What do you use SmART Ringer for? If you are an accredited teacher, you will have completed the multiple-choice quiz. Hopefully you will submit LtR passes for your ringers. But do you use the wealth of material available to help you teach?

Recently I ran a Plain Hunt day for half a dozen of our own learners. No need to reinvent the wheel; I went straight to SmART Ringer to check out the resources! So, what did I find?

Background information

“Small steps to Plain Hunt” and “What is ropesight?” were helpful as prior reading.

Teaching information

• Teacher’s notes
• PowerPoint presentation
• Ringing Plain Hunt on handbells
• A variety of additional methods to help with LtR Level 3

I used the notes as a basis for my plan and showed the excellent PowerPoint slides to explain how we ring Plain Hunt. The handbells session was later in the day for some light relief when we were all tired.

Student information

• Plain hunt worksheet
• Plain hunt doubles
• Count your place
• Ringing at 3 different speeds
• Ringing Jargon
• Course and after bells

The worksheet guides the student through writing out Plain Hunt on 5 and 6 bells and was a good starting point for the day. I expanded the Plain Hunt Doubles chart (changes written out with each bell in a different colour) so that it could be mounted on a flip chart and used it to discuss in more detail how we hunt. I could have written it out myself but this was so much more professional! The other worksheets reinforced the theory introduced earlier and these were distributed throughout the day as we covered practical exercises to develop each of the skills needed to ring Plain Hunt. They provided useful revision whilst sitting out.

Follow up information

• Jargon worksheet
• Plain hunt quiz
• Plain hunt dominoes

The worksheet and quiz helped to check that information had been absorbed and the dominoes gave a fun, collective way to consolidate all that had been learned!

This is a little taste of what’s available on the website; there is much more. So next time you need to teach something, whether it’s to one of your own learners during a practice or to a whole group of students, have a look at SmART Ringer and see what’s available. You don’t have to use it all and you can adapt it to suit your needs but there’s a treasure trove there waiting to be used!

Judith Frye, ART Tutor