| Teach Like Nobody’s Watching: The essential guide to effective and efficient teaching by Mark Enser ISBN 9781785833991 Released on November 7th, 2019 Published by Crown House Publishing Limited, UK Author and teacher Mark Enser has created Teach Like Nobody’s Watching with three primary parts – building lessons, how lessons fit into the curriculum, and the role of the school in allowing freedom for teachers to teach “like nobody’s watching” them. Mark uses recap, input, application and feedback for the four elements of the lesson. I have been learning about the ROPES method in my classes and I think his method is simpler with sharing some of the same primary elements. If we don’t revisit things, we can lose it. The recap allows us to reflect and build on it. There’s science behind building schemas with revisiting the material. Mark then moves onto the importance of input. As educators, there needs to be knowledgeable in the subject material so explanations are clear and to avoid students from developing misconceptions. The information presented needs to be relevant and scaffolded or broken up in chunks for learning. Application and feedback is the last part. The goal of the application is for students to think hard about what they are learning. Feedback is needed and it can be in different forms and geared toward the student or the class. It must be meaningful. There is more information Mark includes on the curriculum, assessments, and the overall support of teachers also. Mark Enser believes that when it comes to teaching, the following three principles are true. “Firstly, that teaching is, at its heart, simple. “The second thing I hold to be true is that doing these simple things well is complex. It is this complexity that makes the job of teaching so endlessly fascinating. It is also why it is a profession that requires a high level of training and continuous reflection and development of its members. “My third belief is that teaching has become overcomplicated. Many of these complications arise when good ideas about how to approach the simplicity of teaching well (i.e. the complexities) are turned into strategies and then passed on to teachers as policies. “It is entirely possible that somewhere within these strategies there was a kernel of a good idea: a rationale that helped to explain why it was being done and how it was meant to improve learning. If there ever was, it was quickly lost. “It became something that teachers were told they should be doing in their classrooms. It was imposed on them, divorced of its underlying explanation. It became a fad. Sadly, we see too many good ideas rapidly turn into fads.” “When I talk about teaching like nobody’s watching, I mean teaching the way you would naturally if left alone to get on with it. Teaching in this way demands confidence, and this confidence comes from having a good understanding of what works.” Mark Enser has been teaching geography for over a decade and is a head of the department at Heathfield Community College. He contributes articles to TES and to the Guardian Teacher Network and often speaks at education conferences. Mark also writes a blog called Teaching It Real and tweets @EnserMark. |
