Tips for Teachers by Craig Barton

Welcome to Tips for Teachers by Craig Barton

Craig Barton

Tips for Teachers

Research-informed CPD for every teacher: all phases, all subjects.

Over the last few years, I have been fortunate to observe thousands of maths lessons in schools across the UK and beyond. This website is my attempt to share what I have learned so that any teacher or department can take steps to improve their students’ outcomes. Most of the ideas work in any subject and phase, and I flag the ones that are maths-specific.

The 16 books On-demand workshops Read the blog

Teach maths? My free maths resources, interactive tools and podcast live on mrbartonmaths.com.

Go to mrbartonmaths.com →
The Tips for Teachers guide to…

16 short books. One area of teaching in each.

Each book is crammed full of evidence-based, practical strategies you can try the very next time you step into a classroom, based on the 1000s of lessons I’ve had the privilege to observe.

£8per book · paperback or Kindle · Amazon stores worldwide
  • Workbooks, not passive reading. Place each idea on a set of axes to prioritise it, plan how you’ll use it, then reflect on what happened.
  • For a teacher, a department or a coach. Work through one on your own, pick one as a CPD focus, or use the strategies to support coaching.
  • Buying for a school? Discounts for UK orders of 30+ books: email mrbartonmaths (at) gmail.com.
Buy the books on Amazon About each book
The Tips for Teachers guide to Cold Call Book 1Cold Call The Tips for Teachers guide to Mini-whiteboards Book 2Mini-whiteboards The Tips for Teachers guide to Call and Respond Book 3Call and Respond The Tips for Teachers guide to Turn and Talk Book 4Turn and Talk The Tips for Teachers guide to Checking for Listening Book 5Checking for Listening The Tips for Teachers guide to Checking for Understanding Book 6Checking for Understanding The Tips for Teachers guide to Responsive Teaching Book 7Responsive Teaching The Tips for Teachers guide to Diagnostic Questions Book 8Diagnostic Questions The Tips for Teachers guide to The Do Now Book 9The Do Now The Tips for Teachers guide to Atomisation Book 10AtomisationBest for maths The Tips for Teachers guide to The I Do Book 11The I DoMaths examples The Tips for Teachers guide to The We Do Book 12The We DoMainly maths The Tips for Teachers guide to Independent Practice Book 13Independent Practice The Tips for Teachers guide to Purposeful Practice and Problem-Solving Book 14Purposeful Practice and Problem-SolvingMaths only The Tips for Teachers guide to Low-Stakes Quizzes Book 15Low-Stakes Quizzes The Tips for Teachers guide to Observing Lessons and Coaching Book 16Observing Lessons and Coaching

I recommend the paperback, so you can write all over it. Click a cover to buy that book in paperback; each book has a supporting resources page too.

See the whole series on Amazon
90-minute on-demand CPD workshops

CPD your whole staff can watch together

25 workshops, each distilling what I have learned from watching 1000s of lessons, together with insights from research. They are designed for teachers to work through together.

£99+VAT per workshop
  • Share it with all your staff for a year. Show the whole workshop, or selected clips, at a CPD session or a department meeting, as many times as you like.
  • Each one is a book’s worth of ideas. The books are based on the workshops, so they make a perfect follow-up for each teacher.
See all 25 workshops Buy on Podia
Free Try one first: 25 Tips for Teachers One tip from each of the 25 workshops, so you get a flavour of the content and structure. Share it with as many colleagues as you like. Get free access →

Six for any subject

Workshop 1Supporting teacher change: How I observe a lesson and give feedbackAll subjects Workshop 2Supporting student change: Embedding habits and routinesAll subjects Workshop 3Cold CallAll subjects Workshop 6Turn and TalkAll subjects Workshop 8Checking for listeningAll subjects Workshop 19Maximising the participation ratio during independent practiceAll subjects
The blog · free, and always will be

What I learned from my school visits

I have written up everything I learned from my school visits as themed blog posts, with images, audio recordings and research links. They became the basis of the book series.

All blog posts

Making the most of this website

1 post
How to prioritise ideas

Habits and routines

3 posts
Supporting teacher change: How I observe a lesson and give feedback The power of an imaginary coach Supporting student change: Embedding habits and routines
Go deeper: Book 16 (£8) · Workshops 1, 2 (£99)

Means of participation

6 posts
Participation ratio Front-load the means of participation Cold Call Mini-whiteboards Call and Respond Turn and Talk
Go deeper: Books 1–4 (£8) · Workshops 3–7 (£99)

Checking for understanding and responsive teaching

7 posts
Checking for listening Checking for understanding A model for responsive teaching Plan follow-up questions in advance Don’t round up Diagnostic questions Learner-Generated Examples
Go deeper: Books 5–8 (£8) · Workshops 8–12 (£99)

Phases of a Learning Episode

10 posts
Planning a Learning Episode Do Now Purpose Atomisation I Do We Do Maximising the participation ratio during independent practice Consolidation Purposeful Practice Problem-solving
Go deeper: Books 9–14 (£8) · Workshops 13–21 (£99)

Memory and retrieval

7 posts
Desirable difficulties and four key retrieval opportunities Getting students on board with retrieval The role of confidence in learning Low-Stakes Quiz Homework Whole-class feedback Walking-Talking mock exams
Go deeper: Book 15 (£8) · Workshops 22–25 (£99)

Things for heads of department and senior leaders

5 posts
How prescriptive should a Head of Department be? Lesson planning Premortem: The key to ensuring change sticks? The myth of copying things down Correcting in green pen does not work

Messing about with AI

2 posts
NotebookLM: My favourite AI tool Neil Almond’s free teacher-focussed AI newsletter
More ways to learn

Face-to-face CPD, research and videos

Face-to-face CPD

I have limited availability to speak at face-to-face events: keynotes, conference workshops, full-day sessions with all staff, and in-depth sessions with maths departments.

To book, contact my agent Katie:
katie@thelearningline.co.uk · 01522 708897

The full-day workshops

Research summaries

180+ summaries · 18 themes

I have analysed some of my favourite research papers and broken them down to identify the key implications for teachers in the classroom.

Browse the research

Video and audio tips

380+ tips · 22 themes

Short videos with world-leading education experts, each focused on a specific, concrete strategy or idea. Feel free to use them in your department’s or school’s CPD.

Watch the videosYouTube
Newsletters

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A weekly deep dive into an educational research paper from me, and longer-form ideas, research and resources from Eedi, where I am Chief Academic Officer.

More from Craig

My other books, the podcast and more