Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

TeachingTeachers (SamJones,UKBookPublishing,£13.99) It’s not uncommon for some teachers to get to a certain point in their career and decide to share their accumulated knowledge with their professional peers bywriting a ‘how to’ book on teaching – but typically not when they’re barely four years out fromqualifying. While Jones freely admits to his relative lack of experience in the intro,what makes TeachingTeachers worth reading is that it consists largely of hard-won nuggets of wisdomgathered froma number of Jones’veteran colleagues, compiled and presented in conversational prose,with an overall tone that could perhaps best be described as ‘reassuring’.Jones sets himself the task of focusing on those practical, workaday strategies regarding teaching and pastoral support that are unlikely to come up in PGCE seminars, but which quickly assume sharp relief once confrontedwith the daily demands that the job entails. To that end, the book’s concise chapters are smartly organised into nine distinct sections, all thematicallymapped to the chunks of time that make up a teacher’s standardworking day (registration, periods 1 to 8, lunch and break, extracurricular activities) – a conceit that lets readers quickly navigate the book’s considerable scope. ECTs will be those best served by TeachingTeachers , but it could also potentially provide senior staff with valuable insights into those parts of the job their younger colleagues are likely to struggle with themost. Whywrite a bookabout teaching so early on inyour career? During the teaching practise I did as part of my training, I foundmyself gravitating towards the teachers withmore experience, and asking for their tips and advice on the sort of things we weren’t being taught about in our lectures.That’s not to say that what we were being taught wasn’t good –more that when you’re actually on the job, there’s a whole other kind of practical knowledge that you need. The premise of the book isn’t that I’man expert and have all the answers. I’ve curated information and advice that other teachers have learnt over the course of 5-, 10- or 30-year careers that will hopefully help teachers entering the profession now, so it’s a very collaborative book. Wereyour colleagues aware that youwere writing it? Oh, I’ve bored themto death about it, but everybody I’ve spoken to has been hugely helpful.When I was appointed a head ofY9 at the end ofmy first year of teaching, the first thing I didwasmeet with all the existing heads of year to get their advice, and that was the start of it all. I quickly realised that I was using their advice on how to hit the ground running all the time inmy day-to-day practice. At the same time, I was part of several group chats – with others who had been on my training course, colleagues fromschool – where people would ask for, and share advice. Eventually, I started sending out these group emails to staff,where I’d assemble all this knowledge, and got some positive feedback.A few of the teachers I regularly socialise with in school thought it was hilarious when I talked about maybe putting all this knowledge in a book,which was a kind ofmotivation in its own way… Haswriting the bookmadeyou thinkany differentlyabout the trainingyou received? Not necessarily. I went to a teaching university, and the education I got there was invaluable.The broader issue is that while on placement, you’ll often be given the ‘good’ classes, and perhaps be working a one-third full timetable at most. It’s a good taster of what a teaching career will be like, but you won’t get to see the full depth of what it’s like to teach weaker classes, deal with interruptions, keep track ofmeetings - all those parts of daily school life that you won’t be fully exposed to until you’re actually there. SamJones is a technologyanddesign teacherbased inNorthern Ireland ON THE RADAR Meet the author SAM JONES TheNotebooksofSonnyRollins (EditedbySamV.H.Reese,NYRB,£16.99) When we watch the performances of musicians at the very top of their game,we witness near-perfection.What we don’t see are all those endless hours of practice, assorted difficulties and the persistent self-doubt.Anyone teaching or learning a musical instrument may therefore take some solace fromthe frank personal notes recorded by legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins,wherein we learn that he isn’t happy with his high notes, and see himobserve that breakthroughs often come right at the point when a learner is considering giving up completely. Rollins’ fieldwas the saxophone, but his quest formastery appliesmore generally – being not just matter of practice, but also healthy living and attention to detail. His declaration that, ‘ Nomatter howyou feel, get up, dress up and showup ’ is pretty good advice in any circumstances.A fascinating glimpse into themind and development of a true virtuoso. ReviewedbyTerry Freedman BraveNewWorlds (SalmanKhan,AllenLane,£25) Youmay have heard of KhanAcademy – the successful online tutoring provider founded in themid-2000s by Salman Khan.What you might not know is that Khan’s advice was sought by the leadership of OpenAI,making himone of the first people in the world to witness ChatGPT in action. Here, Khan ruminates on the possibilities and implications presented byAI-driven education, touching on howAI is already reshaping schools’ and colleges’ approaches to pedagogy, strategies for dealing with plagiarism, and how generativeAI could serve a useful role as a facilitator for large-scale collaborative learning.The book is quite US-centric in outlook, and Khan’s arguments probablywon’t sway determined AI sceptics, but it does present some interesting ideas as to where thingsmight be going, and adds a welcome dose of positivity to the ongoing wider discussion ofAI’smerits – which at times can sometimes feel stiflingly dystopian. 47 teachwire.net/secondary B O O K R E V I E WS