After months of remote teaching, it feels good to be back in the classroom. There is a magic of putting an expert in front of a room full of children that no amount of video calling or pre-recording can capture. 

However, although being in the classroom with the pupils is certainly making for better teaching than doing it remotely, I can’t say the ‘new normal’ isn’t presenting its own challenges. 

I have long been an exponent of explicit instruction, in which the teacher leads from the front of the class. 

However, it is only now that I have to stay at the front of the room that I realise how much time I use to spend moving around it, to talk to pupils individually, or in small groups. 

I miss being able to circulate as freely and check what has been written as soon as the pupils do it. I miss being able to dart to the back of the room to have a one-to-one discussion with a pupil who I can see is struggling or to re-explain the task to those few kids who may not have been giving me their full attention at the start of the lesson. 

One thing it has caused me to reflect on is the weaknesses in my explanation. It turns out that most of the times that I need to circulate the room is when a pupil hasn’t fully understood what they needed to do or when my explanation of the material was confusing. 

If I get the explanation right the first time, I don’t need to move from my spot. 

So, for the last few weeks, I have been really trying to hone my explanation and this is what I have discovered. 

1. Attention matters

No teacher is going to be shocked by this, but I think in the past I had been too quick to ignore a pupil being distracted by something else in the room (another pupil, a piece of equipment, a wasp…) and, as long as the room was quiet, to carry on regardless.

Not moving from the front has shown the error of this. If I don’t have ever pupils’ undivided attention I can guarantee a host of hands will rise within a minute of my setting them a task to complete.

I have made it my mission to make my room as attention friendly as possible by thinking about when pupils have equipment in front of them, where people are sat and how I use my tone of voice and body language to keep attention where it is needed. Which brings us to….

2. Teaching is a full-body workout

As I try to hone my explanation I find I am gesticulating more and using gestures to support what I am saying. My hands become convergent plate boundaries and I demonstrate a river’s course as I meander across the front of the room. No wonder we are all so tired. 

3. Once upon a time there was this analogy…

Pupils really remember analogies and stories well. Far better than they do any other kind of information.

I have been thinking hard before each lesson about the concepts that pupils in the past have struggled with and have been making sure that these are ones I support with analogies and stories (did I tell you about the time a case of beer exploded at the freezer in work? Well, freeze-thaw action means…). 

4. Pre-emptive strike

As well as thinking about the difficult concepts that pupils have previously struggled with, I am also thinking more about the misconceptions I have seen in their work.

In the past, if a pupil wrote that it was hotter on the equator because it was closer to the sun or that Africa was a poor country, I would pick up on the issue as I circulated the room or, at worst, when I looked through their books later that day.

The misconception could then be quickly challenged. Not now.

Instead, I am having to work out what the misconceptions are likely to be, based on experience, and addressing them before they ever appear.   

5. The whiteboard is my best friend

How teachers manage to teach without a huge whiteboard in their room I hope I never need to find out.

I use mine all the more this term. As I explain things to pupils I leave lists of keywords and diagrams for them to refer back to. Words are ephemeral, once they are said they last only as long as they are held in the pupil’s memory. We can outsource some of this to the board and give them prompts.

I am getting through a whiteboard pen a day at the moment. I may need a bigger budget. 

6. Slow it down

This has been the toughest one for me. Anyone who has seen me speak will know that I tend to talk in a flurry of words and with increasing excitement and enthusiasm.

I am having to make a conscious effort to slow the pace of my speech down and to also go back over ideas before moving on to something new.

I am also having to be more aware of how much information I am giving at any one time and checking for understanding through questioning more often. 

Working in these new conditions haven’t led to any dazzling insights into whole new ways of teaching (sorry). What it has taught me is that I need to do the things that work even better and that even after 17 years of practice, I can still improve on getting the basics right. 

Mark Enser is head of geography and research lead at Heathfield Community College. His latest book, Generative Learning in Action, is out now. He tweets @EnserMark