Just a quick update before a longer post later on this week…
On the Hans J Massaquoi wiki project, I started teaching women in Nazi Germany this week and used part of his biography as a starter. It surpassed my expectations. Students were not only able to glean some information about women in Nazi Germany but explore issues of Nazi racial ideology and the unique nature of Hans’ story as a ‘minority’ (setting up their thinking for a future lesson on the treatment of ‘undesirables’ during the Third Reich). Besides setting the scene for the rest of the lesson, I was peppered with questions about Hans and his mother and a few students asked if they could read the book as it had gripped them. I can’t wait to see what they do once we get to the writing part.
Like many others, I went along to the British Educational Technology and Training exhibition (also known as BETT) the week before last. Many others have written about their experiences but the one thing that has had an impact on me was the TeachMeet. This is a simple format where educators volunteer to showcase classroom work in either 2 or seven minute presentations (no powerpoint or equivalent allowed). A few History teachers (@dajbelshaw, @ahrenfelt, @nwatkin, @danmoorhouse and myself) have decided to plan something similar for the forthcoming national Schools History Project conference in July. If you teach History, the SHP conference is the ultimate place to share ideas and resources and see some inspiring classroom work. We believe that the TeachMeet model would be a great addition to the SHP conference and allow others to participate in the sharing/collaboration process. Details will be finalised in the next few weeks but if you want to get involved at this early stage of planning either to help with organisation or present some work, please get in touch.
Finally, there are some very exciting projects coming up in the next few weeks in relation to handheld learning and using technology to support classroom History teaching and I hope to announce the ‘big’ one in the next few days. It is all happening…
Image: Helico @ Flickr