Craig Barton knew his teaching-related podcast had really hit home among his fellow teachers when he was told by one fan that it had been the soundtrack to a barbecue.
“I am not sure how that went down with his other guests, though,” admits the Tes maths adviser.
If its popularity is anything to go by, it’s likely they were all as enchanted as the regular listeners.
Barton, a maths teacher in the north-west of England, uses The Mr Barton Maths Podcast series to discuss a range of subjects including differentiation, puzzles and the new maths GCSE. Since its launch, it has risen to number 12 on the iTunes education chart and has become a cult hit on Twitter.
“I am so happy that people - and not just maths teachers - are finding my podcasts useful,” he says. “I am learning so much from my guests, and it means so much when I hear that other people are learning things as well.”
Many teachers use the podcasts as part of their training, while others listen purely for enjoyment.
‘CPD on the go’
“The most pleasing thing is that people are using them as CPD on the go,” says Barton. “I get lots of nice messages on Twitter from teachers telling me they listen while driving to work, taking their dog for a walk, as part of their maths departmental meetings, or paving their driveway.”
To mark the Tes numeracy special issue, out on 4 August, we are hosting 11 of Barton’s podcasts, each aimed at helping you prepare for the next school year (putting them on at barbecues is, of course, optional).
- Ed Southall (Part 2), Puzzles and lessons from Japan
Here, Southall discusses why maths puzzles are important, what makes a good puzzle, how maths lessons are taught in Japan, what we can learn from this approach, and how much student discussion should happen during examples.
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Kris Boulton - Part 1: Planning lessons, Engelmann and differentiation
Barton and Boulton speak in depth about how the latter plans his lessons, focusing on sequences not individual lessons, the influence of Siegfried Englemann, successful interleaving and the role of differentiation.
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Paul Rowlandson - Bar modelling, questioning, Shanghai, Tokyo and training teachers
Rowlandson speaks about planning for understanding, bar modelling, advice on questioning, what he learned from his trips to Shanghai and Toyko, advice for teacher training and much more.
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John Corbett - Flipped learning, videos and Corbett maths
Corbett and Barton speak about planning and delivering lessons using a flipped-learning approach, the process that goes into creating maths videos, writing good maths questions, and advice for new teachers.
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Jamie Frost - Dr Frost Maths and teaching high achievers
Barton and Frost speak about planning sequences of lessons, the importance of internalising concepts, and teaching high achievers.
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Stefanie Sullivan - Maths PGCE tutor from Nottingham University
Stefanie speaks in-depth about the lesson-planning process, habits of successful trainees, and the most common reasons for teachers leaving the profession.
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Will Emeny - Great maths teaching ideas and numeracy ninjas
They discuss being a successful head of department, prior learning dependency flow and the fascinating subject of memory.
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Charlie Stripp - NCETM and MEI
Stripp talks about the importance of times tables, mastery teaching and the best and worst features of the new maths GCSE.
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Neil Ogden - Maths specialist at OCR
As part of a trilogy of interviews with the awarding bodies about the new maths GCSE, and what it is like to do their job, Barton speaks to Neil Ogden from OCR.
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Graham Cumming - Head of maths at Edexcel
As above, this time with Graham Cumming from Edexcel.
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Andrew Taylor - Head of maths at AQA
As above, this time Barton speaks to Andrew Taylor from AQA.
Craig Barton has been a maths teacher for the past 12 years, working at Range High School in Formby, and Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton. His podcasts can be found here
Georgia Ziebart is a freelance writer based in London
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