Product reviews for How To Teach

There was a certain reluctance in me to read a book called How to Teach over the Christmas holidays. At the end of a long term did I really want to read another book/article/blog about how my teaching could be so much better or even OFSTED approved if I made these adjustments and bought the author's 27 other books?
In this case, I did. Phil Beadle's book is a delight. His no-nonsense and witty approach to some of the basics of classroom management is very much on the side of the teacher who is dealing with the real world.
He begins with looking at how to deal with behaviour issues moves onto to the shape of lessons and considers approaches to encouraging classroom discussion (invoking Rolf Harris and one of his own students along the way). He has some interesting things to say about assessment and ends with an afterword that should be photocopied and put in every teacher's pigeonhole as a new year present.
Mr Beadle is a something of a radical too. He has dissenting views on a number of topics including the starter and the plenary. Whether you agree or not, it's still worth a read. He doesn't have much to say about the drama classroom -” although he speaks of his admiration for the ability of drama teachers to manage a classroom -” but this is a treasure. Buy it; pass it around and put on the reading list of every NQT you know -” whatever their subject!