Knowledge for Teachers

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee had the opportunity of visiting Marsden Road Public School and then speaking to the Principal, Manisha Gazula. Marsden Road has recently featured in a number of reports from the Grattan Institute on role-model schools from around the country. This is the first of a two part series on the school. In the next episode, you will hear from Deputy Principal Troy Verey. 
Manisha’s leadership style has been compared to Katherine Birbilsingh from Michaela Community School in the UK. However, in this conversation you will hear how Manisha’s clear vision, high expectations and relentless care have turned the schools results and culture around. Manisha also details their behaviour curriculum called The Marsden Way and their whole school curriculum - the  Core Program.
 
Resources mentioned:
Joanne Dooner - www.training247.com.au/
Dan Willingham
Mark Seidenberg
The Grattan Institute - Jordana Hunter and Amy Haywood
How to implement a whole-school curriculum approach 
Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools
 
You can connect with Manisha:
Twitter: @manisha_gazula
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Kieran Mackle. Kieran is a primary mathematics specialist teacher from the UK, an author and is currently working with Complete Maths. He is also the host of Thinking Deeply about Primary Education, a podcast that should be on your playlist, and this episode is actually the second part of our conversation. In the first part, Kieran quizzes me for his podcast. However, in this episode you will get an in-depth look at how deeply Kieran has thought about primary mathematics. We look at a number of topics including: 
Concrete, context, pictorial, abstract, language
Threshold concepts
Depth and Challenge
Storytelling
Word problems 
In this episode, Kieran also analyses the lesson structure that I recently proposed. 
Resources mentioned:
Christopher Such
Neil Almond
www.thinkingdeeply.info/threshold-concepts
Jonathan Hall - mathsbot.com
Gareth Metcalfe - https://garethmetcalfe.wordpress.com/
Dan Willingham
Nick Hart
 
Part 1 of the conversation: Episode 120 Thinking Deeply about Primary Education - In search of the Science of Mathematics (Teaching) with Brendan Lee
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education/id1546748470?i=1000609050064
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6De7GSKd2DlEoTxUFI4w0m?si=1RmPR-P3S6aYE54CsV1aDQ&fbclid=IwAR0yZzIAvzTgDrP3aN8_myL-3ZLBDi6KpAmJBYEfrGii2ObTkr1ABqplfhY&nd=1
My original blog post on A Systematic and Structured Approach to Teaching Primary Mathematics:
https://www.learnwithlee.net/a-systematic-and-structured-approach-to-teaching-primary-mathematics-part-1/
 
You can connect with Kieran:
Twitter: @Kieran_M_Ed
Website: thinkingdeeply.info
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Karen Tzanetopoulos, a trained speech and language pathologist. Karen tells us about how she started working out of an office that was like a janitor’s closet to quietly do her own structured literacy with students and how her interest in math began while working in the public schools, as she observed that many of her students with language disorders also struggled to learn math and then she made a connection between the two. 
In this conversation, Karen goes through everything from the fundamentals that students need automaticity in, common misconceptions, the importance of language to maths, how to approach word problems and much much more.
 
Resources mentioned:
- How Children Learn Math The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice (Nancy Krasa, Karen Tzanetopoulos, Colleen Maas)
- sternmath.com
 
You can connect with Karen:
mathandlanguage.com
Email: Karen@mathandlanguage.com
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Dr. Rouzana Komesidou, a researcher who fell into implementation science after seeing the gap between research and practice in schools. In our conversation, she gives an overview of what things schools should consider before implementing something, how leaders can support the process and what things to avoid.
 
Resources mentioned in this conversation:
Dr. Tiffany Hogan
Dr. James Mannion
A Generic Implementation Framework for School-based Research and Practice:
Pre-print: https://osf.io/6zpq7/ 
Toolkit: https://osf.io/mzb5d 
 
You can connect with Rouzana:
Twitter: @rkomesidou
Website: https://mosinian.com/
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to former principal, Greg Clement. In this conversation, we find out how he transformed Clayton South Primary School from the worst school in the network to the second best within 12 months. Greg also speaks about how a speech pathologist set him on the science of reading pathway, how he got buy-in from staff and the community and we go through his three year Action Plan.
 
Resources and people mentioned
Greg Clement’s book - Transform: Achieving excellence through the science of reading
Alison Clarke - What's wrong with predictable or repetitive texts
Laura Sundqvist
Toni Hatten-Roberts
Emina Mclean
David Morkunas
Orton-Gillingham Approach
Little Learners Love Literacy
educeri.com
You can connect with Greg:
Twitter: @GregClement15
Website: https://principals-of-reading.com/
email: gregclementconsulting@gmail.com
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee talks to curriculum expert Reid Smith, founder and co-CEO of Ochre Education and Head of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction at Ballarat Clarendon College. Reid’s done a lot of research around the importance of knowledge for comprehension and cognitive load theory.
In this conversation, Reid talks about:
- The importance of working in teams
- What we need to consider when designing a knowledge-rich curriculum
- Why teachers need to lose the idea that we need to do it all
- The origin story of Ochre Education
- The components involved with the makeup of Ochre lessons
- He mentioned the quote from Richard Elmore “You learn to do the work, by doing the work, not by talking about the work.” and related it to the importance of actually analysing real lesson plans, rather than just asking general questions 
And much more! 
 
Resources mentioned in this conversation:
Greg Ashman
Core Knowledge Foundation
Wiggins and McTighe
Read2Learn
Syntax Project (I spoke to Steph Le Lievre, one of the creators in Episode 2)
Oak National Academy
Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)
This is Reid’s paper that was mentioned:
Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry & Lorraine Hammond (2021) The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review, Reading Psychology, 42:3, 214-240, DOI: 10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348
You can connect with Reid
Twitter: @Smithre5
Website: ochre.org.au
Nlog: notquitetabularasa.wordpress.com/
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
 

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers podcast, Brendan Lee chats to Tom Sherrington about how Tom randomly found some Bill Rogers videos that were transformational for him. How he worked out the need to deliver precise professional learning for teachers and the common challenges that schools face. Tom also goes through how schools are using Teaching Walkthrus effectively.
 
Resources mentioned in this conversation:
Walkthrus.co.uk
teacherhead.com
teachingsprints.com.au
Australian Walkthrus Workshop - Thursday 30th March
Daniel Willingham’s Why don’t students like school
Megan Sumeracki, Oliver Caviglioli, and Yana Weinstein: Understanding How We Learn
Everything from Dylan Wiliam about Formative Assessment including he’s recent episode on Tom and Emma Turner’s podcast - Mind the Gap
 
You can connect with Tom:
Twitter: @teacherhead
Website: https://teacherhead.com/
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this wide-ranging conversation, Brendan Lee chats with Daisy Christodoulou and Jeanette Breen about all things to do with education. On the 10th anniversary of the 7 Myths about Education, he asks Daisy if there are any changes or additions she would make. She also talks about why rubrics give us an illusion of a shared language and the positive impact that AI could have on teacher workload.
Jeanette Breen provides her story of why and how she has used Comparative Judgement at her school and the impact it has had. 
 
Resources mentioned:
www.nomoremarking.com/
No More Marking Blog Article: Does spelling matter? 
 
You can connect with Daisy:
Twitter: @daisychristo
Website: https://daisychristodoulou.com/
 
You can connect with Jeanette:
Twitter: @jettybe3
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Lyn Stone. Lyn is an author, linguist and consultancy and tutoring practice, Lifelong Literacy. In this chat, she addresses a number of misconceptions about teaching literacy and provides loads of practical tips for teachers. You will find out how Lyn’s passion for literacy developed, why we can’t teach the English language like we have a transparent orthography and how reading and writing are not simple, but you can view them simply
 
Resources mentioned:
Dolores G. Hiskes - Reading Pathways: Simple Exercises to Improve Reading Fluency
Ollie Lovell - Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory in Action
Ollie Lovell - Tools for Teachers
Tom Bennett - Running the Room
Lorraine Hammond
Pamela Snow and Tanya Serry - SOLAR Lab
www.etymonline.com/
 
You can connect with Lyn:
Twitter @lifelonglit
Website: lifelongliteracy.com/
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode, Brendan Lee talks to Deputy Principal, Stephanie Le Lievre. She explains:
- how the Reading Science in Schools FB group - that now has over 50,000 members, came about
- why we need to "cut the fluff"
- what a structured literacy block can look like for the pre-primary stage
- what an evidence-informed approach looks like in the primary classroom
- how she is using ChatGPT for fluency building!
 
Some of the experts and resources mentioned:
Professor Pamela Snow
Professor Lorraine Hammond
William Van Cleave
Lyn Stone
Dr. Nathaniel Swain
The Writing Revolution
https://www.readworks.org/
https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/
https://www.phormes.com/
https://readingscienceinschools.squarespace.com/
https://thesyntaxproject2022.squarespace.com/
 
You can connect with Steph:
Twitter @StephLeLievre_
 
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net