Welcome to part 2 of our developing leadership series! In part one we looked at the first steps of developing leadership – getting players to take charge and give instructions during the warm up. In this post we’ll look at…
Developing Leadership, Part 1: Warm up
Welcome to this three part series on developing leadership in your sports team! I’ll be talking about this subject from the perspective of a roller derby coach, but many of the principles and ideas are transferable across teaching subjects. Being…
What is Atomic Teaching?
Atomic Teaching is a teaching methodology that emphasises clarity, community and efficiency. Imagine you have three tennis balls you will throw to a learner. You want the learner to catch all three. How do you throw them? All at the…
Reflecting on Your Teaching
As educators we all know we should reflect more than we do, but finding time amongst the administrative burden of teaching often makes finding time to reflect impractical. In Atomic Teaching we take an approach to reflection that prioritises efficiency…
Keeping The Pot on the Boil
New podcast! Often when coaching and teaching a key element in how challenging the session is is timing. Keeping the pot on the boil is a phrase I use to visualise the workrate I want in the room. I want…
Impatience is a Virtue
A lot of the teaching that I do is skill based, and a key aspect of being a coach or a skill based teacher is being impatient for action over talking. Whenever I begin an activity, and I describe to…
New Text Editing Features!
LessonStack now supports markdown! For a long time creators on LessonStack have wanted to add richer text editing features, but they haven’t been able to. Small touches like bulleted lists and clickable links can add a great deal of functionality…
A Blueprint For Democratising Your Roller Derby League’s Training
A common struggle for Roller Derby leagues is growing leadership into training and coaching. Often league’s opt for a top-down approach to coaching and training, by appointing a small number of people with expertise into training roles. This is a…
Next Level Session Planning For Roller Derby Coaches
Roller Derby is a tough sport to coach, and organising your planning can be a real headache. In a good week you can find time to chat to your players and coaches about what needs to happen and make notes…
Welcome To LessonStack!
Welcome to the LessonStack blog! My name is Steve Varndell, AKA Rex Tangle, and over the last 14 years I’ve spent time as a teacher, a roller derby coach and a software engineer, and something I always needed but could…