Teach Middle East Magazine Apr - Jun 2020 Issue 3 Volume 7 | Page 38

Educators who create content
BEN COOPER
M
y name is Ben Cooper, and
I am the creator of the
WAGOLL Teaching blog. I
have been in education for
15 years, starting as a class teacher in
my home city of Manchester, UK. This is
where my blogging began, focused on
my passion for teaching and learning.
In 2014, my wife and I moved out to
Dubai, where I started teaching at
GEMS Wellington Al Khail. Over the
years, I progressed as a leader, which
has led me to become Vice Principal of
the Primary School. Dubai has brought
exciting travel opportunities as well as
a greater outdoor lifestyle!
My Podcast is titled WAGOLL
Teaching. It was first published one
year ago to go alongside the vlogs
I was creating for newly qualified
teachers. WAGOLL is a term used
in the UK which stands for What
A Good One Looks Like. WAGOLL
Teaching is simply about sharing
great teaching ideas that can be
implemented immediately in the
classroom.
I produce a vlog weekly, although it
purely depends on when I have time
to record a new episode.
WAGOLL Teaching can be found on
all major Podcast sites.
WAGOLL Teaching bases itself on the
idea of microlearning. Teachers are
busy people who struggle to finish
their lunch, never mind dedicating
long periods of time to developing
themselves. Microlearning is all
about learning small amounts of
high-quality content, often. I just
want to keep sharing great teaching
tips in bitesize chunks. Most of
which are ideas that I used, or I
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Term 3 Apr - Jun 2020
Class Time
have seen being used in my school.
I would love to dedicate more time
in putting other teachers in front of
the microphone to share their tips in
order to broaden and diversify the
ideas and content.
WAGOLL Teaching started as a blog
when I was back in the UK and has
grown from there into a Vlog and
Podcast. The feedback over the past
eight years has been fantastic. I have
been nominated for multiple awards
for my blog’s content. Creating great
resources is also part of what I do.
Literacy WAGOLL is a website full of
example texts for children to refer
to when writing their own short
stories, whilst WAGOLL Teaching
shares some more generic resources
focused on reading and behaviour
visuals.
It is so important for educators to
share great ideas and the best way to
do that is by creating digital content
– be it a blog, vlog or social media
post. Teachers supporting teachers
is fundamental!
WAGOLL Teaching is on all major
social
media
sites,
including
Facebook,
Instagram,
Twitter,
Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube.
My three educational wishes are:
5 5 More
project
learning
and
child-led
5 5 More social enterprise digital tech to
support learning in disadvantaged
learning communities
5 5 A greater focus on teacher
wellbeing – happy teachers make
happy pupils!