44 replies to this topic

[Jim Belben]

Latest guest blog from Esther Arnott http://ow.ly/5gtJW 'Bricks, mortar and blood' - how her use of local history has changed. Why they liked but were then were disatisfied with their work on Hampton Court and replaced it with something more based around the lives and personal histories of their own students.

[JohnDClare]

Latest guest blog from Esther Arnott http://ow.ly/5gtJW 'Bricks, mortar and blood' - how her use of local history has changed. Why they liked but were then were disatisfied with their work on Hampton Court and replaced it with something more based around the lives and personal histories of their own students.

I found this really interesting Jim, and I think it has tremendous significance for the group working on the National Curriculum.
Esther proved in practice what we all know in the back of our minds - thatthe classroom works best when it's of direct relevance to the PUPILS.
So - sorry to bang on about it but - it just proves what I;ve said all along that the best judge of the content of the curriculum is the teacher-and-pupils in the classroom (albeit monitored and guided by SMT/Ofsted).
Making a 'one-size-fits-British' curriculum - as they seem to have enthusiastically set off thinking about - will be a recipe for lack of engagement.

(PLUS interviews/relatives/neighbours/visitors is much cheaper than trips out!)

Through the years I did a number of these activities with pupils (admittedly not as well as Esther). They always yielded wonderful source material and I have files at home still waiting to be typed up!

[Jim Belben]

Esther Arnott has posted her final blog for our Hodder History Nest 'History Wrestling Match' on why she feels there's more to GCSE Hist than just getting a grade C http://bit.ly/iOgAcC

[Jim Belben]

Many people visited the Hodder History Nest for Dan Lyndon's excellent blogs from the SHP Conference (see http://bit.ly/joEwWA) . He has signed off with a final one on 'Mainstreaming multicultural history' (See http://bit.ly/pJQvQj)

Next up is Jason Hewson - (profile here: http://bit.ly/pCR4HI)

Followed by the irrepressible John Clare, who needs no introduction, taking you into the Summer.

And for those of you have broader responsibilities beyond History you might be interested to visit our guest blogs for
Citizenship and PSHE Current blogger is Ade Sofola of Think Global
Religious Studies and Philosophy Current blogger is Daniel Hugill of Coopers Company School who is on the Executive of NATRE
Geography Current blogger is Tony Cassidy of radicalgeography.co.uk

But if these others don't interest do please pass on the urls to anyone in your Humanities faculty/department who might be interested.

[Jim Belben]

I hope that regular visitors to the Forum have picked up by now on John Clare's timely, provocative and entertaining set of guest blogs for our History Nest. John is blogging throughout August. He has focused on:

The place of debate and contentiousness in history teaching
History is a discourse
The importance of being ... argumentative

The place of facts:
Mr Gove and the Return of Facts
Selecting the facts = choosing the History you want

The place of narrative
Mr Schama’s Dream
Autism and the Primacy of Analysis

The place of the individual in school history teaching:
How Enid Blyton changed my life
The Invisible Man
Indoctrination and the pedagogy of the Individual
Fraught with danger and pedagogically shallow?

And most recently has headed into 'interpretations'
A few urgencies about interpretations

[Jim Belben]

The Hodder History Nest is nearing its first birthday. Over the past 12 months we have had a range of guest bloggers who have blogged thoughtfully and provocatively about history - in the classroom and out of it. I have tagged some entries from the past year here.

[JohnDClare]

Really important advice from Wayne Birks - worth a read and a consider.

[JohnDClare]

Good lesson idea by Richard McFahn here - did it a lot as a teacher and it DOES work well.

[Weteachhistory.com]

I think it is useful and informative. Will be checking it and adding to it in the future

Adam O'connor

[Jim Belben]

Richard McFahn has been blogging for us through January. For the final blog of the month he writes on 'Wonderful Word' - how using the humble word processor helped him teach higher order skills in History. See here.

[Jim Belben]

Geraint Brown is our February blogger. Two posts so far:
'Putting the C into CPD'
Sense of period: Fiction in the History classroom

[Jim Belben]

Thanks to Geraint Brown for a really stimulating set of blogs through February taking in most recently:
- Local History based on significance of World War One in Vocal about local
- Using Private Peaceful for a joint enquiry with the English Department in Sense of Period: fiction in the History Classroom
- School trips to the battlefields and Berlin in Learning outside the classroom

Robin Bunce and Laura Gallagher - editors of 20th Century History Review - have now taken the reins for March. Their first two blogs are teasingly titled:
The strange case of Russell Brand and Joseph Stalin and
Michael Gove, George Orwell and the King James Bible

[JohnDClare]

The Red Spot Stalin painting and the Damien Hirst spot paintings in general are really interesting.

[Jim Belben]

In the spirit of international comparison John Heffernan @johnmayo has just started a series of blogs for us about how the Irish School History curriculum works and what issues they are facing. In today's blog he looks at how the centenaries that occur in this decade are going to force some re-evaluation of past events in Irish history.

Also I have been asked by a couple of people recently how you get to be invited to be our guest blogger. The answer is that if you want to be added to the list of potential and eager bloggers and have something you want to share via the Hodder History Nest then send me a personal message via this Forum or contact me via the Nest.

[Jim Belben]

Adam O'Connor (@weteachhistory) is our new guest blogger. His first two blogs are:
Force the source: or how I stopped worrying and began to love the source
Project-based learning: a new hope