RISK: Signposting better choices to more adventurous teaching(Practical Teaching)

39 reflections to improve your decision making in the classroom and beyond. Go on! You can do it! Are teachers becoming ever more compliant as a profession? By just quietly getting on with things there is a danger of losing that spark that attracted you to your career in the first place. However, if you feel empowered to take more risks - to take back control of how you teach - then you have the chance to reignite your passion for the job. This book follows on from David Gumbrell’s text LIFT!, arguing that when you are feeling more resilient you have the courage and confidence to take more risks. You can also calculate that risk more rationally, thereby making it less risky and more likely to result in success. As this cycle continues you become more invigorated, more inspired and thus more engaging as a teacher. A beautifully written book with David's characteristic use of rich metaphors and thoughtful narrative. This book will certainly help you make bolder and better decisions in the classroom and beyond. Adrian Bethune

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Emerging RISK  1) Training on Plimsolls 2) Prey for the Minotaur  3) Are you tall enough?  4) That’s you tot 5) Living with Earthquakes – who’s fault? 6) Is sleet rain, or snow? 7) 21 again, what are the chances?  8) Floating, yet tethered  9) Feathered Friends  10) Pulsating Stuff  11) Sharpen Up  12) BOIINNGG!  13) Gone for a Six 14) Inflatable Pillow  15) Can’t Resist Air 16) Smashing Time 17) Angles of Elevation  18) Don’t Get Burnt  19)  . . . and they are off 20) Pedaling Power 21) Whorls, hoops and arches 22) Swim, Cycle, Run 23) Stifling Suppositions  24) Channel your Tunnel vision  25) What the value of the Ph Scale?  26) ‘One fails forwards’ 27) Goosebumps are great!  28) Push Down and Turn 29) Ever been framed?  30) Pufferfish Puff  31) ‘Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat’  32) Pixelating Goggles  33) Pint-sized Problem  34) How Purple is Purple  35) Doh! What’s that buzz? 36) Chlorophyll-a-gap 37) ‘I want my Mummy!’ 38) Anyone for RISK? 39) Go for Broke  CASE STUDIES

About the Author :
David Gumbrell is an educational consultant, working in schools to support teachers with their resilience and also with teacher training providers and student teachers. He delivers INSET days, one-to-one coaching sessions, and speaks at headteacher conferences. Drawing on over 20 years of teaching experience, including 7 years as a headteacher, and research conducted at Kingston University, he is well placed to nurture the development of those new to the profession - as well as those who have been teaching for a little longer) He understands how precious time is for teachers and wanted to create a resource that made the best use of this. 

Review :
David writes with warmth, intelligence and with practical encouragement to everyday teachers and leaders. As schools become increasingly busy, teachers are faced with ever more problems and challenges that need solutions. The multitude of decisions that need to be made in a school can range from the mundane to the profound, but those decisions must be made wisely. In RISK David gives teachers support in taking decisions so that they can bring their best selves to navigating risk and the decision-making process and follow through on the consequences of the decisions they make RISK by David Gumbrell is a great one to casually pick up, read a quick story, learn a fact and introduce yourself to a new way of thinking. I subsequently found myself reading another story and another and then just one more. Each of the 39 stories has a great insight as to how we ourselves can think differently about people and situations and look for improvement. Ideal for teachers wanting to ‘break out’ and explore new methods and fascinating ideas to express their learnings within the classroom and also their lives. A beautifully written book with David's characteristic use of rich metaphors and thoughtful narrative. This book will certainly help you make bolder and better decisions in the classroom and beyond. The power of this book centres around the questions posed throughout. These questions focus you and challenge you to think about not only your practice and the way in which you teach but also your habits and routines. The questions invite you to change the way you do things to enable you to be far more confident in taking risks within your own teaching that are beneficial for all, and that includes you, the teacher! David uses his detailed and knowledgeable insight into the ways schools work and how we work within them to create an inspirational handbook full of practical advice and questions that make us think. This book should be on the reading list for every teacher and leader. Through fascinating and engaging links to historical events and general knowledge, David encourages the reader to be confident and to take risks, embracing the creativity that leads to exciting and memorable lessons. His carefully crafted questions help to coach and reassure you that, although you cannot always predict the outcomes, it does not mean you have failed and that both joy and frustration are part of the journey as you move from bunny slopes to black runs! This is a welcome addition to sources of much needed support available for trainees and early career teachers. It is presented in a way that is practical and quickly accessible meaning that they can pick up and learn from it in bite-sized chunks – so important in this incredibly busy, sometimes overly pressured time. The advice is easily actionable but appropriately underpinned by research and evidence and will be an invaluable addition to busy teacher’s toolkit