Saints Alive: using sculpture to explore historical significance

This blog centres on a visit I made to Michael Landy's 'Saints Alive' exhibition at the National Gallery. The exhibition will run until 24th November 2013 and consists of a series of large-scale moving sculptures representing various saints. The sculptures can be operated by the viewer, if they press a button/turn a wheel, and so on. More information can be found here.

I don't know if you'll have been able to tell, but a real interest of mine is integrating the creative arts with the secondary curriculum, especially the teaching and learning of history. I am proficient in drama and dance, but more out of my comfort zone in the realms of art and art history. This is something I want to develop. The National Curriculum recommends visits to galleries as a curriculum opportunity that should be provided (DfE, 2007, p. 6) and the recent government-commissioned Henley Review suggests that visits to cultural sites like art galleries can "deepen [young people's] understanding of the world around them" (Henley, 2012, p. 8). There are also explicit links between this religious-themed exhibition and the history topics that most schools offer at KS3: medieval beliefs and the structure of the Catholic Church is often a key part of earlier study, leading up to the Reformation. The significance of saints in the lives of ordinary people is often a key part of this. With this in mind, I was eager to visit this exhibition to see if I could marry my passion for religious-themed art with my love of teaching history.

Is this exhibition useful for teaching and learning?

The first aspect I have reflected on is the effectiveness of the interactive nature of the exhibition and its potential to engage pupils. Because the sculptures 'came to life' at the press of a button, pupils would feel they could take ownership of the exhibition, making it more immediately engaging than static portraits may appear at first glance. It's also very memorable - I have no doubt pupils would remember that Saint Apollonia was tortured by having her teeth pulled out after watching a 10-foot high model of said saint extract her own teeth at the press of a button!

This kinaesthetic, memorable aspect links to the second of my reflections. A guide speaking to us when we were waiting to go in made the very valid point that the exhibition had a 'fairground' feel to it, because it was so interactive and over-sized; almost grotesque. This feel could be extremely powerful in teaching about the 'tourism' aspect of medieval sainthood - perhaps with a link to the extreme popularity of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket and the significance the pilgrimage to Canterbury had for centuries after his death. A teacher could link the moving sculptures to attractions at a fairground, and then link this back to the popular appeal the saints had - making the significance of saints to medieval people far more accessible for pupils.

The exhibition is also a valuable tool for accessing higher-order thinking, for example dealing with religious symbology and abstract artistic concepts. In history, the concept of significance could be explored through posing questions like: why has the artist decided to sculpt saints at all? Why these specific saints? Why might people in the past have sculpted saints? What do the motivations of the artist and the people in the past tell us about significance of saints through time?

Similarly, there are strong and complex cross-curricular links brought about by this exhibition which would be highly valuable for a pupil's personal and cultural development as well as their development as a pupil of history. More emphasis on spiritual, moral and cultural development has been placed on schools by Ofsted, and the exhibition's links are therefore a crucial aspect of what makes it so potentially useful as a teaching and learning stimulus (Ofsted, 2013). Its links to Religious Education - the importance of saints, and, more interestingly, the darker issues surrounding their lives and their significance to Catholic people - are complex and could promote really thoughtful discussion. Similarly, the exhibition also included displays and a film focusing on the artist's process. This kind of meta-cognitive information could stimulate art & design-based discussions about choices that artists make and the artistic process. Most excitingly, this process could then be linked back to the process that a historian follows (making choices, finding evidence, compiling it into a structured piece of work for 'display') - highlighting to the pupils the intrinsic similarities between all of the arts. Macaulay - the man who famously likened history to portrait painting at the turn of the 20th century (Macaulay, 1900, p. 17) - would be proud!

I have outlined ways that this visit could be embedded into the KS3 history curriculum below. The National Gallery provides excellent facilities for school visits including an Education Suite, and this exhibition is completely free! More details can be found here. I would thoroughly urge teachers to plan an enrichment visit to this excellent sculpture exhibition if they are in the London area. The exhibition itself would take no more than an hour to visit - perhaps a half-day visit with a session in the Education Suite at the Gallery would be a sensible option.

So how can teachers embed a visit to 'Saints Alive' with the KS3 curriculum?

Prior knowledge needed:	·      The structure of the medieval church ·      The importance of Heaven and Hell in medieval times ·      Some knowledge of what a saint was and how you could become one
Suggestions for activities during the visit:	·      Pupils use sculptures as stimulus to design their own ·      Pupils create a comic book/speech bubbles of the artist’s thought process  when creating the exhibition (really linking into present-day significance) ·      Pupils to review the sculptures using a template sheet to gather information about the saint portrayed and the artist’s interpretation ·      Pupils take photos of sculptures and use device (iPad etc if available) to cut and crop to make their own version of a sculpture. Then annotate to explain why they have made those artistic choices
What could the visit lead on to?:	·      Pilgrimages in medieval times ·      The story of Thomas Becket ·      The Crusades

References

Henley, B. 2012. ‘Cultural Education in England’. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/77941/Cultural_Education_report.pdf

Department for Education, 2007. 'The National Curriculum for History'. http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/secondary/b00199545/history/programme/opportunities

Ofsted, 2013. 'The framework for school inspection'. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection

Macaulay, T.B. 1900. Historical nuggets: the essence and art of history. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert.

Professional Enrichment: using drama, music and dance in secondary school teaching and learning

Before you read this, it might be worth mentioning that Artis (the company I worked with) give their specialists onomatopoeic names - hence why each specialist's name is followed with a 'code name' in brackets! Mine was 'Bounce'.

As a Secondary History trainee teacher about to qualify, I was given the opportunity to complete two weeks of ‘Professional Enrichment’ in a school-based context of my choosing. As a former actress, this choice, for me, was simple: it had to be an organisation that synthesised creative arts with teaching, learning and professional development. Artis (www.artiseducation.com) immediately ticked all these boxes: through both its holistic approach (fusing drama, music and dance with school curricula, by sending specialists into schools and making excellent use of primary schools’ PPA time) and its Impact programme (focusing on providing training for teachers in how to unlock the potential of the arts in their classroom).

The power of the arts in education has been a subject of much debate, with the recent government-commissioned review, ‘Cultural Education in England’, finding it significantly enhanced teaching and learning (Henley, 2012). No surprises there – I’ve always embraced the arts in my practice and seen first-hand the benefits it has for pupils’ engagement and confidence (look here and here!). However, the review goes further - “The best performing schools bring Cultural Education practitioners into schools, alongside classroom teachers, to share their knowledge with pupils” (Henley, 2012, p. 8). I can think of no better description for Artis Specialists - both skilled practitioners in a range of creative arts, and trained by Artis in behaviour management, lesson planning and other aspects of pedagogy - than ‘cultural educators’.

However, secondary schools are hampered by the fact that they do not have PPA time to spare to facilitate regular programmes run by specialists. I wanted to use my Artis experience to observe and adapt their techniques, so I could use them in my practice as a secondary school history teacher – and share them with my colleagues. What I have learned can be used in the teaching of history, in pastoral care and across the school as a whole – in true Artis style, a completely holistic approach. 

In history, the arts can be used to develop complex, concept –based thought. Alex Kaye (Bash) got pupils at Beecholme Primary School using movement to explain how gravity changes between the Earth and space. Stuart Barter (Chime) used dramatic tableaus at St Paul with St Luke’s to demonstrate changing habitats through time. Inspired by these excellent sessions, I thought about how I could use this in history lessons - how about getting pupils to use facial expressions to create a living graph of reactions to a key event, to illustrate the concept of diversity?

The arts also promote engagement with literacy. Iryna Pizniuk (Snap) used ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as a stimulus for a market-based drama scene and a dance to Prokofiev’s ‘Montagues and Capulets’ with a Year 6 class at St Anne’s Primary School. ‘Disguising’ learning in this kinaesthetic way effectively engages pupils who find it a struggle.

More widely, the benefits the arts have on personal development can be used effectively as a pastoral tool to ease the transition from primary to secondary school. Compiling the proposals for Artis’ summer programmes was inspiring – they use the arts and group work together to ‘break the ice’ between pupils in new Year 7 cohorts, as well as developing the foundations of key PLTS skills that they will need throughout their secondary school education. As a Year 7 form tutor next year, with my own Year 7 Induction Day coming up, this insight was invaluable and I will incorporate it into my pastoral planning in the new academic year.

Although some may fear that the freedom that creativity brings and excellent pupil behaviour are mutually exclusive, my experiences with Artis have shown this is not the case. Through integrating classroom routines, such as ‘silent signals’, Tarika Hidayatullah (Wiggle) at St Bernadette’s RC Primary had the whole (rather challenging) class under her spell! This links to another whole-school issue surrounding the use of the arts – co-operation between staff is crucial in linking creativity to the curriculum to really enhance teaching and learning. Charlotte Farmar (Chortle) at Singlegate Primary had incredibly detailed lesson plans, which had come about as a result of her relationships with the school’s teachers (and her own hard work and research!). She also demonstrated one of the most impressive qualities of Artis Specialists – their constant desire to reflect and improve – by asking me for feedback and taking some of my suggestions on board.

My two weeks with Artis have been invaluable for my development as a creative teacher of history, and I would like to say a huge thank you to the Artis team and all the specialists who have made these two weeks so useful and memorable. I’ll really miss being ‘Bounce’!

References

Henley, B. 2012. ‘Cultural Education in England’. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/77941/Cultural_Education_report.pdf

The joys of YouTube

Further to my ICT-sceptic Nostalgia Blog, I thought I should post this to show you how far I have come from my previous attitude!

We were lucky enough to have a fab session with Mr Dave West (whose blog is here: http://westylish.blogspot.co.uk/ - definitely worth a read, he really embraces technology in the classroom!) During the session, he got us making YouTube videos about historical events, and I made mine about Cardinal Wolsey.

For those of you who don't know, Wolsey is my hero. He is on my phone cover, I collect bric-a-brac that is Wolsey-themed, and my undergraduate dissertation was a defence of the man and his character.

This video is a short introduction to his fall from grace, set to the music of Justin Bieber.

The most dangerous trainee of all time (or, the use of simulation in the classroom)

This is a piece I originally wrote for the PGCE blog, which you can find here: http://yorkpgce.blogspot.co.uk/

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By the end of my first week on main placement, rumours were rife in the corridors that an outbreak of the Black Death had hit the school – and rife in the staffroom that I had been in some sort of brawl the preceding weekend thanks to the purple marks on my face and neck that looked suspiciously like bruises. Was I, in fact, the least professional and most dangerous trainee the school had ever known?

The answer, of course, is no. It was my predilection for using costume, drama and simulation in the classroom that had caused all sorts of gossip in the school. I’d planned my first lesson with Year 7 about the causes and spread of the Black Death as a simulation, where they – as teams of medical experts – would follow learning objectives that were tailored to ‘curing my disease’ and preventing it from spreading around the school, whilst cunningly teaching them historical content and the skills of analysing cause and effect. I decided to dress up, by using red food colouring to create burst buboes, black lipstick to paint purple swellings on myself, and finally by pouring an entire pint of water over myself, in the minutes before I entered the classroom, to give myself a feverish-looking sweat (a note for those of you considering this – water does not mix terribly well with interactive whiteboards!)

Myself looking a bit concerned about the buboes that have appeared on my neck

This is quite an extreme example of ‘simulation’ in the classroom, and to some, the lines between this approach and ‘drama’ are blurred. The difference, though, lies in the roles given to pupils to ensure the whole class is participating to create the simulated scenario. In this instance, I was the victim and they were doctors, nurses and government health officials, each with a specific role in their table groups throughout the lesson to focus them on meeting the learning objectives. This is wholly different to drama, where often only a small proportion of the class (or just the teacher!) is in role. Additionally, in drama, participants are required to immerse themselves into a role, which reduces opportunities for meta-cognition and the subsequent focus on learning objectives. By using a simulation, both the function of the role, and the outcomes created in that role, are apparent to the pupil. For instance, as a doctor in this scenario, the pupil would know that the ‘function’ of their role was to achieve the learning objective of ‘identifying the symptoms of the Black Death’, and they would do this through accessing content relating to these symptoms. Other roles would match other learning objectives and the group could then feedback effectively to ensure everyone in the table group had met all of the objectives.

So why use simulation in the classroom?

Simulation has a wide range of benefits for teachers and pupils alike. The immersion in a fictional scenario inspires and motivates pupils – simply put, it’s exciting and probably different to any other lesson they will have that day! It’s memorable and engaging and thus can go a long way to strengthening your reputation as a teacher and impression on a class, helping to provide a positive classroom environment and thus promote good behaviour. Furthermore, this reputation for the kind of lessons you don’t want to miss tends to spread around the school (I always find it helps if you stand in the corridor to welcome pupils whilst dressed in some kind of outrageous costume)! Another benefit simulation can have for you and your pupils is its structured nature, assigning pupils specific roles that match learning objectives. This can help you, and them, to measure their progress through assessment – in such a subtle way they will not notice they are doing it (for instance, an ‘emergency government meeting’ [in teacher language = verbal feedback] to discuss the causes and spread of the plague throughout Europe!) It suits a huge range of learning styles, as you can incorporate written, visual and kinaesthetic tasks into the simulation, as well as providing a comprehensive and well-structured plan for you as the teacher, where every pupil is participating. To meet the needs of all pupils, differentiation ‘by role’ is easy to achieve, and I often allow pupils to choose their own roles – this allows them to reflect on their strengths as a learner and take ownership of their learning. It can also help you to strengthen your relationships with other members of staff – through Health and Safety negotiations, but also the inclusion of Teaching Assistants in the simulation (by providing them with a plan in advance and an appropriate costume). Lastly, I felt the benefits reaching more widely than just the pupils and staff of the school at a Year 7 Parents’ Evening where I was greeted by one pupil’s parent with the slightly terrifying “I’ve heard about you…” – luckily, they’d heard only good things about how their 11-year-old son had become a doctor in my lessons with him, and wanted to thank me for engaging him in history!

So how could I use this in my classroom?: top tips and suggestions!

Tips for using simulation in the classroom

·      Choose your scenario carefully – obviously avoid things that will be offensive such as a Nazi simulation.

·      Do not over-use this as a classroom tool – firstly, they take absolute ages to plan and resource, and secondly, the ‘novelty’ effect that makes these lessons so engaging will be lost if this is repeated every time you teach.

·      Do not break role for the whole lesson – once you’ve swept them up in the pretence it is easy to carry their attention, but when broken it’ll be hard to reconstruct.

·      To achieve this, you will have to plan for every instruction you give, or resource you give out, to be ‘themed’ along with the scenario. For instance, in my ‘Thomas Becket’ scheme of work, I would only address the class as ‘Detective [Surname]’ and all resources were themed to look like crime scene reports. We also placed sources into freezer bags and labelled them ‘exhibit 1/2/3 etc’ to mimic the real-life procedure that would take place – I strongly advise you spare no detail. The more convincing the scenario, the more engaging it will be.

·      It is helpful to arrange the classroom in table groups of 4, mixing pupils with different skill-sets (creative, good at presenting, good at researching etc). This enables all pupils to have a fulfilling and engaging role.

·      You will probably have to invest a lot more time in planning and creating resources for this sort of lesson, especially if costumes are involved – I remember sitting in the staffroom frantically cutting up bedsheets to create my Pope costume, as I had underestimated the amount of time this would take. Leave yourself ample time!

·      Check with Health & Safety before you plan! – after planning to squeeze 30 Year 9s into a tiny kitchen in order to create an air raid shelter, I was told the night before the lesson that it would be too dangerous and breach Health & Safety policy. Cue frantic re-planning involving borrowing an enormous amount of blackout curtains from the Drama department and a very hectic period before the lesson attempting to set up an air raid shelter in the Learning Support zone!

·      Overall - careful planning is an absolute necessity. You, as the teacher, must have a clear idea of exactly what each ‘role’ will be achieving in terms of the learning objectives. Additionally, strict timing is necessary to ensure that progress is made and assessed.

When used effectively, simulation in the classroom can be an excellent tool for promoting pupil (and teacher!) engagement and enjoyment of lessons – ensuring that they make progress and that your relationship and classroom climate is positively strengthened. I’ll leave you with a list of suggested simulations, some of which I have tried to great effect and some of which I am aiming to use later in my career!

Suggested scenarios

Scenario	Teacher role	Pupil roles
Black Death	Victim	Doctor/nurse/government official/medical researcher
Medieval church	Pope	Cardinal/archbishop/bishop/priest
WW2 = Blitz	Air raid warden	Families (father/mother/children)
Henry VIII & the Reformation (this can be adapted to the court of any monarch studied!)	Henry VIII	Wolsey (Chancellor), More (Chancellor), Anne Boleyn, William Tyndale
French Revolution (fall of monarchy)	Louis XVI	Representatives of the Paris clubs (Jacobins, Cordeliers, Girondins, Hebertistes)
Cold War (Korean War, but could apply to any military event)	Commander-in-Chief at the Pentagon	General, Major, Colonel, Private
Feudal system	King	Lord/knight/peasant/priest
Treaty of Versailles	Secretary of the League of Nations	USA/France/Britain/Germany

… But the possibilities are endless!

It's a Long Way to Tipperary: Battlefields Trip 2013

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to visit the WW1 battlefields of France and Belgium on my main placement and the experience really struck a chord. Here's a piece I wrote about it for the PGCE newsletter in February 2013.

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As a typical trainee history teacher, I shall start this piece about my experiences on the WW1 Battlefields trip with my placement school (Lady Lumley’s School, to whom I must express my sincerest thanks for this amazing opportunity) with our favourite questions, neatly summarised by these 6 letters – WWWWWH.

Who?: I went on the trip to accompany 40 Year 10 pupils, with 3 other members of staff (the Head of Department, my mentor [herself an ex-York trainee], and a Teaching Assistant).

What?: We went to explore the battlefields of World War One in France and Belgium, and the memorialisation seen in the war cemeteries there, with our excellent tour guide Liz from Mercat Tours, who specialise in providing the ‘battlefields experience’ for both schools and adult groups.

Where?: We stayed in Ypres in the aptly-named ‘Poppies Hotel’ – although, as a city haunted by the ghosts of both world wars, the name is perhaps not surprising. During the trip, we visited (amongst others): the preserved trench at Sanctuary Wood, the Canadian memorial at Vimy, the church where Hitler’s life was saved after he sustained injuries in the First World War at Messines, Thiepval Memorial, the bunker where John McCrae wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’, the devastating and lonely cemeteries of Passchendaele where nearly all the graves are not named, and the shocking Languemarc German cemetery, where 24,000 Germans are buried in a mass grave barely the size of an ornamental flowerbed.

When?: Friday 8^th – Wednesday 13^th February, departing at 11pm from North Yorkshire to arrive in Belgium at 5pm the following day, after a gruelling coach and ferry journey (featuring ‘Mean Girls’, the singing of 30 war songs including hits like ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and fitful sleep under an assortment of blankets in our coach seats!) We were met with snow, which continued throughout the trip, but only served to make the sites we visited more moving.

Why?: Although Year 10 do not study World War One as a part of their GCSE course, they study the effects it had on building up to World War Two. Issues like commemoration and war guilt, which the trip so skilfully brought to light, are very important here and can only really be holistically understood through the emotional response to the thousands of graves which pepper the French and Belgian landscape.

How?: After being issued with a booklet to accompany their learning on the trip by Lady Lumley’s (and negotiating our way through the numerous checks necessary to authorise a school trip of this duration and geographical distance!), the pupils were handed into the care of Liz, our guide, at an evocative ‘Pals’ Battalion’ ceremony in the car park of Lady Lumley’s by moonlight, at 11pm on the Friday they left. Parents waved goodbye to their children, just as they would have in 1914 when battalions formed and left for the Front. Liz then guided the pupils (and adults!) through a journey around the battlefields themselves, preserved trenches from the war, and, finally, the many memorials and cemeteries of the area. This included tours, a personalised memorial cemetery at Essex Farm cemetery and visiting the graves of pupils’ relatives - as well as literally putting ourselves in the shoes of the soldiers by marching to Tyne Cot cemetery (as the soldiers would have done in 1917) after a military drill from the Colonel (aka the Head of Department)!

The profound effect this trip had on me personally is something only expressed in my reflective journal completed there, alongside the pupils, every evening. It will affect me for a long time to come, and probably for my whole life, and I firmly believe that everybody should make the trip to the battlefields to experience those unique emotions first-hand. However, the trip also had effects on my teaching, and as a part of the PGCE newsletter, it is this that my article will focus on.

The immediate effects were obvious when I was reunited with my Year 10 class after our trip, and from the smiles exchanged between myself and the other pupils who had been, who were not in my class, in the school corridors. I had become ‘human’ to them (as one does, when one cries uncontrollably in front of one’s pupils, in the middle of a freezing, desolate cemetery - because you are standing over the grave of somebody with no name, someone whose grave no-one has ever visited before). In turn, I saw the potential and the personality of all my pupils, enabling our classroom relationship to flourish and become warmer, more personal and promote greater engagement. Similarly, the relationships I built with the other members of the department were equally strengthened – you don’t really get to know somebody until you have sat in a service station on the East Coast at 3am with them! In addition, my professional relationship with the Teaching Assistant who accompanied us has gone from strength to strength, and I know I can rely on him to go along with some of my more unconventional lessons (usually involving him dressing up as a historical character of some sort)...

I also gained many valuable resources from the trip, which I have used across all my classes to bring the benefit of the trip to as many pupils as possible. For instance, a grave bearing the infamous phrase ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ in all sincerity provided a great counterpoint to the poem of the same name by Wilfred Owen, when I was exploring trench warfare with Year 9. The photos of the battlefields and memorials that I accrued have also proved a valuable mine of resources in bringing home the horrors of the war, and knowing that I had stood there to take the photograph seemed to make the war ‘real’ to younger pupils.

Linked to this, my subject knowledge of World War One has been hugely enriched thanks to the expert guidance of Liz and the programme from Mercat Tours. Liz provided us with so many stories of individual soldiers – from the youngest war casualty at 15 years old and the oldest at 62, to the father and son buried next to each other, and the extraordinary bravery of the Canadian regiments – which I have used, and will continue to use, in my teaching about World War One. The knowledge of themes such as sacrifice, honour and duty cannot really be understood until you have stood in front of a soldier’s grave and thought about the man inside it. My understanding of memorialisation has greatly improved, thanks to the contrast between the impeccably maintained Commonwealth war cemeteries and the bleak, hidden German ones. This is something I wish to explore further in my own time, perhaps as part of our upcoming ‘1914 in 2014’ project.

I gained so much from this trip that it is impossible to fit it all here. However, I would like to finish by quoting what one pupil wrote as their overall reflection on the trip – that it had “changed their life”. It seems like a cliché, but it is true. I left for the trip believing the sarcastic denouncements of Owen and Sassoon told the whole story – but returned to find that the words of Rupert Brooke, that “there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England” is not jingoism, but truth. 

The grave of Lieutenant Henry Webber, whose family chose to have the infamous phrase 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' engraved on the headstone. They clearly believed it in all sincerity. Just one of the many different perspectives this trip showed me.

Nostalgia Blog #8: SEND wiki project (13th January 2013)

This is the final blog from the VLE, all about a collaborative wiki project we had for 'Christmas homework', developing our knowledge of SEND issues. This is a reflection on the wiki as a tool for learning.

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For Christmas, the wiki project gave me a much better knowledge of ASD, as well as a new teaching and learning tool that I will be aiming to use in my upcoming placement. My knowledge of ASD (autistic spectrum disorders) was patchy at best. I had a good understanding of Asperger's Syndrome as I taught a pupil on mini-block with the condition, but was largely unaware of the range and scope of types of autism. Through my research and the research of the others in my group, I feel far better informed and aware of characteristics of ASD and techniques and support available to me. The wiki, and its scope for collaboration, proved an interesting method of completing this project.

Through collaborating over email and through the comments section at the bottom of the wiki itself, we were able to communicate with each other about a potential structure and any changes we had made to the wiki and its content. Having divided up the reading, it was more difficult to divide up sections of the wiki to work on - we had a tentative plan for who would write what, but all seem to have collaborated on every page. This was another strength of the wiki format - we could easily add content to ensure a thorough and varied project. This could be used in a group-work setting, especially over holiday periods, as no face-time is necessary. It would be good for an extended research project, where each group in the class is given a different topic, much as we have been. For instance, if studying Cardinal Wolsey, one group could work on his rise to power, one on his activities domestically, one on foreign policy, one on religion, and one on his fall from grace. Rather than each student individually having to learn about everything to do with Wolsey, this would create a pooled resource which would be useful for revision and recapping later on in the year. This would motivate pupils to read the work of others and the teacher could then guide them to peer-assess too, developing their progress as well as their knowledge of content.

However, I noticed several things about the wiki format that would cause me concern as a teacher. One is that there is no way to 'track changes' on the wiki - you can see who has contributed to a page, but this contribution can range from writing 1000 words, to just changing the font. This allows pupils to 'cheat' by not contributing. This can only be checked if the teacher checks all changes to all wikis every day to see what has been changed. Perhaps there is another way to set up a wiki (with other software) which would track specific changes, showing what exactly each pupil has done. That would also prevent students from deleting each other's work or editing it to worsen its quality.

In its current form, I would use the wiki tool with Sixth Form students as a trial, as I would trust them to be mature enough not to abuse the freedom that the collaborative approach of the wiki gives. The potential for the wiki to save classroom time, as well as provide a more in-depth study into a particular topic, is excellent and I would like to find a way to use this successfully in my practice, ensuring that all pupils are contributing equally.

Nostalgia Blog #7: Mini-block (13th January 2013)

This is a biggie. It's a reflection on my 4-week mini placement in school in winter term, before we pulled out the big guns and I was launched into a 4-month placement from January until May. This is possibly my favourite blog to reflect on - how sweet and innocent I once was.

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My experience on mini-block has left me in an excellent position to start the main block placement - I feel clear about my targets and what I need to improve on, and have more confidence in my own ability as a trainee teacher.


There is truly no substitute for being in school day in, day out, and following the progression of your students on a regular basis. I was truly plunged into the deep end, as I taught my first lesson on my second day of the four week mini-block placement. I was not given the opportunity to teach starters or plenaries discretely, as my mentor wanted me to experience taking over 2 classes as if I were their teacher for the rest of the term. This taught me one of the many lessons I learned about 'teacher presence'. Coming from a performing arts background, I learned on mini-block that I could use the presentation skills I'd gained from this to convey a confident approach to my classes - establishing my own 'teacher presence'. Teaching a 6 lesson sequence to Year 8, and an 8 lesson sequence to Year 7, with no experience of any teaching contact with those classes before, was truly intimidating. However, I am grateful to my mentor for recognising that I needed to be removed from my comfort zone if I was to establish confidence and authority in the classroom.

It would have been impossible for me to take on 6 hours teaching a week immediately had I not been fortunate enough to observe excellent practice across a range of subject areas beforehand (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). A particular highlight was watching the use of ICT in the Science labs to show how hydrocarbons bond - the students were extremely proficient at using animation, which I found astounding and hope to capitalise on in my new placement (particularly as I will have an IWB this time around!). Behaviour management was consistently excellent across all lessons I observed, particularly that of the Head of Maths. He was a real lesson in how to plan for positive behaviour, rather than use it punitively. He circulated almost constantly throughout the lesson, had prepared all his resources far in advance, and used ICT and games to make the lesson really engaging. Some of the pupils in that lesson were in my form, and I had seen how many 'red' comments they were given in their planner on a weekly basis - but the Maths lesson was so well-planned and executed in such a comfortable environment that there were no problems. I believe that the excellent behaviour management I observed was the main reason why my own behaviour management was far better than I had anticipated it to be, and was rooted in planning for positive behaviour.

The challenges of teaching 2 full SOWs, as well as team teaching Year 9 twice a week, and running weekly Y13 revision sessions, were issues with time management. I learned to plan effectively by using resources that already existed within the department, although I still need to improve this if I am planning on sleeping at all before June. I am very grateful that I was given a relatively intense teaching load on mini-block - knowing that I did in fact manage to teach 7-8hours a week makes me feel slightly less apprehensive about taking on a half timetable during main block. However, there are some areas of my planning that need to be seriously improved and I will dedicate the time to making sure these are achieved. For example, my differentiation is not as strong as it should be and I often felt like not all of the class were making as much progress as possible. I am lucky to be going to a school which is fully mixed-ability, as this will necessitate that my differentiation improves, and I will be able to learn from strong practitioners in this field.

Another issue with teaching 2 SOWs was that I had no knowledge of one of the topics, and very little knowledge of the other (English Civil War and Norman Conquest respectively). It was a steep learning curve about time management - I could not afford to spend days researching each topic as I would have done at university. I had to learn to use existing resources and educational books and websites to boil the topic down to the essentials. This was frustrating for me as I have a tendency to want to know absolutely everything before I stand in front of a class to teach it. However, my mentor assured me that the knowledge would come cumulatively, with time, and was generous enough to give me a whole pack of resources that he had created to help me to have some frame of reference for unfamiliar topics.

I really enjoyed getting involved in the wider life of the school and hope to continue this at my next school. It was wonderful to help at Drama Club and share my personal passion with pupils, as well as getting to know them outside of the classroom. In particular, this helped me to connect with a troublesome Year 9 pupil and manage his behaviour more effectively in my classes. I was also very lucky to work with an excellent Y8 form tutor, who was generous enough to let me take charge of the form for 3 of the 4 weeks of mini-block. He was almost like a second mentor, helping me to understand the daily admin of school life - money for trips, letters home and so on. He also gave me the opportunity to teach PHSE and Citizenship to the form, as well as run Literacy Circles, check planners, and organise the Y8 stall at the Xmas Fair. I have always seen myself as a more 'academic' sort of teacher, but thanks to the experience of becoming a form tutor for 3 weeks, I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the pastoral care side of school life just as much as the history side.

I learned so much on mini-block that it is impossible to articulate it all. I have worked harder and more intensely than I have ever done in my life, but with excellent support from my mentor and my 'second mentor' in form time. I learned the value of collaboration and of learning from colleagues through observation and asking advice. Most importantly, and something that ties teaching together for me, is the importance of getting to know the pupils you teach. It is this that I am most excited about for main block, as the longer placement will allow a greater connection to the pupils I teach.

Nostalgia Blog #6: A Level Day (12th November 2012)

This blog is a reflection on A Level Day - the first 'real' teaching many of us had done on the course, where we were split into groups of 3 and given a class of about 15 A Level students to teach a 'historical skill' to. My group - Mr 'Banker' Green (Trainee X), Mr 'Big in Oxford' Hockaday (Trainee Y) & I - chose to teach the skill of interpretation, using the Profumo affair as a 'mystery sort' that pupils had to try to piece together in small groups.

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As I sat in Derwent Bar on the first Friday after we had split into our teams to plan A Level Day, I recall feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the task that was ahead of us. I couldn’t begin to imagine how we were going to turn the scribbled mess of ideas in our folders into an effective, engaging and challenging A Level session. Knowing that my team managed to do just that last Friday has left me with a real sense of achievement, as well as some helpful pointers about what aspects to focus on improving throughout my mini-block placement.

I felt that the strengths of our team were inherently rooted in our strong personal relationships with each other. This meant that we were comfortable enough to constructively criticise – both in the planning stages of the day, but also to help each other to reflect on areas of improvement after every session as the day went on. This meant that on the whole, our sessions improved each time. We were also open to help and feedback all day from both the school teachers and our university mentor – taking the opportunity to create a new resource (a flipchart) at lunchtime, and discussing how to make our questioning more effective as a result of some feedback we had been given. We even found ways to observe what the school teachers were doing and adapt it into our next sessions – for instance, when one of the teachers joined in to circulate and question groups of pupils in one of our sessions, we kept an ear open for the sorts of higher-level questions she was asking and began to use them as the day went on.

Another strength of our team was our presentation skills. We were all confident speakers and I learned a lot from both of my colleagues in terms of manner, keeping calm, and the use of humour to create a positive learning environment (although this does not come as naturally to me as it does to them!)

We were also helped by the fact that the topic we’d chosen, ‘History and Interpretation’ was a very stimulating one as it would have been unlike anything the pupils would have explicitly studied in school. We also came up with 3 really engaging activities which challenged the pupils and allowed creativity – in particular, Trainee X’s suggestion that we use the Profumo affair as the basis for a ‘detective’ style activity. We felt it was important to keep teacher talk to a minimum and create interactive activities so that the pupils could learn by ‘doing’. I believe this played a large part in our good feedback from pupils, and I think they enjoyed the element of challenge and creativity.

Personally, I believe my biggest strengths were my confidence, which was especially helpful as I had to start the session off and get the pupils initially engaged. I also contributed a lot in terms of creating the resources for the session, and I think my organisation and conscientiousness helped me with this task. I felt that my own time management was good when conducting my starter, although I had an easier job of it as my activity was only 5 minutes long, compared to Trainee X’s 20 minute slot.

As a team, we encountered two main problems on the day: time management, and coping with different groups of learners. These linked to each other, as we had based our time management on the experience we had with our first group of the day who were very quick to respond to our activities. These timings did not work with the second group, as they took a much longer time to respond to the activities than the first group had. This led Trainee X to give them more time in order to finish the activity, meaning that Trainee Y and I ended up quite pushed for time! We then made the mistake of letting this stress manifest itself in the way we spoke to the learners, creating quite a rushed and pressurised atmosphere that was remarked on by our mentor. We took steps to counter this by writing down actual timings on a Post-It at lunchtime, and referring back to it constantly throughout the next two sessions. The timing, pace and general atmosphere was much improved as a result and our mentor commented on the improvement when she came to observe us again.

Personally, I felt I had two main areas to improve on as a result of the day. The first is my questioning skills, something highlighted in the formal feedback from one school teacher at the end of the day, but also an area in which I felt I was the least confident. I found it very difficult to come up with questions off the cuff, although I had thought that I would be able to do so easily. This has taught me to script my questions in advance of the lesson to make sure they are supportive/challenging enough (and not to argue with Trainee X and Y about the need to plan a defined list of questions!) Some feedback we were all given, but which really rang true with me, was that we were ‘spoon-feeding’ the students the answers instead of allowing them to get there on their own. I thought it was a mark of bad questioning or teaching when the students couldn’t get the answer straight away, but now I understand that ‘think time’ and scaffolding are necessary to get the students to come up with the right answer by themselves. I forgot that our session was very challenging and involved quite a lot of students having to think about the way in which they were thinking – a high level skill that they would not have been used to. The pupils were also probably feeling quite shy as they were mixed with lots of students they didn’t know, in an unfamiliar environment. In the future, I will ensure that I give the right amount of support and do not simply tell pupils the answer to challenging questions. I will also do my best to create a ‘safe’ atmosphere where everyone feels confident enough to speak.

Linked to this, I felt that my starter activity may have been slightly too challenging for the students as their responses to my AfL questioning were too hung up on the content of the sources I had distributed. This meant the pupils did not respond to my second question about why they thought I’d asked them to do the activity. This, again, is because it would have been unfamiliar to them to reflect on the learning process in this way. Similarly, the language was a bit too difficult for them (some of it was original spelling from the 16^th century), which to me seemed simple, but I’d failed to put myself in their shoes. I think that whilst on mini-block, this will be less of a problem because I have spent time observing my classes, studying their prior attainment and discussing potential strategies with my mentor, the Head of Department and the SENCo where appropriate. I will also check the resources with my mentor to ensure I am not making incorrect assumptions about what children may find easy/hard.

I had an excellent time on A Level Day. It was encouraging and inspiring to see the way that my colleagues worked. It was invaluable to have experience of informal observation before mini-block started, because it helped me to handle the nerves I have been feeling about being observed. Most of all, it has given me the drive to make the most of mini-block and improve the areas that I fell down on last Friday, to make sure that the high points of teaching that I experienced during the day become more and more frequent. As another trainee said at the end of the day, the experience proved to me that I made the right decision by starting this course, and I look forward to the hard work ahead.

Mr Hockaday and I. Mr Green hiding out of shot, perhaps somewhere on the floor...

Nostalgia Blog #5: ICT (7th November 2012)

This is probably the area that has changed the most over my practice - I'm about to buy an iPad, have a blog and an active Twitter presence, and have learned from several of my excellent colleagues (notably Joshua B. Crozzington) all about how to use interesting apps to engage pupils in the classroom (demonstrated in the video here).

So, read this next one with a pinch of salt!

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Before starting this course, I was sceptical about the use of ICT in classrooms. I saw the value in using video clips or online sources, but intensely disliked PowerPoint presentations, lessons in the ICT room for no discernable purpose, and the sort of gimmicky educational tools available online (with the exception of the animated Henry VIII on activehistory.com, of course). 

However, the sheer enthusiasm and good practice demonstrated as a part of the university-based sessions have gone some way towards winning me over. The huge range of activities Suzy showed us threatened to confirm my suspicions that ICT could be used in an extremely gimmicky way, but also gave me some really good ideas for use in my own classroom. A particular favourite was 'Fakebook', which I'll certainly be using to investigate key historical figures, and I am also keen to use online quizzes for homework. Inevitably, PM's enthusiasm for Twitter has somewhat rubbed off on me, and I'm now thinking through ways that I can incorporate a rolling Twitter account for use with my A Level revision class on mini-block so that they can ask me any questions they may have when they are not in school. Equally, Twitter is a fantastic way to develop my CPD and I find myself becoming absorbed in random articles that PM sends out which grab my attention!

Yet this progressive and enthusiastic attitude that I was developing nicely in the first few weeks quickly met its match at my placement school, School B. There, the phrase 'death by PowerPoint' was illustrated to me as every lesson in the history department I observe seems to have an accompanying PowerPoint presentation which seems only to stop teachers having to write on the board. It was so refreshing to see a lesson which didn't use this technique (in the English dept)! There was also no real opportunity for students to create using ICT as a part of lessons - it was kept solely for the use of teachers when presenting in front of the class. We were shown how we, as teachers, might use ICT to create resources, but this left me wondering how to adapt the techniques we'd been shown to encourage pupils to use ICT to evidence their learning. 

Where ICT has proven very useful in school, though, is in two key areas. The first is literacy support - it has been invaluable for use with whole classes who need spelling or grammar support, as well as those who need the 'copy and paste' function it provides to structure their thoughts. This is something I will hope to build on, whilst not relying upon completely. It gives pupils confidence, and a way to express their often excellent thoughts in a coherent manner. The second place I've really appreciated ICT in school is for the register. The use of 'e-Portal' makes collating all the data about a pupil's attainment, attendance, background and behaviour so easy, and this has been very useful in creating my lesson plans for mini-block as teaching strategies for individual pupils have been logged to help colleagues. 

I am still ambivalent about ICT in schools. I am reluctant to throw myself headfirst into technology because I find it can often prove more of a hindrance than a help (especially in terms of behaviour, as the pupils become so distracted with the screen in front of them, or can easily get thrown off-topic when using the internet for research). I have established some key pointers for myself based on my personal experience and my observation in schools:

1) Plan the use of ICT carefully in order to maximise its potential. For example, get to know the computer room in order to create a new seating plan to control behaviour, or ensure that laptops are already set up in class to stop any unnecessary fiddling.

2) Do not use ICT just for the sake of it - ensure it links directly to a learning objective and outcome.

3) Hand ICT over to pupils as much as possible to make sure they are developing their skills as well as learning some content!

4) Be wary of PowerPoint - I am grateful to Paula for showing us that PowerPoint can be used productively (through our A Level revision resource activity) but I think I will still err on the side of caution with PowerPoint and try not to have it as the backbone of every lesson. It can be inflexible, text heavy and somewhat unoriginal.

I am looking forward to continuing my ICT action plan and finding more ICT activities that will suit both my teaching style and my pupils' needs.