To code with Python in 3 steps

There’s loads of resources on the net for learning to code with Python. These three are my recommendations.

1. Codecademy Python track: sign up (free) with Codecademy and learn Python piece-by-piece.
2. Learn Python The Hard Way: using the online HTML book (or spend $$ for extras).
3. Project Euler: set yourself some of the challenges from Project Euler.

[Update: 06 Jan 2013]

Here’s #4: http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/

T.E.A.C.H

To complement LEARN we now have T.E.A.C.H.

Targeted questioning

Engage and Extend

Assess and Adapt

Challenge All

High Aspirations

Blooming Marvellous

CPD this term for me is focusing on improving my use of questioning to support learning in the classroom.

Excellent Windows

I have a poster on the classroom wall. It has a quote attributed to Steve Jobs:

Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Four things from Ofsted

A summary of what ofsted say they want from Scenes From The Battleground.

1. Planning to provide a framework for lessons.
2. Reflective teachers who acknowledge that teaching is a learning process.
3. Perceptive people that can adapt to optimise a learning episode (and change their carefully made plans when needed).
4. Measuring your success on whether measurement shows students making (rapid) progress.
5. Resilience.

A good read. (This week I realise that I’m struggling with #5).

OECD on supporting new teachers

The OECD EducationToday has a post on supporting new teachers. They looked at the relatively high attrition rate for new teachers (around 10% leave the profession within the first three years of teaching) and found the new teachers confidence in their own abilities was likely to be a major contributing factor.

The full Teaching in Focus brief is available from OECD as is the survey data on which the findings were based.