M1: 15 Jun 2013 - Barrow upon Humber
Saturday, 15th June, 9.30am and five members of the B&D (which included four Committee members) arrived at the Ringing Centre in Barrow upon Humber for our ITTS Module 1 (Teaching Bell Handling) Day Course. We were greeted by our Tutor for the day, Heather Peachey. Following coffee, we were presented with our information packs. We then sat down for Heather’s first PowerPoint presentation of the day.
From the beginning, this showed how important it is to train new teachers. In 1988, 13% of teachers were over 60 years of age. However, in 2009 it was up to 40%. To me, it is trying to provide a national standard on teaching. It’s not saying that you have trained dozens of ringers, over many tens of years, yet your way is wrong, far from it. For example, if you had weekly saxophone tuition anywhere within the UK, you would follow the same teaching, training and grading system. That is what this course is trying to achieve, for bell ringing and the future of bell ringing.
Anyway, after Heather had sent Barry off to Tesco’s with strict instructions and a shopping list for lunch, we then went up the tower for some role playing – some of us as teachers and some of us as beginners. It soon became clear that Helen was going to be real trouble as a beginner and whoever was going to be her teacher, was going to have their hands full which was the general idea.
Further “classroom” work on teaching a skill, becoming a good teacher and solving common handling problems followed. This was again backed up with practical simulations back up in the tower.
I found it a very informative, useful and enjoyable day and one that we should look at holding on the North Bank of the Humber very soon.
The day ended with us ringing Bob Triples on the simulator, along with Twinkle, Twinkle little star!!
Our thanks go to Heather for a well presented day and to Barry for ‘making lunch’.
Simon Plows, Beverley & District Ringing Society – Hon. Secretary
Course Tutor: Heather Peachey
Teaching Bell Handling
Practical advice for teachers, right from the first lesson.