Craig Barton interviews guests from the wonderful world of education about their approaches to teaching, educational research and more. All show notes, resources and videos here: https://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/
Bruno is incredible. He is the former head of maths at the pioneering King Solomon Academy, and the creator of the global dominating Times Tables Rockstars. We spoke about creating the right culture in lessons and in school, homework and written feedback, mixed attainment classes, Mastery, Shanghai, and much, much more!
For more information about today’s guest, plus links to the websites, resources and ideas they mention, please visit the show notes page: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/7-bruno-reddy-mrreddy-com/
On this episode of the Mr Barton Maths Podcast I spoke to Bruno Reddy, former Head of Maths at King Solomon Academy, creator of MrReddy.com, and the man behind the phenomenon that is Times Table Rockstars.
In an epic 2 hour interview, we covered loads of things, including:
- How does Bruno plan his lessons?
- Bruno describes a bad lesson he taught and what he learned from it
- Why does Bruno believe that culture, both in the school and the classroom, is the key to behaviour management and learning, and what specifically is the culture like at King Solomon Academy?
- What lesson routines do Bruno’s students follow?
- What are Bruno’s views on homework and written feedback?
- What does Mastery mean to Bruno, and why does he believe in it so passionately?
- What preconceptions did Bruno have before going to Shanghai, and what are his thoughts now?
- Why does Bruno believe that Mixed Attainment classes are so important?
- And to top it all off, Bruno gave us a lovely puzzle, which you can tweet him your effort using the hashtag #BrunosPuzzle.
Obviously, I am completely biased, but I think this is a cracking, thought-provoking listen. I hope you agree.
The two things I mentioned in the introduction can be found here:
1. Free 100 Day Countdown GCSE Revision Streams: https://www.diagnosticquestions.com/streams
2. My Just the Job Podcast: http://www.thejustthejobpodcast.com/
Bruno’s excellent website and blog can be found here: http://mrreddy.com/
And on Twitter he is @MrReddyMaths: https://twitter.com/MrReddyMaths (and remember to tweet him your efforts at his puzzle using the hashtag #BrunosPuzzle)
This King Solomon Academy Job Vacancy page is here: http://kingsolomonacademy.org/vacancies
Times Table Rock Stars can be found here: https://ttrockstars.com/
Here are the links to Bruno’s Big 3:
1. Thinkers by John Mason and Anne Watson: http://www.atm.org.uk/Shop/Sale-Items—50-Off/Language-and-Mathematics/Shop/Thinkers/act057
2. Glencoe Manipulatives: http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html
Guide to the Manipulatives: http://www.educational-freeware.com/online/virtual-manipulatives.aspx
3. Thinking Blocks: http://www.thinkingblocks.com/
My usual plugs:
- You can help support the podcast (and get an interactive transcript of all new episodes) via my Patreon page at patreon.com/mrbartonmaths
- If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the show, then please visit this page
- You can sign up for my free Tips for Teachers newsletter and my free Eedi newsletter
- My online courses are here: craigbarton.podia.com
- My books are “Tips for Teachers“, “Reflect, Expect, Check, Explain” and “How I wish I’d taught maths”
Thanks so much for listening, and see you next time
Craig Barton