Daniel B

Head of Science and Teacher in Perth, Western Australia. Former Mechanical Engineer.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

A link to my presentation 'A Teachers Guide to Cognitive Load Theory' in pdf format (one copy with my notes). If you would like original PowerPoint files please DM.
Feel free to use. Attribution would be nice.
https://t.co/Lmztq2QxYm

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 @JakeCowling I've seen PowerPoint used well, where it's used to pace and structure a lesson (e.g starter quiz, periodic questions, embedded videos, but this is rare. Mostly I've seen teachers presenting very connected ideas over a very disconnected medium (one slide at a time).

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 @MrWilsonCompSci Yes. One lesson length is too artificial a unit of time. Some concepts take a couple of lessons to build up to. Some take longer. Some content lives and dies in a lesson (obscure syllabus requirements).

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 I remember as an ECT doing post it note exit tickets for about one week. Five classes of 32 students, 150 post it notes, 5 minutes between lessons, zero chance of reading any of them in a meaningful way.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@SMcfarnell I find that the time it takes to refine the prompts is less time than a basic drawing in ppt.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@Headteacherchat Yes. The school board, local authority or whoever the Head/Principal reports to has a duty of care to the school leadership team. I'd argue that, to some extent, the same goes for inspectorates. A part of this duty of care is sensible KPIs and manageable workloads.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@tombennett71 I appreciate the "duty of care" drive of the article to both staff and students. An important and overlooked part of a school's leadership, board, local/regional education authority, responsibility that is often sacrificed on the altar of vocation and calling.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@effortfuleduktr I agree, but I'd expect something around instructional excellence to be in a principals KPIs, and they would drive this through their leadership team. Principals are something like a CEO for a school. No "doing" lots themselves but setting directions, driving agendas etc.

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
I’m returning in May for a small number of Running the Room training days on behaviour and classroom leadership. Practical, research-informed, and grounded in the reality of classrooms.
📍 Sydney – 7 May
📍 Melbourne – 11 May
📍 Perth – 14 & 16 May
These are my only Australian dates in 2026. Please pass this on to anyone who might benefit.
Book here:
https://t.co/DFvqz7MaAO

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@GordonGekko @eurofounder My 3.y.o daughter said pretty much the same thing to me yesterday, but in Latin.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

Three years after welcoming my first daughter on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day 2025 I welcomed my second daughter.
#ChristmasMiracle

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

A Christmas miracle! After a stillborn and two miscarriages, Baby Madeleine was born on Christmas morning 2022 🎄👶🙏
#ChristmasMiracle #christmasbaby

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 @whhtmaternity Congratulations

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 As a former engineer turned teacher I learned very quickly not to openly say "teaching isn't harder than engineering" in the staff room. Yes teaching can be hard and has unique challenges, but so do other jobs. In the same way engineering isn't harder than teaching.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 @Mr_Raichura I now provide students with content booklets with lots of questions ranging from processing and understanding the content through to applying the content.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@adamboxer1 Yes! When I started working at my school the standard model of teaching was PowerPoint with ~half of the lesson students copying down the content.
PowerPoint is terrible for delivering content, it artificially breaks connected ideas apart by what can be by fit onto one slide.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@billybinion I recently visited the USA, and I came to the conclusion that tipping at high rates like 20 or 30% transfers the risk of low customers from the business owners to the service staff. IMHO, pay staff a living wage and make tipping rare, low %, and for exceptional service.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@tstarkey1212 I have a group of students who compete in a robotics comp and wrote a 200+ page engineering notebook. They groan at the idea of writing a fictional story or analysing literature. Do they love literature? No. Can they communicate ideas effectively in writing? Absolutely.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@MrARobbins @adamboxer1 "Content less clearly defined" is a good description of the Australian Science Curriculum. This is a screenshot of the Year 7 "Science Understanding" component. It leads to huge variability between schools.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@paulwalkercore @OneNoteEDU @adamboxer1 @XPPEN @WRBdB I use OneNote, which works very well

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

Engaging positively with #Edutwitter is some of the best PD a teacher can do. Physics lesson from today with booklets on @OneNoteEDU (inspired by @adamboxer1), annotated with an @XPPEN graphics tabled (inspired by @WRBdB), with lots of explicit examples and models.

[Daniel B @dan_braith]

@paulwalkercore @OneNoteEDU @adamboxer1 @XPPEN @WRBdB I haven't used goodnotes, so I don't know.