Independent Thinking on Primary Teaching: Practical strategies for working smarter, not harder
£9.99*
Pros
- This is a great, well-rounded book for anyone working in a primary school setting, exploring all aspects of teaching with young pupils.
- Mark has used his experiences of working within the primary sector, offering digestible sections filled with tips, ideas and resources.
- The collection of WORKING SMARTER TIPS scattered throughout the book, Mark offers his opinions, insights and considerations about the focused topic.
- Important topics include daily routines, testing, transition, and a miscellany of smart ways of working.
- This book is perfect for student teachers, early career teachers, or for those considering a career in primary school teaching.
Supported by Crown House Publishing
Staff in schools across the UK have never had to work harder nor have they had more expected of them than they do now. Pre-pandemic, during the pandemic and, now, post-pandemic, the pressure keeps stacking up. This is a situation not helped by the fact that education is – as it always has been – a political football, which might explain why teachers so often feel as though they’ve been kicked around the park.
As this reality isn’t going to change overnight, teachers – who are looking to improve the way they work in the classroom to ease workload, free up evenings, improve the quality of pupils’ outcomes and, who knows, even see something of a Sunday afternoon once in a while – need to look to themselves for help.
In his new book Independent Thinking on Primary Teaching, Mark Creasy shows how things can be done differently in primary classrooms everywhere. It’s not a massive revolution, but the many little changes that he advocates add up to at least a minor rebellion! Everything in the book is based on Mark’s own experience in the classroom – having taught across the primary age range in a wide variety of settings, from tough estate schools to the independent sector – and he aims to highlight what you really can achieve when you tackle everyday matters with a ‘there is another way’ mindset.
Mark has tried to address what he sees as the key elements for working in primary schools today, whatever the setting. He has examined everyday practices and how the same – or even better – results can be achieved not by working harder (as if that were possible), but by following the old adage of working smarter. To this end, there are, throughout the book, sets of working smarter tips which will act as a guide and a prompt to different ways of working. Alongside these are some additional questions, provocations and points of reflection.
With the sort of practical commonsense suggestions that make you kick yourself and ask, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!’, Mark shares his proven strategies, tips and approaches to help busy teachers save time, energy, paper and ink, and enjoy a classroom full of motivated, happy, learning children. He even gives tips on how to get the best out of parents and colleagues too.
Nothing Mark advocates requires huge investments of time or money. Everything is also designed to help teachers reclaim their precious evenings and weekends, something more teachers need to do than is healthy for any profession. Too many teachers are way too close to breaking point, as evidenced by the perennial problems of recruitment and retention. If teachers could revaluate their work and learn to be a whole lot smarter about it, this would surely help.
*RRP – Price correct at time of review publication.
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