelong love of being physically active is vital for our health and wellbeing. If you want to read more about physical literacy, check out the work of Professor Margaret Whitehead, and indeed the research being carried out by Fiona and many of her fine colleagues from our very own Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences right here at Cardiff Met. See you next time, when we'll be reviewing another book: Tom Sherrington's 'The Learning Rainforest' - why not get reading your copy now?   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 29th January 2019

It's episode 11 of the podcast, and Emma and Tom are joined by June Hurcom, senior lecturer in early years education, for her first podcasting experience! This episode is for anyone who's ever felt that they might like to embark on the journey to becoming a teacher, and is full of great advice for things to do (and not to do!) when preparing to apply for a programme that will get you that all-important teaching qualification. From the different routes into the profession to what to do when you get an interview, our podcasters have everything you need to know to help you take those first steps towards teaching. We've also been back out to our excellent Cardiff Met colleagues who have each given their top tips for applicants - in both English and Welsh - so it's worth a listen in case you find one of them doing your interview... It's become a PGCE Podcast tradition for our guests to provide their take on the regular slots at the end of the episode, and June has clearly done her homework, rattling through her wellbeing tip, shoutout and something-to-try like a pro. Canine companionship, a fantastic lesson set in space, and an evergreen teaching method to stretch your more able pupils - June's got it all covered! If you'd like to find out more about how we can help you on your way to becoming a teacher, check out our range of courses here: https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/education/Pages/Department-of-Initial-Teacher-Education.aspx We'll be back next time looking at physical literacy, health and wellbeing - see you soon!   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 15th January 2019

Happy new year! The podcast is back with an extended episode featuring not one, but two special guests. Emma and Tom are joined by Dr Judith Kneen who runs the PGCE Secondary English course, and Sharne Watkins, Deputy Head of Initial Teacher Education, PGCE Primary literacy specialist... and Tom's line manager - gulp! Emma, Tom, Judith and Sharne bring us a meaty 57 minutes in which they review a fairly controversial publication: Daisy Christodoulou's 'Seven Myths about Education' - a book that ruffled a fair few feathers on its publication in 2014, propelled its author to instant fame as a darling of the traditionalist wing of the education world, and had commentators even tipping her as the next head of Ofsted. The book itself aims to set out seven 'myths' which are apparently dearly-held by 'progressives', and to demolish them with evidence and science. Focusing mainly on the first two myths for reasons of time ('facts prevent understanding' and 'teacher-led instruction is passive'), our intrepid podcast quartet interrogate Christodoulou's work and try to get to the bottom of whether this really is 'the most important book of the decade on teaching' (Dylan Wiliam). Sharne then provides us with her wellbeing tip, which involves getting your trainers on and going for a walk, a shoutout to a student who changed careers to become a teacher and press-ganged her giant-vegetable-growing friend into participating in a memorable lesson, and looks at how to grab pupils with a memorable 'hook'. See you in a fortnight, when we'll drag yet another guest into our studio, and provide some sage advice for anyone considering applying for a PGCE.   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 14th December 2018

It’s that weird bit between Christmas and New Year, and it’s time for a bumper PGCE podcast special!  Emma and Tom are here with a 68-minute epic that contains the absolute bare minimum of wholesome educational content, and an enormous number of self-indulgent treats. In place of the usual slots, we recommend a few of our favourite podcasts, and Tom tells the story of how the PGCE Podcast came to be. We welcome our special guests, Becky and Amy from ‘And Then What? - the podcast all about stories’, and they bring us the hilarious tale of when a hotel stay went horribly wrong courtesy of a flock of seagulls. Colleagues from the Department of Initial Teacher Education at Cardiff Met weigh in with their favourite teachers from fiction (in both English and Welsh!), and then it’s time to hear Emma and Tom’s biggest classroom disasters. Be prepared for two sorry tales involving floor polish, rainwater, an infamous Chilean dictator… and the inevitable trips to hospital. To round off the episode, Becky and Amy return with a Brothers Grimm fairy tale that didn’t quite make it into the pantheon of classics. You can follow us on twitter: @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze - and our department is @itecardiffmet. Please do leave us festive thoughts via ratings and reviews, as we haven't got any at the moment... Thanks for listening, and see you next year!   ---------- Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 14th December 2018

Emma and Tom have taken the PGCE Podcast on the road again (and are hankering after their own PGCE tour bus) - this time to the brand new Ysgol Nantgwyn in Tonypandy. Nantgwyn is a 3-16 school that's a hotbed of innovation for the new curriculum in Wales. Its Head of Expressive Arts is Kath Lewis, a curriculum pioneer who's spent the last few years co-developing the new expressive arts Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) for the new curriculum here in Wales. Kath talks to Emma and Tom about what it's been like co-constructing a whole new expressive arts curriculum in heated debates with her fellow pioneers, how you keep school colleagues around you on board when selling major change to them, and brings her own wellbeing tips for us to take on board. Kath has plenty of talented colleagues at Ysgol Nantgwyn, so the shoutout slot is no problem for her, and her 'something to try' is an approach to differentiation that gives us all food for thought. Something for everyone in here, hopefully - not just those working in the expressive arts - as being a pioneer is something we might all find ourselves doing at some time in our careers. Join us next time for a special podcast Christmas treat!   ---------- Recorded at Ysgol Nantgwyn, Tonypandy on 23rd November 2018