If you wish to run an ART course in your area then we'd be delighted to work with you. Running a day course is a great way to invigorate ringing in the locality, helping you train and retain new ringers and build a strong teaching community.
- By learning together you can all support and help each other as you apply your new techniques and skills.
- Learning and teaching together is great fun!
- Using the common approach to teaching provided by a day course, individual teachers will not have to attend every teaching session. Teaching can be shared and fit around your lifestyle and life events.
- Enjoyment and retention improve.
Before
ART has had plenty of practice at running courses and you will work closely with the ART Administrator and course tutor to make the day a success. As you know the local people and towers much better than us, we will be looking to you for guidance on matters relating to them.
- You will be responsible for booking a suitable tower with easy-going bells. A simulator is required to run a Module 2 course, whilst tied bells are sufficient for Module 1. In addition you will need to book a warm and comfortable room for any theory sessions.
- Before a course you will liaise with the tutor to make provisional teacher, mentor pairings. Teachers need to be paired with mentors who are able and capable of dedicating time to working with and monitoring the progress of the teachers they are allocated to.
- Check with the tutor about electronic requirements - screen, projector and wifi access – and make sure beforehand that they all work and fit comfortably in the room you've booked. You will need to make local arrangements for the provision of refreshments and lunch.
You don't have to get a full complement of attendees to organise a course. If you have a small nucleus of people wanting to learn then that's enough. When the event is advertised on the ART website our experience is that teachers from further afield quickly fill up the remaining empty slots.
On the day
In the ideal world you'll be sitting back and relaxing. Back in the real world you will be:
- Arriving early to help the tutor set up for the theory sessions.
- Ensuring the bells are tied and the simulator set up correctly.
- Helping get the refreshments set up.
- Welcoming delegates and making sure that they sign in.
- Collecting any local fees, including money for refreshments and lunch.
- Asking someone to write up the event and take photos for publicity purposes.
- Undoing all of the above at the end of the day.
Leaving with the warm glow of success.
And afterwards
There are a a few logistical tasks to complete after the event.
- Follow-up the publicity, forwarding the event write-up and photos to ART for publication.
- You will work with the tutor to finalise teacher, mentor pairings, using your local knowledge to help make sensible working relationships.
- You should also be thinking about how to follow-up the course. ART believes that a course is only the start. of the teaching journey What is important now is for delegates to have opportunities to practise their new-found knowledge and skills and to have people around them who can help and support their development.
- As a local organiser you can play a key role in this vital skills development period.
Teachers should start teaching straight away to practise what they have learned and progress towards accreditation. Ideally new ringers (for Module 1) and practices (Module 2) should be in place before the course. You may wish to organise this as a group beforehand. However, there is time to organise this afterwards, building on the enthusiasm the course always generates.
Interested in organising a day course?
If you and a group of interested ringers want to organise a day course in your area then contact the ART Administrator who will help you organise the event.