Teacher Training

I spent the weekend at Hammersmith Academy with The Brilliant Club, a non-profit working to shrink the gap between the participation rates of pupils from non-selective state and private schools at highly-selective universities. The Club trains PhD students to go into state schools and deliver uni-style tutorials to a small group of students. Pupils complete homework and a marked piece of coursework that is graded at a key stage above their current grade - I have students in Years 9&10 but will be grading them according to A-level standards. 

Given that we haven't necessarily any teaching experience, let alone with high school pupils, we get a week of pedagogy and skills. Some of us deliver pre-designed courses covering subject area skills; others develop a curriculum based on their research. I'll be teaching a course I'm creating called "Does the Telly Lie? Media and the Middle East". The course will explore biases in the media and question how society judges and receives knowledge. 

Saturday and Sunday were a fun few days of chatting with other PhD researchers from across the country (I found the Norwich crew!) and building my toolkit for teaching strategies. I'm excited to get started with my kiddos!

Live "Rambling" about the Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TovGV5ivFKA&list=PLSFK9Eic29gp-4dn9CihKPp0WRpAT-LxQ&index=184