This Powerpoint timer automatically shows the students how long they need to think individually and how long they have to discuss in pairs before you end the task.

I display this A3 poster in my lab to remind students of my class rules. Edit the document to change the teacher name and adapt the rules to your liking. Tip: These rules are deliberately vague to avoid overloading students with specific rules, but make sure to clarify these when first introducing these rules e.g ‘respecting the teacher’ includes not shouting out, not talking over the teacher (or other students), facing the front, not talking back to the teacher…

Use this ‘noise-o-meter’ to reinforce the expected noise level at different points in the lesson. Print it on card or laminate for best results. Pierce the centre and attach the arrow using a split pin. Note: printing on card can damage your printer. Tip: clearly define each noise level. I define ‘quiet’ as ‘discussing quietly with the person next to you’

Enter the start time of the lesson and the expected duration of each section of the lesson (activity or teaching) into this spreadsheet and it will calculate what time each section will finish. This enables you to experiment with different combinations of tasks to see what you can fit in your lesson. It also gives you a time to aim for to complete each section, so you know whether to speed up or slow down when delivering it- I like to write this in the PowerPoint notes section for each slide. Both a blank template and a populated example are provided.

I put together this sheet summarising fairness, reliability and accuracy in the context of experiments. It is aimed at year 7, but should be applicable to other year groups as well.