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20 years of educational fads

236 replies

Piggywaspushed · 19/03/2018 17:33

This article on Teacher Toolkit is actually two years old so I am sure we could update it! (SLANT anyone??) but it appeared on my Twitter feed and I thought MN might find it diverting:

www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2016/07/10/education-fads/

loving that triple marking is declared a fad.

Send to all your SLTs! I dare you!!

OP posts:
WontLetThoseRobotsDefeatMe · 20/03/2018 19:04

I think I think it's I think it's like Topic. It seems to involve lots of tenuous linking of subjects with some kind of bizarre overarching purpose.

Appuskidu · 20/03/2018 19:13

Better than the current set-up where other than Year 6 and Year 2, nobody really knows what an "expected" piece of writing is supposed to look like.

Yes, I do feel this is the elephant in the room a bit now. At least you knew where you were with levels! Remember? those levels that were removed as they confused people Grin.

Acopyofacopy · 20/03/2018 19:43

I actually laughed out loud at flipped learning - aka homework!

I hate the use of props: Only the person to hold the absolutely manky parrot is allowed to talk. Photo booth props. Getting into character through wearing a cape or, worse, a wig.

The English department were trying to sell us their wonderfully faddy ideas at our last CPD event. The amount of eye rolling going on in the auditorium made it look like a scene out of The Exorcist!

elephantoverthehill · 20/03/2018 19:51

Speed dating, greeted by the students 'We just did this in geography'. Starter activity, handing out tasks on the way into the lesson, 'OMG this isn't maths'. Post it notes = very good small paper aeroplanes. Sugar paper and board markers = what do I do with this 'evidence' now. Please tell SLT that I do try now and again.

noblegiraffe · 20/03/2018 19:52

Oh God Mantle of the Expert sounds even worse than I’d imagined. I’d imagined a kid, draped in a cape (why? I’ve no idea), sat on a chair at the front of the class badly answering questions. Drama is worse.

I’m often very glad that I’m a maths teacher and don’t have to even attempt this stuff. And the various Taxonomies - I glaze over when they start wanging on about those at INSET.

madmomma · 20/03/2018 20:05

Anyone mentioned learning to learn? What a crock of shit that was.

madmomma · 20/03/2018 20:08

Ooh and what about the eyfs stuff? The joy of having to spend all day in the freezing cold because the door had to be open at all times.

WowLookAtYou · 20/03/2018 20:24

Integrated fucking Day. Angry

leccybill · 20/03/2018 20:29

God yes, learning to learn. We actually had textbooks for this shit...

MiaowTheCat · 20/03/2018 20:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

elephantoverthehill · 20/03/2018 21:38

DEAR - Drop Everything And Read. Very useful for those engaging in practical activities not.

StickStickStickStick · 20/03/2018 22:06

Ah yes ours did that in book week...

Never mind literacy and numeracy hour in primary- all morning is literacy and numeracy. All the interesting stuff is squeased out.

Obsession with grammar and fake grammar.... I hope this goes :(

Appuskidu · 20/03/2018 22:09

Fake grammar is such bullshit, isn’t it?

Gove wanted this ‘return to 50s’ schooling, but my parents-who were (grammar) schooled in the 50s weren’t taught the majority of this crap.

Fronted adverbial of time anyone?

Fairport · 20/03/2018 22:32

This is Biff.

This is Chip.

This is Biff and Chip's homework.

Biff and Chip are required to write down ten examples of fronted adverbials.

Biff and Chip have not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is.

This is Mum.

Mum has not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is either.

"We don't know what a fronted adverbial is," whinge Biff and Chip. "This homework is impossible. You will have to help us."

"It's not my homework, it's your homework," says Mum, thanking her lucky stars that she did not have to engage in any of this fronted adverbial bollocks when she was at school.

This is Dad.

Dad still struggles to distinguish between a noun and a verb, and would not know a fronted adverbial if one came up and punched him in the face.

Biff and Chip think for a moment about asking Dad for help.

They decide to Google instead.

This is Mrs May.

When Mrs May went into teaching she honestly believed she would be able to spend her time helping children to love learning. And putting on plays. Mrs May loves a play. She did not realise that a love of learning would not feature on the National Curriculum at all, and that she would instead be forced to meet a series of impossible and continuously moving goalposts which successive governments would put in place, and have to teach her classes about ridiculous concepts such as fronted adverbials which, in all honesty, are only ever likely to be of use if they end up becoming professors of linguistics. Or primary school teachers.

If truth be told, Mrs May has not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is either.

This is Floppy the dog.

Floppy holds no truck with fronted adverbials.

Floppy eats the fronted adverbial homework sheet.

Floppy knows that he is a fucking liability, and waits to be told so.

No one is more surprised than Floppy when the entire family gather around and tell him "Oh GOOD dog Floppy."

Floppy feels this is proof positive that some good can come from fronted adverbials after all.

Later at school, Biff and Chip are, for the first time, able to legitimately use the excuse: "My dog ate my homework."

Mrs May breathes a secret sigh of relief that that is one less set of incomprehensible and entirely incorrect homework that she has to plough through, and suggests to the class that they will all put on a play instead to celebrate.

elephantoverthehill · 20/03/2018 22:34
Grin
Piggywaspushed · 21/03/2018 06:57

Ok, so I have longa had a burning question : what IS a fronted adverbial? And I ask this as a teacher of A Level English. I also don't get noun phrases or verb phrases.

OP posts:
TarzansPlasticCrocodile · 21/03/2018 07:00

Quietly, tiptoeing as he went, the man left the room.

That sentence is one with a fronted adverbial. Bloody stupid things.

Appuskidu · 21/03/2018 07:05

Isn’t a noun phrase, a sentence with lots of adjectives in?!

TarzansPlasticCrocodile · 21/03/2018 07:05

Ours maths co-ordinater LOVES mastery, greater depth and whatever the bloody hell the other one is. Genuinely no-one ever knows what she’s talking about. Last maths staff meeting someone plucked up the courage to ask whether mastery just meant the level the children were expected to work at and I still can’t remember the answer. Bloody ridiculous jargon, just gets in the way of teaching . Of all professions, we work with young children, we should understand the value of plain speaking. And don’t even get me started on manipulatives.....

Piggywaspushed · 21/03/2018 07:10

That's what I thought a fronted adverbial was : but the KS2 revision books I had said differently. And yes, that's why I don't get noun phrases! They're bloody adjectival!!! Oh well : no one cares after year 6!! (poor primary kids and teachers!)

The Plain English Campaign should certainly get stuck into teaching lingo!!

OP posts:
Appuskidu · 21/03/2018 07:20

Is a fronted adverbial a time connective?

No, here we go...

www.theschoolrun.com/what-are-fronted-adverbials

It’s a preposition Grin. A rather loquacious one!

Why are these things still having to be taught when they are total bollocks?!

cordeliavorkosigan · 21/03/2018 07:28

You all really should start a museum! Everyone in the country experiences some of this from one angle or another, as students, parents or teachers. And it might pass along a healthy sense of scepticism to at least a few councils, head teachers etc...

Piggywaspushed · 21/03/2018 08:19

Well appu , that genuinely is bollocks isn't it?! Who actually made money making this stuff up??? It seems to be the verb bit that is the actual adverbial.....

Moving on....

OP posts:
TarzansPlasticCrocodile · 21/03/2018 08:46

I feel sorry for the parents too. They never know what is going on either - and yet somehow they manage to be carers, insurers, bankers, doctors, teachers (!) without knowing what a feckin fronted adverbial is Hmm. Also all the maths methods have changed so helping with homework is a minefield too.

brainache78 · 22/03/2018 04:28

We had mastery explained to us as 'stretch them sideways instead of upwards.'

Nope. Still none the wiser.

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