“Dear Ross, I am delighted to inform you that your resource has been shortlisted for TES Resources Contributor of the Year category in the 2013 Times Educational Supplement’s Schools Awards….”
Here is the email I received from the TES on 13th May 2013:
Totally unexpected! I’ve been sharing my own teaching resources on the TES website since 2010. I have uploaded 27 resources (to date) and collectively, they have been views over 317,115 times and downloaded over 225,000 times by 45,900 TESConnect users in 146 countries.
Just a thank you to @JohnBayley1 for the source of inspiration (for The 5 Minute Lesson Plan) and a thank you to the TES for encouraging me to start sharing my ideas on their website. Please click to enlarge the photos…
Shortlisted for the Resource Contributor of the Year 2013 award:
You can find the full shortlist here and the link to my TES Resources page here.
Article:
The full article is here.
Uploader: Ross Morrison McGill, England
Username: Ross Morrison McGill aka @TeacherToolkit
Profile:bit.ly/TESConnectMcGill
Ross Morrison McGill is on a mission – he wants to save teachers time and free them from laborious lesson planning.
He has set out to prove that you do not need to produce a detailed plan to do well in school inspections and lesson observations. The resource he has put on TESConnect, The Five-Minute Lesson Plan, does exactly what it promises – it helps teachers prepare what to teach in a short space of time.
The 27 resources shared by McGill have been downloaded 225,000 times by 45,900 TESConnect users in 146 countries.
McGill, 39, who has been a design and technology teacher for 20 years in North London, started blogging and set up his TESConnect account in 2010.
“(My uploads) all form part of a jigsaw puzzle,” says McGill, who is assistant vice-principal in charge of staff development and teaching and learning at Greig City Academy, a school for 11- to 18-year-olds.
Although it was brought to the world’s attention by McGill, the five- minute resource was produced by John Bayley, a behaviour guru and star of Teachers TV education videos, and London teacher Katharine Birbalsingh. Bayley gave it to McGill, who used it in his own school before putting it on TESConnect.
According to McGill, the resource has been so successful because it is both a mentoring tool and a planning aid.
“It got a reaction because a lot of schools stipulate teachers must do detailed plans. This causes so many problems – young teachers spend hours planning and the process for all teachers can become bureaucratic,” he says. “(This resource) helps them plan better. It helps with their time management and therefore stress levels. It helps you plan smarter.”
The success of the resource reached a tipping point when school leaders and inspectors working for English schools inspectorate Ofsted began to endorse it online.
Before being observed in class, McGill posted his own five-minute plan on Twitter (where he is known as @TeacherToolkit). Soon after the observation, he let his followers know that his lesson had been judged to be outstanding. His observer sent a tweet confirming this.
There are now many versions of the plan and it is available in nine languages.
“Obviously you have got to be a good teacher already and have good systems in place,” McGill says. “I’ve heard (the resource) has led to people securing jobs, and getting their first outstanding judgement in their careers.
“I’m blown away by it all.”
Downloaders
Zayra Vogensen, director of studies at a private language school in Portugal
Even though I do not work in the British system I always seem to find something I can use in my school and classroom on TESConnect.
As a teacher trainer as well, I am also very interested in classroom management issues and assessment of both students and teachers. The five- minute lesson plan provides a fresh approach to every teacher’s worst nightmare: presenting evidence of a planned lesson when you are overworked and short of time. I particularly like that it enables the teacher to have a visual layout in a very simple (and fun) way.
James Wilson, a teacher at South Bromsgrove High School for 13- to 18- year-olds, West Midlands, England
I downloaded the resource after seeing so many people tweeting about it. I have used it to inform my mid-term planning – instead of planning the next term over a few days I can make mid-term plans in an hour.
It is unbelievably useful, and saves me so much time that I can then use elsewhere, planning or creating my own resources. I use the resource to plan sets of lessons in one go. In the past this would be a long process, meaning I could only finish two or three in a day. Now I can plan a whole term in one go. Not only does this save me time but it also ensures each lesson really does carry on from the last.
Rachael Godlement, secondary (ages 11-18) English specialist, recently qualified special educational needs coordinator and former pastoral leader, Hampshire, England
I used the five-minute lesson plan earlier this year and received my first ever outstanding grade. After eight years of teaching, I was used to flaking under observation pressure, even though I knew I could be, and was, outstanding in my regular practice. The five-minute lesson plan let me escape the restrictive minutiae of a traditional lesson plan and express my intentions, ideas and thinking to the observer, at the same time as focusing on my students’ learning in the lesson itself. (TES website)
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