This is my first blog entry in ages and is inspired by a fantastic Teachmeet I attended on Thursday. Two of our young MFL teachers invited me to go to an MFL Teachmeet. I have to admit that I felt just a little apprehensive at the start - not only was I the only one who wasn't a languages teacher but it was also in the uncharted waters of Plymouth! I really was a fish out of water but quickly settled into a great evening of ideas and creativity. What is it about TeachMeets that can keep a room full of teachers interested and involved at 7.30 at night in early November?
All of the presentations were excellent and almost all of the ideas could be easily transferred to my History classroom. One of the things that struck me was that most of the ideas weren't new - lots of them were things I have done before but for some reason I have stopped doing (blogging being just 1 example). I didn't mean that to sound arrogant -as I have always said, I don't think I have ever had an original idea. I am just quite good at nicking stuff and converting it for my classroom. Over the last couple of days I have been flicking back through old lesson plans and folders for stuff I used to do and shouldn't have stopped. I used to always start lessons with an image and they were brilliant for generating interest and questions and I haven't done it in ages - but they will certainly be making a comeback next week.
The excellent Ben Rowe (@itsmerowey) from Saltash reminded me of the value of regular blogging. He recommended using it as a way to reflect on each week's teaching and I think that's a great idea. So I have dusted off Blogpress and hope/aim to post each week with some reflection on my lessons. Perhaps it's because I have stopped blogging and reflecting that I have stopped doing some of the things that worked best.
So this week has been a pretty good one - not brilliant but some good stuff. I do think I have been too content heavy though which has led to lessons being a bit dry.
Year 13 have had their first go at a historical controversy question on Germany's responsibility for World War One and I am very impressed at their research for coursework.
Year 12 have been looking at the rise of Sinn Fein and using the mini IPads for research. I still don't feel I have quite cracked using the IPads in the lessons yet though - they are part novelty and part distraction at the moment so I do need to think through how I am going to get the best out of them.
Year 11 are getting close to being ready for their Controlled Assessment and Year 10 are just getting to groups with Nazi Germany.
I am really looking forward to this week though. I have just found a copy of the literacy test which the state of Louisiana used to stop blacks qualifying to vote in the 1960's - I am going to get year 11 to try it on Monday to see if any of them can pass it. I don't rate their chances.
I am also doing one of my favourite lessons with year 10 which mixes Adolf Hitler, Derren Brown and NLP.
Also this week I am introducing Open Invites - so far 3 teachers have nominated several lessons this week that are open to anyone to pop into and observe. I just now have to convince some people to go and watch.
Hopefully, I will blog next week to reflect on it all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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