The first in the new CLT series... Includes a free one-pager.

Register for the upcoming guest webinar on lethal mutations with Dr Haili Hughes. You'll get a free gift!

In this short clip from my recent Teaching for Attention webinar, I explore the difference between external and internal attention — and why effective teaching requires students to move between the two.

At some moments, we need students attending externally: looking at the board, listening to an explanation or studying an example. At others, we need them attending internally: retrieving, thinking, rehearsing or making connections.

Good instruction deliberately orchestrates these shifts, rather than keeping students focused on the teacher for the entire lesson.

Guest post by Dr Haili Hughes... When good ideas lose their purpose!

📘 My new Teaching for Attention Playbook is a 70+ page, evidence-informed guide that breaks down the science of attention and provides 6 practical strategies to support teachers.

It covers how to:
🎯 Secure Attention: Create the conditions for students to focus
🎯 Direct Attention: Guide students towards important information
🎯 Orchestrate Attention: Manage where attention goes as learning unfolds

This playbook is FREE until Wednesday 30 September at 11:59pm AWST

Dale Spick did you see this on socials?

🔔 The latest free DistillED Explainer video is live on DistillED and YouTube. It is all about Remembering — how we strengthen knowledge in long-term memory through retrieval practice and revisiting.

You're the right audience for thoughts and feedback — what do you think? Leave your comments below.

My upcoming webinar Teaching for Attention is at full capacity - 500 people have registered for the session! I will be sharing the recording on the DistillED+ Hub for members at the weekend.

If you've registered for the event, comment below on what you're looking forward to hearing.

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Anyone have any suggestions for Alison?

I am doing the 3-2-1 with my first grade class. Before I finish the instructions students are starting to move, taking their eyes off of me, turning around. I have a big, boy heavy class this year. I am really trying hard to get their attention and keep it. But I find that I have the same students not listening, not keeping their eyes on me, and not listening until the end of the instructions. So when I am done with the instructions, they are unsure of what they should be doing. I would absolutely love some help with this.

New Staffroom episode is up — this week it's about the five foundations that make or break the first fortnight with a new class, and what to do when a real question meets a silent room.

In that first fortnight, what's your go-to way of lowering the stakes without lowering the bar?

Hit play, then tell me your answer in the comments.

This week's Staffroom is about turning warnings into precorrections — the proactive reminder that heads off trouble before it starts. If you had to turn your usual warning into a positive precorrection, what would you actually say, in the couple of seconds before it happens? Hit play, then tell me your answer in the comments.