Anders MacGregor-Thunell

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I taught History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. One of my main areas has been Nordic History. I have written several papers about Finland and Sweden during the 19th and 20th Century, but has some knowledge about the development in Norway, Denmark and on Iceland as well. Questions before the 18th century are also OK all though I have written less papers about this time period...

I'll check it out David. Thank you very much for the tip.

I have two recomendations to the teacher from Gnosjö. One weakness of these books though are the fact that they count on you having a separat book about British History (they cover a little bit but as I said they count on you having more resources)). The first book is "Europe 1760-1871" skriven av Derrick Murphy, Terry Morris, Richard Staton & Sally Waller (www.CollinsEducational.com ISBN 0-00-327132-3) and the other one is "Europe 1870-1991" written by Terry Morris and Derrick Murphy (same company ISBN 0-00-327133-1). The last one is fine up to 1945 - you would need some other book to cover the time after WWII.

Books, articles, etc... I think I have an idea about what to do and what to not do but what about video/film-sequences and audiomaterial. If I want to put a JFK speech into my website - what are the general rules / law?

Thank you for your fast response Graham. I agree with you about copyright - It's very hard (or impossible) to really figure out what's the correct procedure. All these problems makes one hesitate using audio and video material of a modern date. There must be a way though to use the material when you create a website that's not a commercial site, or...

A few days ago I went to the annual Book and Library Exhibition in Gothenburg. I wanted to check out new (or for me unknown) authors/books, but I also wanted to see what new was offered within the ICT field. One of my ideas (traditional - but still something I would like to develop) is to construct some pages for my classes where I can use - the white board with interaction (I know still traditional stuff...) - short articles with read text (the audio material could be followed by a colour indication of the parts being read...) - pictures / audio / video in certain marked parts of the text - in-depth articles (with a possibility of having an audio file plus maybe the colour indication...) Since I haven't done this yet I would like to ask you much more experienced members for advice about putting this together. What about copyright to audio / video material like speeches from famous politicians / film/video clips from WWI / WWII etc...? Programs? etc... The idea is to develop some of my pages this way where the development of a forum would follow along... An interesting observation at this Exhibition was the fact that very little was presented within the ICT field. "Electronic books" which in this case meant books on pdf-files with a sophisticated system of controlling access and one program for audiofiles with colour indications (for people with reading disabilities) was the only things I could find...

Vikten av "muntlig historieforskning" kan inte nog understrykas. Jag tänkte därför börja på ett ämne som kanske kan locka några fler läsare och eventuellt leda till nya debatter. Min idé är att vi som växte upp under 1960 och 70-talen ger en kort bakgrundsbeskrivning av oss själva och sedan står till förfogande för de medlemmar (och ev. elever) som skulle vilja ställa frågor om våra erfarenheter under denna tid... Jag är född 1955. År 1961 började jag i svensk folkskola vilket några år senare förändrades till grundskolan. De allra sist realklasserna gick ut samtidigt som jag sökte till gymnasiet 1970. Efter studier på en tre-årig humanistisk linje så arbetade jag under 1970-talet med en mängd olika "tillfälliga arbeten"; skogsarbetare, hamnarbetare, sjukvårdsbiträde, fiskare, lärarvikarie, taxichaufför samtidigt som jag gick några år på ett par olika konstskolor i Göteborg. Mitt politiska intresse vaknade tidigt. Under tidigt 1970-tal så deltog jag vid olika manifestationer och demonstrationer. Jag "hängde" en hel del på Sprängkullen, deltog i Kungstorgsockupationen och var senare med i Hagagruppen (fler demonstrationer, upprustande av hus, husockupationer, etc...). 1979 så flyttade jag tillsammans med min blivande hustru. I början av 1980-talet så fick vi vårat första barn - jag påbörjade min lärarutbildning och livet gick in i en ny fas...

Även här tar jag upp en gammal tråd. Ett svar på frågan ovan är; Eleverna var duktigare och flitigare och ordentligare tidigare - samt: Eleverna var inte annorlunda än idag (på de allra flesta områden). Med denna medvetna motsägelse så vill jag bara slå fast att de allra flesta läste ej vidare på de teoretiska linjerna vid Gymnasieskolorna förr. När jag själv gick på gymnasiet precis i början på 1970-talet så var vi ungefär 35% av elever från Realskolor och Grundskolor som läste vid en gymnasieskola. Idag så är gymnasieskolan ej obligatorisk i teorin, men elevantalet tyder på att den är det i praktiken. Över 95% av våra elever från grundskolan läser vidare. Självklart påverkar detta elevernas syn på skolan (och vår syn också). Undervisningen vid gymnasieskolorna har ej genomgått några större förändringar. Snuttifieringen av våra tidigare ämnen, sämre resurser, utökning av antalet "sysslor" (som ofta går ut över den rent kreativa sidan av läraryrket) och ett allmänt dåligt utnyttjande av den pedagogiska kunskap som finns bland många svenska lärare har medverkat till denna brist på förändring. Därmed öppnar vi för kommentarer av den typ som "Ordförande i Ansvarskommittén" Mats Svegfors levererar. Dock tyder de starkt generaliserande kommentarerna på att han är lite dåligt insatt i skolans vardag. Det finns en mängd "goda" exempel från dagens skolor precis som det finns dåliga... Här under följer några idéer för en bättre utveckling av gymnasieskolan; 1. Skär ned antalet undervisningstimmar per lärare 2. Skär ned antalet bisysslor per lärare 3. Låt lärare vara med och planera skolans verksamhet i större utsträckning 4. Satsa ekonomiska resurser på en utveckling av skolan istället för en successiv avveckling (ett ständigt presenterande av "Sparbeting A", "Sparbeting B" eller "Sparbeting C". Sedan får personalen inom skolan gemensamt vara med och bestämma hur mycket verksamheten skall skäras ned... Under de senaste 15 åren så har jag varit utsatt för detta) 5. Återinför lärarnas rätt att fortbilda sig under en längre tid med viss kompensation (viss procent av lönen). Denna utveckling av kompetensen är viktig för våra skolor och för ett nytänkande inom skolan. Impulser utifrån öppnar skolorna och motarbetar dess "isolering" från andra delar av samhället... Ge gärna några kommentarer till dessa idéer....

Jag tar här upp en gammal "tråd", men bättre sent än aldrig... Jag befinner mig någonstans mittimellan - jag har fått en viss aning, men har betydligt mer att lära. Därför kommer jag under de närmaste åren delta i ett projekt som kommer att arbeta med IT och pedagogik. Förhoppningsvis så kommer detta innebära en del insikter som jag med glädje skall förmedla. Det hoppas jag att även du kommer göra Dalibor...

Jag skulle vilja försöka styra denna diskussion till "Bra historiesidor på nätet gjorda av skolor/historielärare"... Det skulle vara bra att försöka inventera vad som skapats av olika skolor och historielärare. Under några år så har följande website funnits; Komvux Gotland Den har en hel del användbart material som är direkt avsett för historielärare på det svenska gymnasiet. Det skulle vara mycket intressant att se om någon kan bidra med fler exempel.

Great News! It's very nice to see that your hard work paid off Richard! . I think a first meeting before Christmas is a very good idea. A virtual meeting to set up the details before then would also be good. I'm looking forward to hear from you all... "to Comenius"

My name is Anders MacGregor-Thunell. I’m currently a full-time teacher of History at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet, an Upper Secondary School with 1800 students, in the centre of the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Most of the time I teach IB (International Baccalaureate) History, both Standard and Higher Level, but I also teach History within the ordinary Swedish system. Since 1998 I’ve been the Head of the History Department at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet. I started my teaching career in the middle of the 1970’s. Just a few years ago I became a member of the Virtual School. Through VS I participate in the development of international web-pages within different history topics. During the last years I have also built up the History Department site on our school’s intranet. http://www.macgregorishistory.com/

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I tought History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. My specific interest and knowledge are the Spansih Civil War (where I have done some work on the Swedish reaction and Swedish volunteers), 19th and early 20th Century Russian History and the Nordic Countries (especially Finland and Sweden) during the 19th and early 20th Century. I also have some knowledge about Germany during the same periods and the coming of World War One and World War Two. My mother is willing to answer questions about WWII out of a childs perspective. She was 6 years old, living in Helsinki with her sister and parents, when Russia attacked Finland and the so called "Finnish Winter War" broke out. During the coming months (and especially during the "Continuation War") over 70 000 Finnish children were evacuated to Sweden - she was one of them. Many of them didn't speak a word of Swedish when they first came to Sweden. When they came back home three-four years later some of them had forgotten their native Finnish language...

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I tought History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. My specific interest and knowledge are the Spansih Civil War (where I have done some work on the Swedish reaction and Swedish volunteers), 19th and early 20th Century Russian History and the Nordic Countries (especially Finland and Sweden) during the 19th and early 20th Century. I also have some knowledge about Germany during the same periods and the coming of World War One and World War Two.

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I tought History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. My specific interest and knowledge are the Spansih Civil War (where I have done some work on the Swedish reaction and Swedish volunteers), 19th and early 20th Century Russian History and the Nordic Countries (especially Finland and Sweden) during the 19th and early 20th Century. I also have some knowledge about Germany during the same periods and the coming of World War One and World War Two.

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I taught History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. My specific interest and knowledge are the Spansih Civil War (where I have done some work on the Swedish reaction and Swedish volunteers), 19th and early 20th Century Russian History and the Nordic Countries (especially Finland and Sweden) during the 19th and early 20th Century. I also have some knowledge about Germany during the same periods and the coming of World War One and World War Two.

I have been the Head of the History Department of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet in Gothenburg, Sweden, the last 6 years. Before that I tought History at a few High Schools, Colleges and Universities. My specific interest and knowledge are the Spansih Civil War (where I have done some work on the Swedish reaction and Swedish volunteers), 19th and early 20th Century Russian History and the Nordic Countries (especially Finland and Sweden) during the 19th and early 20th Century. I also have some knowledge about Germany during the same periods and the coming of World War One and World War Two.

I agree with David - private schools should not be funded by the government. The government schools need their fundings - to give part of these funds to schools that have the opportunity to get additional fundings from the private sector creates an unfavourable situation. Government schools will be emptied of resources and skilled teachers. This is already a reality in several countries! In Sweden (in Gothenburg) private schools get fundings for the amount of students they receive, just like the local "government" schools (the Swedish schools are not really government schools anymore - each county/commune have the responsibility of the schools in their district, not the state/government). The difference is that the private schools then have private fundings plus the right to demand fees. On top of this they don't have to pay fees to the local school administration and they have more control over rents and other local fees. In Sweden each accepted student is funded by a certain amount of money that is payed to the school - private as well as "government" schools. The state has suggested a fixed sum per student but the local administrations decide if they will follow this recommendation or not. In Gothenburg we receive quite a bit less than the recommended sum. Here comes another difference between local "government" schools and private ones - the local "government" schools have to accept the suggested sum but the private schools can choose if they want to accept the local suggestion or the state sum. Guess which one they choose in Gothenburg? This is an unfair system that has created a lot of private schools in our city - it has also forced several local "government" schools to close. Another problem - If a private school end up in economical difficulties and is forced to close - who have to "clean up" the mess? The local "government"! More local recourses is then spent on finding places for the students at new schools as well as the personal (sometimes the local government even sponsor a private school so they make it to the end of the school-year). All the above mentioned problems create less and less fundings for the government schools which is extremely unfair! In the end we also have the democratic aspect. No one should be able to buy a place at a better school - all young people should be offered the same opportunities! It's one of the main tasks of a government to see that the schools are well funded so we all can provide the same high level of education no matter what school the individual student choose. This is not possible with private schools being funded by the government.

This will be interesting! My students will (most likely) be interested in the US policy in Indo-China during the period of JFK. As soon as they are back from summer vacation I'll introduce this opportunity.

Graham - do I sense a warning about what to expect?... My experience of teenage sons has been a pleasant one compared with all the warnings we got from friends, relatives, etc... It was interesting to follow their way of growing into young adults which had (of course) a period when we as parents had to play a minor role. All though I would say our mistkaes when they were younger as well as our willingness to repeat them (and maybe point out the fact that we did repeat them) I think helped the boys. They realized very early that their parents were not "perfect"... Right now we are going through the process of always being a big family to become a more average sized one - that process is harder for us as parents. We have enjoyed having all the children around us very much - but suddenly it's just two living at home instead of five. Fortunately we see and talk to each other often, but I do miss having the chaos that all these people can create together (and all the good meals together). It's true that I only experienced boys going through their teens (the last one is still in the midst of it) so maybe this will be a different experience??? Still as I wrote before - nothing can beat that!!!

Congratulations David! It's wonderful to become a father - a situation I liked so much I tried it five times (four sons and then a little daughter who turns 13 in a few days...). Having children is sure success and happiness!!! Now to school - I work in two systems at the same school. I'm a History teacher in the highly rigid competative IB system as well as I teach History in the Swedish School System. The Swedish School System is also competative, but in a different way - we basically don't have a national curriculum and we don't have any exams, just a grade for a finished course which is given by the teacher in the topic - without any interference. I have been a teacher for quite a few years now (I started as a substitute in 1976...) and I very much see the problems John stated - Let me give you the background of how Swedish Schools compete - the politicians in Sweden gather statistics. They compare the amount of different grades given at different schools. These are published - both in paper form and at their official net-pages. They also conduct investigations on the "satisfaction rate" of the students. This is done by fairly simple inquiries. All schools in the local district (Gothenburg region) present these inquiries for the students who answers and then send them in to the local school administration... A lot could be said about this way of investigating "satisfaction" - but shortly, if they had one professional historian this investigation would never had been done this way (sorry about the little side-track here but this inquiry is so completely un-professional )! Well - the statistics are published and then some gifted school politician makes a statement about how he will personally work for the amount top grades to increase - without making any changes of the school system (no extra money, no cutting big classes, no increase in the amount of hours tought - rather the opposite; an increasing amount of teaching hours for the individual teacher together with more administrative duties, less money for material and further education and bigger classes)... This leaves us with frustrated teachers striving to fullfill unrealistic goals which is based on the grade achieved in a highly competative environment. Our top students will achieve their goals no matter the system but they will not discover the fascination of our topic. The average and weaker students will fail in both ways. They will dislike the topic and they will not get the grade they need to continue to remain competative. This situation is the same in both systems. So what can we do to not become frustrated and disillusioned? First of all - screw this system! Our duty as teachers is to try to create a continuation of our natural curiousity, a willingness to learn and sound critical thinking. I think we have different strategies but in my teaching I have always relied on my own enthusiasm, being able to try out "new ways" and last but not the least the willingness to listen to the students (even when they think you are boring!!!). Enthusiasm - My enthusiasm is based on my fascination with my topic - history. I'm very fortunate to work with one of my great passions. I try to let the students know how fascinating I think it is and it works with some classes... They will be pulled along with this kind of a "nut behaviour" (at times it make me feel like the "Crocodile Hunter" in the class rome). New ways - this is not completely true - It's more a development of ways of teaching that I find work for me and adjust these to new impulses and ideas. I also take up and try out some methods and ideas which I find interesting. Teaching is such a creative work and it's important to both keep and forward this joy of creativity. When I was fairly fresh my teaching changed radically from one year to another (which must have been a nightmare for the students that went along with me several semesters). Now it's a bit more stable development but with some new impulses. The ability to use computers in teaching have been an important ingridient in my own personal development as a teacher these last years. As I get a bit more experienced I get less afraid of trying something new. I have already failed utterly with most things so the experience of failing will not kill me. Instead it encourage new attempts - and different attempts which can stimulate the interest of the student. Every class - and every individual student - is an interesting challenge. Dialogue - the willingness to listen to the students. This is a part that took me some years and work to achieve and I still have some way to go. Students are professional - in being students. They know what appeals to them and what they don't enjoy. I still haven't met a class which was not willing to put some effort into learning as long as they found their way of learning (and the topic interesting enough - I have met individuals that absolutely did not want to learn - anything... they often did not want to be in school at all). I usually start my courses by presenting the intentions of the school politicians, the school board and the teacher (me!). Important is also to find out previous knowledge so we can start at a level which fit the individual class. We set up some targets and then we go into a "trial and error" period where I show different ways of learning - lecturing, working in smaller groups, individual work - sometimes with a short oral presentation, group discussion etc... this part takes 5-6 weeks but it gives a good background for a necessary pedagogic discussion. Now the class is ready for making decissions about the rest of the course - the area we should cover remains the same but there are so many different ways of learning. When the class has made their decissions (which should include a few different methods) we come to the discussion on how and why we should try to get their time in class to become a positive experience of knowledge instead of a grade focused packing of facts. This last part is hard in the kind of school I teach at. The students that we receive are, in general, high achievers. They have one main purpose for being there - to get the grades necessary for higher education. Fascination with any topic is just a bonus - not always necessary. Due to their focus on the grade they often want the teacher to teach in the most efficient way for them to fullfill their goal! That's why it's so important to present different ways of learning before you take a discussion about teaching methods - otherwise you will end up lecturing all the time (I don't dislike lecturing - it's an important method which most students will be exposed to very much in higher education, but it's not very efficient and it easy gets boring). After each major part of the course it's important to evaluate. I let one or two designated students take care of this evaluation. I leave an inquiry (which has been presented to the class so they can add or take away questions/parts) and the designated students carries it out (I of course leave the class room). The designated students take the forms home and then mail me the results plus comments a few days later. This minimize my influence of the result. It's not perfect but it's good enough. I later present the result in the class and we discuss weknessess and strengths. From this we make new decissions about the course. This trains the students in a form of democracy as well as a bit of insight in teaching methods. Who said it was easy to be a teacher? Now I shared part of my happinesses, some successes (and some "failures") - do I get an A?

The Finnish runner Lasse Virén's 10 000 meter in the Olympic Games 1972 (Munich) is one of the most astonishing performances I ever witnessed. In the fourth kilometer he stumbled and fell. Within a few seconds he was up again and started a legendaric race which gave him the Olympic gold - and a world record! Lasse continued by winning the 5000 meter race as well. 4 years later (1976) he repeated his victories in the Olympic Games in Montreal. He won both 10 000 and 5000 meters - but this time without falling... Lasse Virén Lasse Virén (in English...)

Good discipline, great boll control and passes together with a very efficient defensive - that's obviously the winning concept... "King Otto" made the Greek individuals work as a team! That's amazing when you see the qualities of some of those individuals, - I agree completely. I wish an offensive play would pay off better though...Today the Portugese team was to slow and played the ball around the team to much to become really dangerous. The compact wall of Greek defensive players (6-10 of them) took care of the few Portugese players inside the penalty box and the longer passes, often high balls, was exactly what the Greeks wanted - they have been one of the more efficient teams in the air. It's quite typical that a trained situation like a corner decided the game in the favor of Greece. It's true that you don't need to win the ball possession anymore - you must be able to turn the game fast or use the trained situations as free kicks and corners. Even the fact that a defensive team wins the tornament I must say that it's interesting to see an "older" kind of football is coming back, often individual against individual, with lots of changes of positions. I might be wrong, but this reminds me more about the football I saw as a kid. Several teams played like this. I like that development. I did enjoy this tournament. It was interesting to see a team - totally unexpected win it. Some games have been great to follow - others just exciting. Now the sofa will get to rest some weeks - and then the Olympic Games starts... In football World Cup comes (if you don't count the tournament in the Olympic Games - which we Swedes missed). We will have more to talk about then... Now I will again focus on the team of my heart - HEJA GAIS!!!

Since I've been wrong before - I will try again. I think Greece will win the final!

An exciting game for us Swedes, probably the best of our games. I was positively surprised yesterday that Sweden tried to play more offensive during the first half - that play was better than in any of the other games that involved Sweden in this tournament. This time we tried to play a whole game. The second half against Bulgaria and Italy was better, but that was more because they invited us into the game. I know that we saw a lot of long passes, but when we saw that Zlatan and Henrik Larsson often dominated the air it was a tactic that could have worked... The expected dominance from the Dutch team was not as big as I had feared. They were more dominant than the Swedes but at the same time the Netherlands had obvious problems on the midfield. I enjoyed the Swedish attempt to play more aggressive which worked at times. The Netherlands did some good changes in the game which established a better Dutch midfield and more pressure on the Swedes. Van Nistleroy got several big chances - but I guess it wasn't his day during the ordinary play time. We also saw several other chances that could have ended the game before the unfortunate penalty kicks. Our goalie (and the goalposts) saved us a few times - as well as the referee when he choose not to see the hand on the ball - or the fact that the goal might not have been a clear offside. But the referee also choose to warn Zlatan when he was tripped inside the penalty box instead of giving Sweden a penalty kick. In the last 15 minutes Sweden produced two balls in the posts - one by Henrik Larsson and the other one by Freddie. Zlatan did his worst game yesterday. The coaches should have considered a change when they saw his inability to get something done. This was one of the problems - another one was that we are still to nice close to our own defend lines. The defending players were more aggressive yesterday than before, but still... You also got to see one of the younger defenders come in yesterday (Östlund) - and he did very well. Why didn't our coaches use him in the other games??? As I said before - the other team might be a bit better (at least on the paper) but Sweden is a hard team to beat. That was quite obvious yesterday as well. When it came to penalty kicks I was very unhappy. As I said after the Enland-Portugal game - this is not how a game should end. In the middle of my own misery I was happy for the Netherlands after all the problems they had with penalty kicks in earlier tournaments. Now they finally got to break the curse of loosing this way. They deserved to win (I just wished that it hadn't been against us). For us Swedes - we have to resort to the only cure against defeats in bigger tournaments -