The (Un)official Teacher's Manual: Recent Episodes
Omar Akbar
Advice and guidance for teachers, particularly PGCEs and ECTs.
The (Un)official Teacher's Manual Podcast will help you to avoid the not-so-obvious pitfalls and overcome the lesser discussed difficulties involved in a teaching career.
Tune in to improve your savviness in: lesson observations, book scrutinies, school emails, meetings, promotions, workload management, pupil apathy, paperwork, data, and much, much more!
Sam Strickland is a Headteacher, CEO and the author of several books on behaviour, including The Behaviour Manual and They Don’t Behave for Me. In this episode we discuss the perils of restorative practice and what to do instead.
Sophie Bartlett is a year 5/6 teacher and English/Curriculum Lead.
Here Sophie offers 4 tips on teaching mixed year groups.
Sophie tweets @_MissieBee. With over 40k followers and several edu-blogs/articles, Sophie is the go-to for all things primary.
Dave McPartlin is a Headteacher (of a school which was on Britain's Got Talent!) as well a vocal critic of Ofsted.
Here Dave and I discuss Ofsted, the need for reform, teachers' mental health and other related issues.
Dave tweets @dave_mcpartlin and has 22k followers.
Johnoi Josephs is an associate principal and the co-founder of Black Men Teach.
Here Johnoi offers 5 tips for BAME representation in the curriculum.
Johnoi tweets @misterjjosephs
Tommy - who tweets @ProudlyPastoral - is a deputy DSL and safeguarding/welfare officer. Here Tommy offers 5 tips to support boys mental health.
Laura Parkins - a recently qualified teacher (RQT) - offers 5 tips on how to manage the ECT years.
Laura tweets @Miss_LA_English
Dr Emma Kell is a teacher, performance coach, wellbeing facilitator and author of popular education books including Teacher Wellbeing and Self-care and Engaging Parents and Carers With School.
Here Emma offers 5 tips to balance work and family.
Emma tweets @thosethatcan and has over 40k followers.
Paudie Moore is a teacher transformation specialist.
A former teacher who now coaches online, Paudie helps teachers optimise their diet, exercise, lifestyle and mindset.
Here Paudie offers 5 tips for teacher wellbeing.
Follow Paudie on insta: paudiemoore_teacherscoach.
Yamina Bibi is an English teacher and assistant headteacher.
Yamina's book - part of the Little Guide for Teachers series - Thriving in Your First Years of Teaching, will be out in May 2024.
Here, Yamina offers 5 tips on how to thrive in your first years of teaching.
Yamina tweets @msybibi.
Tadgh O’Donovan can only be described as a teacher-superstar.
Well known for his hilarious teaching skits, Tadgh, aka teachwithtadgh has over 500k followers across all platforms and has even made some TV appearances.
In this episode, Tadgh offers 5 tips for classroom management.
Ever wanted to pick a Headteacher's brain?
In this episode, primary Headteacher and TEDx speaker Claire Lotriet gives 5 qualities Headteachers want their teachers to possess.
Follow Claire on Twitter/X @OhLottie
Haili Hughes is a former teacher, a university lecturer, as well as a popular education author.
Haili's bestselling book 'Mentoring in Schools' details the best strategies for effective mentorship.
Here Haili offers 5 tips for mentoring ECTs.
Haili tweets @HughesHaili and has 29k followers.
Alex Quigley is a popular, best-selling education author. His books include:
Closing the Vocabulary Gap
Closing the Writing Gap
and
Closing the Reading Gap
Here Alex offers 5 tips for teaching vocabulary to all key stages.
Alex tweets @AlexJQuigley and has over 82k followers.
Casey Bailey is an Assistant Headteacher as well as an award winning rapper-poet.
His work has been published in:
Please Do Not Touch
Adjusted
From This Soil
Here Casey offers 5 tips for supporting students with ADHD.
Casey tweets @MrCaseyBailey Instagram: casey_bailey
Jennifer Webb is an Assistant Principal and the author of several teaching books, including:
How to Teach English Literature
Teach Like a Writer
The Metacognition Handbook
Here Jennifer offers 5 tips to motivate reluctant writers.
Jennifer tweets @FunkyPedagogy and has over 45k followers.
Amjad Ali is an Assistant Headteacher, author, education consultant and co-founder of the BAME-ed Network.
His book, Special Educational Needs - part of the 'little pocket guide for teachers' series - will be out later this year.
Here Amjad offers 5 tips for more inclusive teaching.
Amjad tweets @TeachLeadAAli and has over 35k followers.
Phil Naylor is the host of the popular teacher's podcast, Naylor's Natter, as well as a Deputy Head.
His book - particularly suited to PGCEs and ECTs - Naylor's Natter can be found on Amazon.
Here Phil offers 5 tips to reduce emails.
Phil tweets @naylorsnatter.
Sam Strickland is a Headteacher and the author of a number of books on behaviour management, including:
The Behaviour Manual
Education Exposed 1&2
They Don't Behave For Me
Here Sam offers 5 tips for behaviour management.
Sam tweets @Strickomaster and has over 41k followers.
Michael Chiles is an Assistant Principal and the author of 5 popular books on questioning and assessment, including:
Powerful Questioning
The Craft of Assessment
The Feedback Pendulum
Here Michael offers 5 tips for good questioning.
Michael tweets @m_chiles and has over 20k followers.
Adrian Bethune regularly speaks on wellbeing in schools and is the author of two popular wellbeing books:
Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom
Teacher Wellbeing and Selfcare
Adrian is the go-to for all things teacher-wellbeing. He tweets @AdrianBethune
Here Adrian offers 5 tips for teacher-wellbeing.
Emily Weston is a year 5/6 teacher and PE/Science Lead. Emily tweets @primaryteachew.
With over 40k followers and several blogs relating to children's books, Emily is the go-to for all things reading.
Here Emily offers 5 tips for encouraging reading.
Sophie Bartlett is a year 5/6 teacher and English/Curriculum Lead.
Here Sophie offers 5 tips for teaching year 6.
Useful for new teachers or anyone teaching year 6 for the first time.
Sophie tweets @_MissieBee. With over 40k followers and several edu-blogs/articles, Sophie is the go-to for all things primary.
Some tips on how best to communicate/work with parents.
Particularly suitable for PGCEs and ECTs.
Are you a new teacher wanting to refine your practice?
Here're some subtle things you may be doing wrong and how to avoid them.
Has the pace of your lesson(s) ever been described as being 'too slow' but you're not quite sure what that means?
In this episode we explore the nature of lesson pace and offer 5 tips for maintaining it.
Particularly suitable for PGCEs and ECTs.
Do you find that your long awaited holiday is often spent worrying, ruminating and generally not being as restful as you wanted it to be?
In this episode we discuss 5 tips to avoid anxiety in the holidays.
Do you want teachers to develop and feel valued at the same time? You may have missed a couple of tricks.
When seen by our pupils, the interactions between us and our friends/colleagues have more of an impact than we may think.
Formal lesson observations are still taking place at schools despite them being ineffective and detrimental in equal measure.
Here we explore the nature of formal lesson observations and suggest alternatives to this bizarre practice.
Are you an ECT debating climbing the ladder?
This episode discusses 4 things you can do to put yourself in line for promotion.
Before you apply, it is important to know as much as possible about the school which you intend to work.
In addition, you have to decide what is (and isn't) important to you.
This episode will give you some fact finding tips as well as advice on how to organise your thoughts.
Particularly suited to PGCEs and ECTs.
In this episode we discuss the (unfortunately) undermentioned aspects of the teaching profession that school leaders need to be aware of if they are to lead effectively.
Particularly suitable for aspirational or new school leaders - middle or senior.
Unfortunately, there is still a lot of discrimination against 'older' teachers in our profession.
In this episode we challenge some of the myths/unfair assumptions made (ironically) about those who have earnt their stripes.
The feeling of not being valued is unfortunately too common for a teacher.
However, if we look more closely, towards the less obvious, we can see otherwise.…
Often, the reality of the support available at a school does not match the expectation of teachers- particularly ECTs.
This episode discusses the nature of support available at schools and how best to acquire it.
This episode discusses the ways in which teaching after your training and ECT year is significantly easier.
This episode discusses the nature of book scrutinies along with some tips on how to make sure your books look ‘good.‘
Particularly suitable for PGCEs and ECTs.
Some tips on what to do when someone comes in.
You don’t have to put on a show, but it’s good to be savvy.
The episode discusses the reasons why it is important to join a union.
Particularly useful for PGCEs and ECTs.
A few ways to improve your well-being during term time.
Particularly suitable for ECTs.
Becoming overly dependent on your school’s behavior policy can be detrimental to your career.
Explore the reasons why and what to do instead.
Particularly suitable for PGCEs and ECTs.
Some tips for best performance in a lesson observation.
Particularly suitable for PGCEs and ECTs.
Good relationships are often championed as the key to all things teaching.
But how do you build them?
This episode we discuss simple ways of developing a good relationship with your class(es).
No feeling is worse than that of standing in front of your class while they flagrantly disregard your rules, waste your time and theirs, and the inherent disrespect felt by being repeatedly interrupted is enough for us to all agree on one thing: there is nothing ‘low’ about low-level disruption.
This episode gives some less obvious ways of managing it.
What kind of a relationship are you likely to have with your mentor?
What are the ways in which a good mentor will support you?
This episode discusses the less obvious (but very common) characteristics/methods of good ECT mentors.
Are you an ECT who's somehow convinced you're nowhere near ready for September?
Are you an experienced teacher who is permanently haunted by the feeling that you are overdoing everything?
Or are you just fed up of feeling like it's only a matter of time before everyone discovers how crap a teacher you are?
Check out my 5 tips for overcoming imposter syndrome.
Every worked with a busy body? What about a martyr? Annoying aren't they? Please don't become one!
Some tips on how to foster a good working relationship with fellow teachers.
Particularly suited to PGCEs and ECTs.
Friendships at school: who to avoid and who to embrace
This episode discusses the different characters one may come across at school- some pleasant, some less so.
Particularly suitable for PGCEs/ECTs.
'Well, they behave for me' is amongst the most hated phrases in education. Unfortunately, it's not used by Ofsted, education secretaries, or politicians, but by us- teachers.
If you've ever struggled or are struggling with classroom management and that one smug teacher adds insult to your injury by claiming: 'Well, they behave for me!' this episode will help you overcome the inevitable self-doubt as well as provide you with some hard-hitting comebacks!
By Omar Akbar