#233 HoD Space ep4: Teacher talk, finding good assessments and the most stressful times of the year

<p>Sign up for a no-commitment free trial at <a href="https://www.hodspace.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">hodspace.com.</a> </p><p>Access the show notes here: <a href="https://podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/233-hod-space-ep4-teacher-talk-finding-good-assessments-and-the-most-stressful-times-of-the-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/233-hod-space-ep4-teacher-talk-finding-good-assessments-and-the-most-stressful-times-of-the-year/</a></p><p>In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss:</p><p><strong>1. Teacher talk</strong> Jo brings a member&#39;s post about developing teaching and learning across a department, where a passing line about getting teachers to talk less drew some strong replies. Craig argues that the quantity of talk matters less than its quality, describing how he records teachers&#39; explanations and plays them back in coaching, the research on redundancy and mazes in speech, and Kris Boulton&#39;s near-silent examples in atomisation. Jo reflects on over-exampling as a trainee, the choice of first example when expanding double brackets, why she still values longer periods of practice with some classes, and the shortage of videos of real maths lessons.</p><p><strong>2. Assessments students have not already seen</strong> Jo raises a problem members are describing at both GCSE and A-level: students arriving at mock exams having already worked through the exam board&#39;s secure papers. She explains how this came to light at her school, why swapping in a different past paper no longer solves it, and how her department now writes its own papers by rebuilding old ones question by question, along with the workload, grade boundary and further maths difficulties that brings. Craig draws on his Inside Exams series to explain why a good paper is so hard to write, then offers to have AI produce one, a challenge Jo accepts.</p><p><strong>3. The most stressful time of the year</strong> Craig puts a question to Jo that will also go out to HoD Space members as a survey: is there a point in the academic year that heads of maths find more stressful than the rest? Jo notes that staff absence is stressful whenever it lands, then makes the case for four contenders in turn, September, the run-up to Christmas, the spring term and the first half of the summer term, before choosing her winner. Craig compares her answer with his own memories of exam season as a classroom teacher without a head of