Magic Marking

1. Invest in some sheets of stickers/labels - maybe treat yourself to some coloured ones so feedback stands out to students
2. Measure your borders on your sheet of labels and set custom borders on microsoft word to match
3. Measure the height of each sticker and create a table in word with the same heights
4. Take in student summary sheets and do a general review - what are the common strengths, targets and questions? Put these in a separate word document
5. Working split screen (minimise each word doc and drag the left or right and they will 'click' into half your screen) put student name followed by the appropriate strength, target and question
6. Pile up student work in the same order you are creating the labels
7. Print labels (and leave to dry for a few minutes to avoid smudges)
8. Stick labels on student work

Approx time for 30 students: 1 hour (with the added advantage they can read the feedback instead of asking what something says because of my handwriting...)

Summary sheets completed by students and reviewed for common STQ

Personalised STQ added to label template in word

Labels printed and added to student work

N.b. This requires you to have created a summary sheet for marking in the first place though - this way you can mark the reviewed content from several lessons at once. This could be done under exam conditions in class by students or for homework.

ResearchEd 2016

When I logged into blogger today I realised it's been nearly a year since I last wrote anything - a year in which I have learnt an incredible amount, faced seemingly endless challenge and (hopefully!) settled at my amazing new school.

I went to ResearchEd 2016 at Huntington School yesterday and feel sufficiently inspired to throw together a few thoughts on it (I'm hoping to put something more coherent together about what an incredible event it was but it might need to wait until the Summer...)

What I really wanted to share was the shift in my thinking that happened as I listened to Baroness Estelle Morris give one of the keynote speeches. With her words of wisdom I think she may well have just become my new education idol. The key idea I took away was 'tell me what works' - how can we build a bridge between the teaching and research communities? She discussed how it has taken 25 years for the thinking behind what make a school great to shift from being focused on good leadership (obviously still important today) to good classroom practice and the notion that everyone can teach better, and abandoning the idea that good teachers are born and not made. I also liked the way she spoke about structural change not necessarily leading to higher classroom standards, but that better teaching certainly would. 

With the shift towards academies and multiacademy trusts I also found her views on how the system now works in the absence of local authorities interesting. She spoke of the LAs as a middle man, now removed, which therefore allows the other two players (the government and schools) to set the agenda. If we don't like the government agenda then we have to take charge as schools and lead the way with the changes that we hope will remove the barriers that young people face and strive for social justice. Regardless of how you feel about academisation and the like I think that this may have led to a genuine change in my view on how we should move forward in education. A pretty powerful way to start your Saturday morning really. (I certainly don't think she was advocating it - see her views on the white paper in the Guardian here: 

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/apr/26/education-white-paper-admission-failure-schools-local) 

More articles can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/estellemorris