I often meet teachers who have this (to me) weird compulsion to get a job, do three years, move on to a new school, three years, move…and repeat. In the interests of full disclosure, I am not one of these people. I got a job in the mid-90s and[…]
Teaching Issues
Why I had to move 1920s America to Year 9
Why I had to move 1920s America to Year 9: So, we all had to adjust to the changes brought by the new GCSEs and in some ways, this was a good thing. I for one, have found that my teaching has been reinvigorated by getting to teach new units.[…]
Going outdoors: A six-step guide to planning history field trips
Six steps for teachers to plan, organise and make the most of history field trips and visits to historic sites.
How to run a successful revision information evening
Running a successful revision information evening. When we get to the weeks leading up to Easter revision season is upon us. In schools all over the land colleagues find themselves somewhere on the spectrum between being inundated with eager students to dragging them kicking and screaming to revision classes. There[…]
Teaching the fight against domestic fascism in pre and post war Britain
I think I’ve been planning this set of lessons on the fight against domestic fascism since about 1988, when I first saw Celt-punk band, The Men they Couldn’t Hang perform their classic song, the Ghosts of Cable Street at the Lancaster Sugar House. Regular readers of our site will know that we have[…]
Memorable history lessons: dress up, role play and personal stories
It’s period 4 on a Thursday and Year 11 are filing through my classroom door with a collective look of bemusement on their faces. Some are just outright laughing at me; others are reaching for their camera phones. I’d like to point out that these are not the normal responses[…]
Music in the History Classroom
According to the Marxist scholar A. L. Lloyd, rebels in the 1381 peasants’ revolt sang the song, The Cutty Wren, in protest at feudal oppression – sadly he offered no proof to back up his claim. Nonetheless, folk music and protest songs provide a rich vein of source material which[…]