I was visiting friends in Aberdeenshire at the weekend as we were attending the Portsoy Boat Festival to represent Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. Before leaving to drive back home on Sunday I had a very interesting conversation with my hosts for the weekend, Pam and Stuart Cornwallis. I was talking about teaching the Nuclear Arms Race to my Higher class this week. Pam and Stuart suggested getting balls of various sizes and using these to demonstrate the changing technology and power that the Superpowers were developing at this time. I thought it sounded like a very good idea but was unsure about the logistics of the lesson.

Today I borrowed some table tennis balls, tennis balls and gym balls from a somewhat confused PE department. I laid out some plastic bottles on tables opposite each other to represent the Western Powers and the Soviet Union. Two pupils volunteered to act the part of firing the weapons. We started with the table tennis balls indicating the first atomic bombs. The pupils walked over to the opposing side representing the plane dropping the bombs. We saw that although damage was caused (some bottles were knocked down) the countries did still exist. We then moved on to the tennis balls which were thrown from the ‘home’ table demonstrating the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Again some more damage was done. Finally we threw the gym balls at the bottles which of course knocked down the lot (when the aim was on target). This was to demonstrate the theory of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). We then watched an episode of the Cold War series which introduced further the Arms race and the concept of MAD and the balance of terror that was created. I will now follow this with a more detailed look at the arms race but this seemed to work as a really great introducation to the topic. 

Thanks to Pam and Stuart for a great idea that I will further develop in the future!

This years History exams took place on Monday 26th May. I was particularly nervous as, although I have taught bits of all the courses on offer, it was the first time I had taught the full two year Standard Grade and all of the Higher course.

However, the papers were well balanced giving the pupils a chance to show off their knowledge. The topics taught in the Standard Grade course were split evenly across the levels and the Enquiry Skills section contained good sources. In the Higher paper 1 there were some good questions which the pupils should have found straight forward. Paper 2 again was balanced with a variety of topics being assessed.

Overall, I am sure that the pupils will have been able to perform to their potential with fair exam papers.

I wish them luck in all of their exams!

Well I can fully sympathise with Don Ledingham when he wrote this post last week. This week has definitely felt much more like a marathon than a sprint.  From parent’s nights to running clubs, from pilates to Zambia expedition training, the earliest I have got home this week has been 7pm. From 5.30am that is some long days!  Nonetheless,  this week I have had so many instances when I have thought, ‘I love being a teacher!’

Monday began the countdown to the S5/6 prelims. I currently have a Higher History class so this week we focussed on revision, revision, revision. We started the week by looking at the British topic which is assessed by essays. Each pupil was asked to plan out some answers for questions out of past papers. I also reminded them that questions can be worded differently and they must answer the question they have been asked, not the question they would like it to be. The second part of the week was spent revising our cold war topic. We again practised past paper questions and made timelines and mindmaps.

Good luck to all pupils sitting prelims over the next two weeks.

A colleague of mine,  Damian Hayes from Ross High School, has alerted me to what is potentially a very valuable online resource for pupils studying Higher History. Damian originally came up with the idea of an online discussion forum for the extended essay aspect of the course. This would enable students to discuss topics, ideas and ask questions. Damian’s idea has now been established as a website hosted on Edinburgh University’s website and covers The Cold War, Russia, Germany and the USA topics.  This site could be a valuable tool for any Higher candidate but only if people use it to post questions or ideas. Therefore, I would encourage any History teachers out there to point their pupils in the direction of this site.

The link to the homepage is http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/history-under-discussion/

The direct link to the forum is http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/history-under-discussion/forum/index.php

Well the new term is nearly upon us and what a term it’s going to be! This is always a very busy and action packed term in any school.

This week we have an inservice day on Monday where we will be discussing various elements of the school development plan. The development plan is at the centre of everything we do at Knox Academy and I am looking forward to hearing about the progress that has been made already this session.

Before the inservice day even begins I have a meeting at 7.30am with the East Lothian Piping and Drumming Trust. This is a great opportunity for the Knox Pipeband and I am looking forward with excitment to the outcome of this meeting.

 The S4 Parent’s Evening is on Thursday night and I look forward to meeting parents and discussing the progress of the pupils heading towards their prelim exams.  

On Friday I am taking a group of our youngsters to the East Lothian S3 outdoor challenge. Last year I went along to John Muir Country Park with the S4 group who brought back the trophy to Knox. I am of course hoping that the S3 team can repeat this success!

Thursday 1st November sees the big launch of the African Expedition to our S3 and S4. Outlook Expeditions will be in the school delivering an introductory presentation to the pupils. A parent’s presentation will be held during the following week.

Later on in the term we have the S4 prelims so there will be lots of revision going on in both my S4 classes. In addition, my Higher class will be preparing for their first NAB on the Cold War unit of the course. We are also hoping to organise a trip for the Higher class to go to the Secret Bunker in November along with pupils from Ross High as part of the course. Moreover, there is the S4 Work Experience week too. Finally, I have been offered a week’s placement with the National Library of Scotland during November. This is a very exciting opportunity.

And all that before we start the run up to… (dare I say it?) …Christmas!

 I can’t wait to get started!

Pupils regularly ask me random questions about a specific period in time. Perhaps they have seen something about Ancient Egypt on TV or have been thinking about the Native North Americans etc. While I feel confident in most aspects of History, very often, unless it is an area of the curriculum, my answer has to be, “that is an interesting question, I do not know the answer but I will try and find out”. The pupil almost always answers me with, “You are a History Teacher, you should know the answer”. To which I reply “Am I supposed to know everything that has ever happened in the world, ever?” 

While I do have a degree in History, and this is following on from a post that Luke Francis has recently posted, by the time you get to University you become specialised in certain areas. This is particularly so in History. Yes I covered some European Political History at University, along with some Early Modern British History and a fair amount of Scottish History, but by the time I was completing my Honours year I was only studying two areas of History - The Early Stewart Kings, which was my special subject and the Viking way of life in Scotland and Iceland, my dissertation topic. Therefore, there are many areas of History that, while fascinating though they are, I have never studied.

I would be interested to find out if this happens to teachers of other subjects. I suspect that it will happen less so to teachers of subjects that have difinitive answers, say Maths for example. History however, along with other Social Subjects, are such that there are many answers to a given question, so long as the answer is fully backed up with evidence. Indeed, History as a subject is so vast that surely it is impossible to expect any one person to ‘know it all’.

Since one of the aims of this blog is to give an insight into the life of a Teacher, I thought for today’s post I would give an account of my day. There was nothing special about today at all!

My day always starts with registration, an S6 class, all 31 of them! Today they were handing in forms for University applications. In addition, the house captains were reporting back to the class after a school council meeting. All this in the space of 6 minutes!

My first class was my mixed ability S3 Standard Grade class. They were working on preparing a guide book explaining all the weapons and new forms of technology used during the First World War. This task allowed them the freedom to choose which weapons were to be included in the booklet and design the layout themselves. The pupils like this project as they can concentrate on particular areas that interest them. While this was going on, I was giving back their ‘Causes of War’ tests and discussing their targets for the coming months with each pupil individually. The pupils displayed a very mature attitude when setting themselves targets as they were not only challenging but also realistic for each pupil.

The next class was a Second Year class. Yesterday this class was split into two groups and set the task of producing a TV news report about one of the dangers of modern day exploration. One group was concentrating on the black hole while the other group was looking at the bermuda triangle. Today they were finished their scripts and then we recorded the news broadcasts. This allowed the pupils to work together in groups and use the video camera. In addition, they also had compete control of their own reports. At the end of the lesson we watched the videos and, while they were highly entertaining, the class had managed to show the dangers faced by todays explorers.

During my non-contact period I prepared for my afternoon lessons, did some photocopying, deposited money that I had received from pupils for their Activities Week trip and marked some Standard Grade tests.

My S4 Standard Grade classes are looking at the Women’s Suffrage Movement.  The classes split themselves into a boys group and a girls group and I gave the groups some time to put together an argument and then we debated the issue  ‘Women should get the vote’. The groups took their arguments very seriously with some very heated debating going on. However, no matter which side they were on, all the pupils left with an understanding of the differing opinions about the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

At lunchtime, I held my weekly ’drop in’ session for my certificate classes where they can come and ask for help with anypart of the course or indeed with homework tasks.

The Higher class are looking at the Berlin Wall and today we were examining the reasons behind the building of the wall and its consequences. To show the more human side of the closure of the border, we watched a video which clearly outlined the devastiation of families being split up and the desperate attempts of the East Germans to cross the border.

Teaching is certainly one profession where it is impossible to be bored, no two days are the same and there are so many things going on. As I said this was a ‘normal’ day!