Dan Lyndon

Indeed they are - but are the students going to know that?

The latest addition to Blackhistory4schools.com is the Black History Blog. This will be regularly updated to showcase the material on BH4schools and to draw attention to major events, discussions and issues related to the teaching of Black and Asian British History. All contributions welcome.

The latest addition to Blackhistory4schools.com is the Black History Blog. This will be regularly updated to showcase the material on BH4schools and to draw attention to major events, discussions and issues related to the teaching of Black and Asian British History. All contributions welcome.

excellent idea Andy, however your question on the role of individuals in medicine is lacking something rather important - the individuals!

That sounds interesting Graham. I think I will have an IWB as the school has just got specialist status and Hitachi are one ofour sponsors so we may be getting their boards. But I will certainly lookinto your suggestions.

Thanks for that link Doug, some really interesting ideas on there. i really like the flip top desks, that has a lot of potential. I think the 2 projectors would be useful if you were doing some video conferencing. In your role as a supply teacher you must have seen some interesting layouts, any that spring to mind? Ed, great point about the displays, I have virtually nothing at the moment.

Some great ideas Ed! I love the lecturn and the sound recording booth, and I finally worked out what you meant about the printers How about different coloured lighting to create different ambiances in the classroom?

You're absolutely right about the network, Doug, we have been assured by our new ICT partners that our new network will be 'bullet proof'! We shall see ... Are there any other suggestions? I am interested in what people think about flexible seating in the classroom - would this work? what kind of desks / table options could be used? what about round tables? what about chairs with a fold down top and no tables?

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place but I would value people's opinions If you were asked to draw up a wishlist for your classroom, with the cutting edge of technology and teaching techniques, what would you include? I have thought about the following (in no particular order): A really good quality Video camera with microphone and tripod A wireless network and laptops / pdas A speaker system that I could be mic'ed up to and could be used for digital audio recording A flexible seating system so the classroom could be easily rearranged for role play, group work etc A webcam and video conferencing facilities Blackout blinds If anyone can add or comment on the list so far that would be very helpful.

I appreciate this may be the wrong place to post this but I would value people's opinions: If you were asked to draw up a wishlist for your classroom, with the cutting edge of technology and teaching techniques, what would you include? I have thought about the following (in no particular order): A really good quality Video camera with microphone and tripod A wireless network and laptops / pdas A speaker system that I could be mic'ed up to and could be used for digital audio recording A flexible seating system so the classroom could be easily rearranged for role play, group work etc A webcam and video conferencing facilities Blackout blinds If anyone can add or comment on the list so far that would be very helpful.

can you pm me one too?

When I wrote my Master's Thesis, one of the characters that I was researching was an active member of the MPU, Hugh Franklin. Franklin had studied at Cambridge University and it was there that he became a campaigner for women's suffrage. His uncle was Herbert Samuel, a cabinet minister with the post of Postmaster General. He was friendly with Victor Duval, who established the MPU and eventually married Duval's sister, Elsie. They were all members of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. Franklin was involved in a number of high profile events that received a lot of media coverage; the first case involved Winston Churchill who was giving an anti-women's suffrage speech in Highbury. Franklin decided to go to the meeting to attack Churchill "I am protesting at his meeting tonight I'll give him a good whipping. Therapon I bought a dog whip and went to the Highbury meeting that evening". However Franklin was 'ejected for making a disturbance'. Undeterred Franklin was aware that Churchill was speaking in Bradford the following week so took his dog whip along for a second go. Once again he was removed from the meeting. As chance would have it, on the way home from Bradford, Franklin found out that he was sharing the train with Churchill. He sat in Churchill's carriage; "As soon as Churchill entered the carriage I jumped up and struck him with my whip saying 'Take this you cur for the treatment of the Suffragists ... (Police Sergeant) Sandercock pushed me down down and with (Police Inspector) Parker's help and some other passengers overpowered me and took away my whip." Franklin was imprisoned for 6 weeks in Pentonville, went on hunger strike. Whilst in prison he receieved a number of supportive letters including one from Christabel Pankhurst commenting on how it "would be a very complicated business to get back the dog whip"! The second episode that Franklin was involved in led him back to prison. In October 1912 Franklin set fire to a railway carriage in Harrow Station and was eventually arrested after two months in hiding and was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment. He immediately went on Hunger Strike and was force fed every day. In total he was force fed 114 times over a period of two months. Hugh resisted until he became the first ever prisoner to be released under the Prisoner's (Temporary Release) Act on 26 April 1913, the notorious Cat and Mouse Act. He never returned to prison, having escaped to France with three other Suffragettes including Elsie Duval. They returned to England after the outbreak of the First World War and married in September 1915. After the war, Franklin maintained his interest in politics becoming a local councillor for the Labout Party between 1934 and 1949. He died in 1962 at the age of 73. The Franklin Papers at the Women's Library

Much as it pains me to admit it, it was probably a fair result. I though Rooney's first goal was fantastic and hope he can continue to do the same for England. As for the league, it certainly is all over. Should be tighter next year. Gooner Dan

I think we should actually start with your first point which is lesson observations, which as you rightly point out is a skill which takes many years to develop, but is probably the most important tool in any mentors kitbag. I was very fortunate to be trained in lesson observation by my LEA History inspector, who alsop happened to be the Chief Inspector for the Borough. She was quite an amazing woman, but that is another story, and I owe a great debt to her for her support. Anyway, what she taught me was that there are lots of little things that you should be doing throughout your observation but the crucial question that you have to always have a the forefront of your mind is 'have the students learned more at the end of the lesson than at the beginning?' now although that may seem an obvious question, it is not quite so clear how to measure this, so what you need to be aware of is how explicitly the lesson objectives have be laid out - and I don't necessarily mean written on the board - and how clear the students understand these objectives. The best way to do this is to ask pupils what the purpose of the lesson is / purpose of the activity they are doing is and you will be suprised at how few actually know. The other things that i was taught was to look at pupil books and see what progress is making during the lesson and over the term / year. There should be a good 'dialogue' between pupil and teacher and there should be changes / improvements in the way the work is being completed. It is also important to see if the teacher is using diagnostic marking or whether the marking is full of pointless 'well dones'. You should also be looking for examples of extended writing and skills development and seeing if students are working independently or instead copying large chunks of text from book / board. However one of the most crucial elements of any lesson is whether the students are actively engaged in the lesson. In other words if the lesson is boring or the teacher is doing all the work, it can only be a satisfactory lesson. I hope this is a start. One of the crucial points that I hammer home for my BTs / teachers in my dept is that the lessons have to be engaging and therefore the teacher should be confident in experimenting with a variety of different tasks and styles. I model for my students how to use different types of role play - Hotseating, Ian Dawson type whole class extravaganzas, Ian Luff type small scale playlets, pair work or group work roleplay. And I encourage them to have a go, once they are confident enough with their class. I see engaging lessons as my biggest weapon that I use for classroom management (ok it's my only one, cos I'm rubbish at shouting!) Another massively important thing to understand is how to write effective lesson objectives and learning outcomes; I basically say that lesson objectives are the things that you want the students to achieve eg the pupils should be able to understand the key events leading upto the battle of hastings; the pupils should be able to interpret the sources written by the Normans before the battle. And the learning outcomes are how the teacher is going to make sure the pupils have achieved the objectives eg the pupils will have written a timeline showing the key events; the pupils will have compared the sources and underlined the biased comments. Ok that will do for now. I have a feeling that Roy Huggins has produced something similar on History teachers Discussion forum here

Hi Andy Thanks so much for your material I have linked the slavery stuff on the website but will have to work out how I can use the American stuff. Also thanks for the big link from your educationforum!

If you have nothing better to do at 9.15pm tonight then why not listen to me bumble on about my new website blackhistory4schools.com on BBC Radio Wales. You can listen in here and even if you miss it you can listen again with the 'listen again' link on the page.

If you have nothing better to do at 9.15pm tonight then why not listen to me bumble on about my new website blackhistory4schools.com on BBC Radio Wales. You can listen in here and even if you miss it you can listen again with the 'listen again' link on the page. I did the interview last night and it went really well, if you want to listen click on the link above click the listen again button and fast forward to 1 hour 20 minutes. The interview starts after the song finishes

Carrick would not get into the Arsenal midfield because he is not good enough. I would hardly describe Kolo Toure as inadequate. You may be referrring to Pascal Cygan which all Arsenal supporters would agree with you. Upson probably should have stayed at Arsenal but was happy to leave because he was not getting enough first team games, as the English centre backs Campbell and Adams kept him out. One point that you have not recognised is how well the Arsenal academy has produced young English players who are good enough to play at a decent level ie Steve Sidwell at Reading, Ryan Smith at Leicester, Justin Hoyte at Sunderland but are not good enough to get into the Arsenal first team.

And I like the fact that he has won 3 championships and 3 FA cups and took us unbeaten for 49 games as well as playing the most entertaining football that has been seen over the last decade. I do not accept that Wenger is anti English. It was not so long ago under Wenger that the entire back five was English (Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams and Bould). The reality is that Wenger refuses to be held over a barrel paying ridiculously over inflated prices for English players. Are you really telling me that Shaun Wright Phillips is 2 and a half times better than Thierry Henry (£24m v £10.5m). I don't think so. Wenger is an internationalist (and I thought a good old socialist like yourself would appreciate that) and does not see nationality, he just sees damn fine players. Two points which I can only describe as codswallop. Why on earth would Wenger change a system that is now producign some of the best young players in the country. Fabregas - who has now been at the club for three years, Van Persie, Toure, Senderos, Eboue are going to be the superstars of tomorrow. And the stadium is already oversubscribed. I have been on the season ticket waiting list for 3 years and I still can't get a ticket. It wasn't long ago that Arsenal were getting 80,000 watching their European games at Wembley. The future is bright, the future is in red and white.

Say no more!

An excellent article from Tristan Hunt. You may be interested to find out more about the campaign to make the 200th anniversary recognise role that Black abolitionists played here. I am going to be producing a display for schools and libraries with my year 8 class for the 2007 anniversary. It will be split into 2 sections, the first on the horrors of the slave trade and the second on resistance and abolition. The display will include audio, video, pictorial and written material and the lesson plans, activities and scheme of work will all be put on blackhistory4schools.com. The whole project will be based on the TASC (Thinking in an ACtive Social Context) framework, which is a fantastic model for problem solving and independent learning. The students will also be contributing to a blog and a wiki as part of the project and I will be presenting this as a workshop at the SHP conference this year, along with Belle Wallace, President of NACE.

Just a quick anecdotal aside: I was teaching interpretations of Cromwell this week and wanted to have a starter activity that would engage the pupils and get them thinking about the idea of 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'. So I posted up pictures of superman, Sadaam Hussein, Mandela, Mother Theresa and Cromwell and asked them to decide which ones were 'heroes' and which were 'villains'. Of course they all said that Mandela and Mother T were heroes and Sadaam was a villain. So I asked them to work out which of them had been described as a 'terrorist' by the American President and British PM, and they were surprised to hear it was Mandela. I then also explained that recently there had been a documentary about Mother T which had exposed the darker side to her activities in Calcutta. Then we went on to the rest of the lesson. The next day I taught the class again and as quite a few had been away the previous lesson, I used the same starter activity as a recap. However I was somewhat suprised to have a few visitors arrive at the start if the lesson (they were visiting Headteachers from schools in Ireland). Although not as surprised as they were to hear a very articulate year 8 student exclaim loudly to the class that we all know that Mother T was a villain because of the terrible things she had done in Calcutta and how she 'was holding back progress' for these underprivileged children! This was followed up by another student shouting out that she wasn't the only villain - Mandela had been making bombs and was attacking the South African government. They left with a quizzical look on their faces.

BRILLIANT! The comptonwiki is up and running. Now I just need the buggers to do the work so they can contribute! Big Up to Ed who held my hand through it all!

Thanks Ed, I've worked out how to upload now so that's one thing achieved tonight! I'll pm the details to you shortly. If it is not too much of a burden could you let me know where I have gone wrong so I can learn for the future. Cheers.

Hi Ed, I'm back again. I am fairly sure that I have followed all your instructions but still haven't got it right. I don't have the create article box showing, and I also don't have a logo to replace the mediawiki one. Any chance of having a look at where I am going wrong? Also although I am using smartftp to check the files and used it to download the localhost.php I can't work out how to upload using it as it crashes when I try to, so have gone back to dreamweaver to upload the files. Can you explain how I can upload using smartftp? Your help is most appreciated, I'll buy you a beer when we next meet up, but in the meantime you'll have to make do with a virtual one!