Real World Resources For Teachers with Craig Barton, Mind the Gap, Ep. 44 (S2E19)

For this episode, Tom and Emma welcome maths educator, author, podcaster, and education thought leader Craig Barton to the podcast. To introduce Craig, the trio discusses his many endeavors in education, including his podcast, two books, interest in variation theory, and, as Tom put it, the “proliferation of Craig Barton products.” Craig's many forrays into entrepreneurship center around his interest in providing useful and experience-driven resources to teachers. Essentially Craig’s hard work goes into creating resources he wishes he had from the start of his education career. Visit edCircuit.com to watch this episode.

In the second half of the discussion, Tom, Emma, and Craig dive further into the practicality of Craig’s particular theories, interests, and passion projects. This part of the discussion shows how Craig takes an extremely creative and research-based approach and turns it into real-world teacher training, school planning, and classroom materials.

About the participants:

Craig Barton has been an educator since 2004 over the past two decades has become a maths leader, author, and entrepreneur. He is the co-creator of Diagnostic Questions, a free website hosting the world’s largest collection of high-quality maths resources, and the Head of Education at Eedi. He launched Mr. Barton Maths Podcast in 2015, allowing him to talk to experts in education research. Since then, he has published two educational books with JohnCatt Educational: How I Wish I’d Taught Maths (2018) and Reflect, Expect, Check, Explain (2020). Follow Craig on Twitter @mrbartonmaths

Tom Sherrington has worked in schools as a teacher and leader for 30 years and is now a consultant specializing in teacher development and curriculum & assessment planning. His books include Teaching WalkThrus, Rosenshine’s Principles in Action, and The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook. He regularly contributes to conferences and CPD sessions locally and nationally and is busy working in schools and colleges across the UK and around the world. Follow Tom on Twitter @teacherhead

Emma Turner joined Discovery Schools Academy Trust as the Research and CPD lead after 20 years in primary teaching. She is the founder of ‘NewEd – Joyful CPD for early-career teachers’, a not-for-profit approach to CPD to encourage positivity amongst the profession and help to retain teachers in post. Turner is the author of Be More Toddler: A Leadership Education From Our Little Learners, Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education, and Simplicitus: The Interconnected Primary Curriculum & Effective Subject Leadership Follow Emma on Twitter @emma_turner75